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(I edited this post subject line as I thought it was too vague)
I recently purchased a new to me bow rail from a gentleman in Texas. Unfortunatly he failed to mention that the vertical bow rail section in the center of the bow had made solid contact with something and was bent and dented. I looked at the pictures of the rail before I bought it and it was not obvious in the picture either. Any way before I install this on my Montauk I will be getting a new piece made. Trouble is my boat never had a bow rail so I am not positive as to where I should be securing it to the hull.
My feeling is that the the piece that is damaged is the center post on the bow and that would be the critical installation point to ensure the rail went on straight. So my question is should I just make a pattern on cardboard of someone elses bow rail section that is not bent and have the new piece made from that or should I mount the rest of the railing the best I can and then make a new piece that fits in to the rail as installed?
I was surprised to find that no one had suggestions on this but it's okay I figured it out myself. I repaired the damaged piece by finding a 3/8" drive long socket that just fit inside the tube then I used a pipe behind the socket to hammer the socket through the tube which removed the dent. Then I left the socket in the bend radius and used a vice to get the rest of the radius out of the bend. Everything should fit together okay now. By the way when hammering I set the end of the tube on a piece of heavy rubber to avoid peening the end of the tube. When I used the vice again I wrapped the tube in rubber to avoid damaging the surface of the tube.
