Thread subject: Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos :: Rub rail and wire run for lights

Posted by CaptSpike on 11/10/14 - 1:13 PM
#9

Rub rail complete! It wasn't easy but it wasn't hard either. Mistakes were made and the following is my experience. I hope someone else will benefit from my experience.
I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. I started Saturday night by unrolling the L piece and taping it in position as directed in the directions supplied by wlagarde (thank you). Sunday morning my help arrived. I gave him the directions to familiarize himself with the process (he didn't read them....). Anyway we started at the Port stern and started to clamp the receiver along the gunnel. I had filled a cooler with hot water and placed the receiver in it even though it didn't cover the whole roll I figured anything was better than nothing. First four rivets went in slick as you know what. Then I remembered we forgot to use sealant on them......this is why all people involved should be familiar with the process. So when one person forgets something the other might recall it....
Ok we drill out the heads set rivets into the foam install new rivets with sealant applied. We made our way slowly to the bow making sure everything was right as we went. Up at the bow we used a heat gun to heat the receiver and bend it around the bow. I found that we couldn't use clamps at the bow due to the fact that the clamp would pull the receiver up off the gunnel, so we heated the receiver and while my helper held the receiver in place I would ensure it was down on the top of the gunnel and drill and rivet as we went along. It was a tedious process making the turns but we did OK making sure both the bottom and the top of the receiver matched the contour of the boat. I could see where that certainly could have been an issue.
So now we are headed down the home stretch. We started to use the clamps again and were going along like a well oiled machine........Then when my helper drilled a hole for the rivet it broke thru the top of the gunnel!
At first I was all over him for not drilling a straight hole. We peeled the receiver back put tap over the hole and I filled it with resin. While we waited for the resin to cure I went back to check the previous are we had worked to ensure there were no issues. What I found was the L piece was not flush to the top of the gunnel and 3 ft back! Needless to say we needed to drill out the rivets back to where it went bad and seal the badly placed rivets and then re-clamp and drill new holes and rivet the L piece and receiver flush to the top. You need to really make sure you don't let your guard down in reference to that. Everything visually apeared to be flush by eye when in fact we were up just enough to cause us some unneeded rework. Once all the spots were repaired we continued on finishing the receiver mounting. At this point I trimmed the receiver and L piece flush to the stern using a fine grade hacksaw making sure not to damage the stern with the blade.
Next step was to drill the holes for the wire and run the wire. That went fairly painlessly. No we were ready to insert the rub rail. We used the heat gun and that helped immensly. We went along and after a while and some sore fingers from manipulating the rub rail into the receiver we had it installed. It was at this point I remembered I had wanted to hit the top of the rivets with sealer as well.....yup we forgot. We then finished the ends on each side and called it a night.
Around midnight I woke up and realized I never sealed the holes for the wires! I was so ticked off at myself for forgetting so many basic elements in the job that I couldn't get back to sleep until after 2 am......
6 am I woke up and headed straight to the garage. I peeled back the side where the wire was run. Sealed the bow hole and reinstalled the rub rail sealing the tops of the rivets as I had planned as I went along. It actually installed much easier the second time around. Everything always goes faster the second time.
I am in the process of installing the lights now. Rub rail looks great I just wish I had paid more attn during the process and not made the mistakes we did.

Anyway if you take anything away from my experience make sure dot the i's and cross the t's.

Thanks for everyone's guidance and special thanks to blacksmithdog for sending me some wire!
I'll add a picture to my personal page once the lights are installed.

Spike