After over 100 locks, ungodly number of fuel docks and some fixed and floating docks at marinas of varying states of luxury and decay a few feet of the port side rub rail was no longer tight against the hull

First step is to remove the rubber part from the closest end - in my case the bow

Everywhere I found part of the pop rivet broken off or missing I knew I needed to replace it.

In my mind C-Dory’s choice to use pop rivets was not the best but the idea to cover them up on the inside not only with a gob of caulk sealant but to then spray the interior finish coat wit the speckle etc. on top of the gobs seems downright silly. At least the rubrail fasteners don’t do double duty of holding the hull and the topside together like on a lot of other boats and thank god they don’t go through balsa core. In fact on the C-dories the hull and topsides are fiberglassed together and the rubrail has nothing to do with that joint’s structural integrity.

Had I been home I would have figure out a cleaner way of removing the gob so the washer would cover up the unsightly mess a little better

13 of them looked compromised, again easy to spot from the missing or damaged rivet head on the outside of the railing

Hard to believe this is what holds the rubrail

Once I identified the ones that were defective and removed the gob on the inside it was just a matter of pushing out the body of the rivets from the outside to expose each hole

I used stainless steel fasteners and sail life life caulk
10-24@1 pan head bolts and nylocks with
5/16-1-1/2 washers
(You’ll need an extra person to hold the screw driver on the outside)

I tried three different lengths and the one inch
is spot on.

The damage from the big caulk gob removal is a little visible on some of them but I can live with it.

It sure has that utilitarian -everything is simple and easy to access look - I love about these boats

There’s plenty of room between the rubber and the metal part for this pan head

Aside from the trial and error of choosing the right length fasteners putting back the rubber was the part that took the longest. *