Replacing a bow rail?ever done it?

Begester

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
203
My bow rails are on their last leg (and one of them is at the bottom of the lake) and I?d like to see if anyone has any pointers for replacing the rails on their boat. My boat is a SeaRay Sundancer 24 foot cabin cruiser and the rails go up about 1 foot from the bow. The vertical rails and the attach points to the bow are in decent shape and I?m going to try and salvage them but I?d like to see if anyone has experience with the horizontal railings that wrap around the bow. I?ve got a metal saw and am told I need a pipe bender to get the radius?anything else?

Any pointers are greatly appreciated!
 

Begester

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
203
Re: Replacing a bow rail?ever done it?

Thanks, this is good to know.
 

jayhanig

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
836
Re: Replacing a bow rail?ever done it?

I had one rail that had a crimp in it and so when my boat was down last year I took both rails to a marine tubing guy in Wilmington, NC who had been recommended. He suggested I just replace the one with the crimp and he then provided me with a replacement that was just a little longer than the original (to be cut down at the boat). We took the opportunity to get rid of the pitted mounting hardware and replaced everything with new stainless steel fittings.

For some reason we couldn't get the angles to come out right if the fittings went into the same holes; the solution was to repair the holes and just put everything where it needed to be for the angles to work out and drill new holes. The plan all along was to repaint the horizontal surfaces with Awlgrip so I ended up with a beautiful job. You can't tell it's not original except for the fact that all the pits are gone now.
 
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