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Rub Rail - Original or Taco

S

SouthernBoy

New member
Overhauling my 83 Exciter, the aluminum rub rail is damaged at the bow, Mike at Checkmate can set me up with a small replacement section of aluminum rail and all new rubber insert, but not the complete rail to go around the entire boat. Taco sells a universal rubber rub rail with rubber tube insert.
Cant decide if to go back with the original aluminum/rubber rail, with several joints on the boat, or a complete 1 pc universal rub rail from Taco. Anybody have any experiences on replacing sections of their aluminum rub rail? Thanks.
 
Hmmmm... Taco's are for EATING not rub-rails!
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OK.. kidding...

Lots of NEW rail kits out there and they are fairly easy to install. The "bow" bend is usually a tough spot (heat gun on plastic works nice to help mold it).

The aluminum channel rails tends to kink, so make a fixture for bending it or do some test bends first.
 
Personally, I would replace the section and insert if the rest of the aluminum rail is in good shape. The flexible Taco rubrail is a step down from the original and full replacement is a fair bit of trouble; fill old holes, drill new holes, measure and align everything etc. There are different sizes and profiles as well. You've got to make sure you get the right one. It also depends on the color of our boat. Black doesn't look the best on every color boat. I did a new semi-rigid (original was gone) and it looks great but it is on a black boat.
 
I was concerned in getting the replacement aluminum and doing more "Kinking" instead of "Bending" around the bow. The boat is Black Metallic and all the original rub rail is currently removed, ready for replacement or re-installation. Just was curious how the change would look from aluminum with black insert to all black rubber/vinyl. Seems that you are going to put dings in any aluminum rubrail if you go against any dock, and the solid black rubber would handle that better, then you would loose the shiny aluminum. Decisions.....decisions.
 
Hi
You have a classic Checkmate and you must go with a classic rubrail. I put a new alu-rubrail on my Starflite, it is not many trouble.

w.f.g. Hubert from Germany
 
No question the OM style is the way to go! The all vinyl ones just "blend -in" to the surface appearance of the boat and aren't nearly as attractive. Besides, if you are redoing it anyway, why wouldn't you make look as close to original as possible?
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by alwaysredee:
Besides, if you are redoing it anyway, why wouldn't you make look as close to original as possible?
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I knew I missed something in the overhaul of my boat. Well the merc controller and most of the hull are still factory. The rest, well it kind of got updated. I can never leave something stock. But that just me. LOLOLOLOLOL
 
July2005106.jpg I got my rubber rail from Mike at Checkmate. It was really easy to insatll. My dad gave me a hand installing it and we had it done in about 30 to 45 min.
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Replacing just the rubber insert is not a big job. The complete rubrail, as I said, to a different style is more trouble. Here is what an all black rubrail looks like on a black Checkmate. It's tough and it does look great. A semi-rigid rail needs to be carefully heated and bent into shape without deforming it. My other Mate is 20 years old and has the original aluminum rubrail and has no dents and it still looks great too. So its up to you!st90.jpg
 
Thats a nice looking starliner Mark. I just checked out your overhaulin thread. Nice job, what a finish on it! Its better to fix it up the right way the first time.
I still need to replace the Predictor's rub rail. I think I am going to call checkmate for that.
 
Mark, that picture is exactly what I was looking for. My black Exciter will have a slight color change around the rub rail area due to some needed repair, a silver/black fade with metal flake. A buddy is re-clearing the top, and has excellent experience with paint and metal flake. This is the only area on the boat we are re-painting, and I was curious how the Aluminum rub rail w/black insert would look on the boat, as compared to a solid blackw/black insert. I still like going back original though. May just re-install a small section of the old original on one side of the boat, and install a small section of black w/black insert on the other side and see how it looks. Thanks.
 
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