Rub Rail Repair.....

S

SEA3PO

New member
I had my boat alongside my dock last week...I had mooring whips, but somehow we had a ton of wave action and the boat came to close to the dock edge....and ripped the rub rail loose for about 5 feet....it sheared off the pop rivets....

I am sure this has happened to others... So what should I do ?
Drill out the remainder of the rivets and use screws ? or bolts ?

Anything else I should do while I have the rub rail off ?

Thanks

Gotta do it this week.... Lake Powell is coming us really soon...

Joel
 
On my 16 footer I didn't have access to the inside gunnel. I injected some two part epoxy where the rivets had been, waited a day for it to harden, and used stainless screws to secure the rubrail. Two years and still holding.
 
The same thing happened to my boat last year. I pulled the rubber strip out from the transom and half way up each side.
I drilled holes all the way through the aluminum and fiberglass and used SS 1/4" bolts with washers and castellated nuts. Then replaced the rubber. I wished that I had gone all the way to the front as it has started to come loose also. A next season project.
Make sure that you use good quality SS bolts/washers/nuts if around saltwater.
 
Joel,

Sorry to hear about your rubrail. If you can get access from the inside then you can just drill out the existing holes and re-rivet, however if no access, just fill in the existing holes with 5200 sealant and re drill new holes an inch or so away from the old holes. You will need to make new holes in your rubrail but that will not be a problem, and you can either secure with screws or rivets.

I hope that this information is helpful and don't hesitate to contact me direct with any further questions or comments.

Scott
 
Not difficult to do. Just time consuming. Requires a second person in the boat while the other is outside.
Remove the rivets, replace with SS Screw, ss fender washer, lock washer or castle nut. I used a dab of 5200 on each one to ensure no leaks.

Tex
 
Joel,

Our 1995 22' had the rail pretty loose when we bought it and I added a few bumps myself. I posted pictures of the rub rail repair in our album. Really a pretty easy project and I would suggest that you replace all the rivets with SS bolts and washers while you are working on it. An easy weekend project.

Tad
 
My experience has been when SS bolts or screws are used through aluminum (rubrail base) which is often in contact with saltwater you will get some corrosion of the aluminum unless you can insulate the SS from the aluminum. Generous use of 5200 around the bolt may help? I have never had a problem with my rubrail but I have seen significant corrosion of aluminum parts bolted together with SS bolts.
 
It might be a good selling point for the factory to attach the rub rail with stainless steel bolts and fasteners....I think everyone has had or will have problems with those darn rivets....... in doing the boat I found at least a dozen that were not holding in places that should have been fine.

I replaced ALL the rivets with tapered, philips head 10-32 screws and countersunk the rail so they would be flush.... then used SS fender washers and nylock SS nuts....

BUT almost all the way through I ran out of fender washers....now we live in remote Northern California....and I had bought my stainless steel stuff in Red Bluff (in the valley)....I paid $9.95 for 100 washers (.0995 each)..I was only 13 short...so I went downtown to the local hardware store....
I expected to pay maybe .16 up to .25 each for them (outrageous markup) but guess what they wanted........ $ 1.18 EACH !

I laughed and told the man that was ridiculous and he said....drive to Red Bluff if you want...with a smirk on his face... SO in proper Roger King fashion I said....... Ed..(the owners name)...before I buy your overpriced washers I will drill out half dollars and use them as washers.... So every time I look at them I will remember what a crook you are....
And that is just what I did...

Joel
SEA3PO (loading up for Lake Powell)
 
I see from the postings that this is an old problem and my 1995 C-Dory 22 is now shedding its SS pop rivets under the rub rail faster than dog's hair. The heads of the rivets appear to epoxied over with a big glob of Bondo or something. So I assume the fix is to drill out all the pop rivets and replace with SS bolts and lock washer/nut combinations. 10-32's seem to be suggested, but how long? I am guessing that 1 inch will do?
 
I just finished doing about 7 rivets on each side, amidships (water gathered at the low point in the rail and corroded the rivets - not the best design), and three at the transom. I had read some prior posts (very helpful, especially ones by "Comfy Dory"), but then made a few more discoveries as I went. I took photos and was thinking I should write it up. I'm just eating dinner but how about if I get around to it later this evening?

I'll probably post it in the thread I made for my boat projects, but I will come back to this thread and leave a link to that one.
 
When I purchased OSPREY, the rub rail was loose amidships on both sides. I let it be for a few months and then decided to bite the bullet and take care of this problem once and for all...
Like others have stated, water sits on the rivets behind the rubber of the rail and eventually eats the aluminum rivets away due to corrosion. Reinstalling rivets in place of those that failed would only be a short term solution, so I decided to remove the rails completely. You do need some help to prevent from allowing the rails to get distorted while removing them. This process also allowed me an opportunity to clean up the dirt behind the rails and also bed the entire rail, so that dirt will not get between the rail and the hull.
Drilling out the old rivets and punching the rivet core through the hull with a small punch was very easy (again I had a helper hold the rail as I worked). I used 316 stainless fasteners that were 10-24 and used nylock nuts for locations that were not visible and used crown nuts for locations that were visible. I bedded the rail and fasteners with Sikaflex. Also, before bedding, I applied blue paint tape to the location above and below the rail, to make clean-up easy.
Lastly I put the rubber in a bucket of warm water and then used soapy water to aid in installation of the rubber.
Bottom line...to start the project looked huge, but it was relatively easy and the end result looks very good.
 
When I purchased OSPREY, the rub rail was loose amidships on both sides. I let it be for a few months and then decided to bite the bullet and take care of this problem once and for all...
Like others have stated, water sits on the rivets behind the rubber of the rail and eventually eats the aluminum rivets away due to corrosion. Reinstalling rivets in place of those that failed would only be a short term solution, so I decided to remove the rails completely. You do need some help to prevent from allowing the rails to get distorted while removing them. This process also allowed me an opportunity to clean up the dirt behind the rails and also bed the entire rail, so that dirt will not get between the rail and the hull.
Drilling out the old rivets and punching the rivet core through the hull with a small punch was very easy (again I had a helper hold the rail as I worked). I used 316 stainless fasteners that were 10-24 and used nylock nuts for locations that were not visible and used crown nuts for locations that were visible. I bedded the rail and fasteners with Sikaflex. Also, before bedding, I applied blue paint tape to the location above and below the rail, to make clean-up easy.
Lastly I put the rubber in a bucket of warm water and then used soapy water to aid in installation of the rubber.
Bottom line...to start the project looked huge, but it was relatively easy and the end result looks very good.
 
Every time I am laying in the cabin and see those half dollars it amuses me.... I still do not go into that darn hardware store....what a jerk.. he must have had all his stainless steel stuff marked up about 600% and that if you don't like it, drive 70 miles to Red Bluff just galls me...

Joel
SEA3PO
 
Sunbeam,
Excellent manual on how to make this repair. Thank you, thank you!

I am thinking the way to go is to replace all of the rivets, even those that have not yet failed, since failure in the future is just about guaranteed.

Why keep the blobs? Take those off too. You will have to cosmetically repair and repaint anyway to make cosmetic repairs, even if you carefully do all the work of cutting out a 1 inch hole into the blob and try to work inside of that. If you don't like to look at nuts or are afraid on abrasive contact with the screws and nuts, then reblob the exposed nuts and paint.

Now the hard part. I have to convince my wife to be the helper on this project.
Dan
 
Dan,

So glad you found my post (diatribe?) useful. I can completely see your point about why not just take off all the rails and all the blobs. In my particular case I decided to do it the way I did for various reasons, but if/when more rivets fail, I will either just do the whole thing (removing the 14 I have already done), or I may do it in four "wing" sections (forward and aft of the sections I have done) so as not to have the huge/floppy rails to manhandle.

Knowing I would not have the time to let the epoxy cure for long enough to paint while the rails were off, I decided to paint around these fourteen fasteners (I may still remove all the blobs first though). But I would just do it all in assembly line fashion were I doing the whole boat (painting either a long strip or equal sized circles where the blobs were). This time I also didn't have the advantage of having worked my way through it before I started :smilep

At least on my boat, the 1" fasteners worked out perfectly. They juuust cleared the "gripper" on the Nylocks, but did not come past the metal end of the Nylocks.

Again, glad you found it helpful. I've gotten a lot out of the fantastic posts of other Brats before me :thup
 
I had left a message with C-Dory in Washington asking about how to make the repairs and then I read the excellent discussion here. The factory rep stated, interestingly, that they no longer build C-Dorys that way with respect to the rub rails and that they fastening the rub rails with 10-24 SS bolts which are then glassed in.

I guess they have been reading C-Brats.
 
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