Jeff (got twins), about buffing that rubrail
 

Just putting up a new thread so we can hear more on what you did and what kind of wheel you used. Thanks!

Sorry I haven't got back to you guys sooner.... I have been snowmobiling last week. It is what us poor guys do in the northeast while we wait out the winter.
Anyway my buddy has been out of town and I will be talking to him either tonight or tomorrow and I will get the wheel numbers and the compound we used .... he is the knowledge I am the labourer....

Jeff

Okay, sorry for the wait......

This process took about 4 1/2 hours with two guys doing it. One who knew what to do and one with no clue (me).

1) take a metal scraper .... like what you would use in carpentry and scrape out all the heavy scuffs ... for any really bad gouges fill in with P-Tex like you would use on downhill skis.

2) wet sand with a polishing compound using a scouring pad / scuff pad ..... to clean out scuffs , dings and gouges

3) use wet / dry sandpaper 300-350 grit to make a smooth surface

4) buff with a finer polishing compound

5) buff over again with a glazing compound

6) wax ..... I used a carnuba (Yellow Wax)

7) scratch the rust off all the screw heads and paint them black .... this makes the rail look somewhat seemless

If there was any fading in the rubrail and you couldn't get back by this process ... we cleaned the wax off and used a black dye and waxed over it to seal it.
In the beginning we started to use a high speed orital buffer but it got the plastic to hot so we stopped ...... ( I forgot that part) we ended up doing this whole process by hand. You need a lot of elbow grease but I will tell the end results were awesome.
It literally made a 20yr old rub rail look new again ...
If you have ever replaced a rubrail once you will never want to do it again. It is a royal pain in the azz.
This is why we tryed this process on the stern of the boat across the swim platform and viola ...... it looks 100 times better.
The other thing I would have to imagine is it is a lot cheaper than replacing the rubrail. We did mine in about 4 1/2 hours with a case of beer and some good tunes.
One thing I would like to point out ..... if you can make a make shift scaffold to sit on so the rubrail is right at your chest height while you are sitting it makes life alot easier and it doesn't tire you out as quick as opposed to rubbing the rail over your head. Plus you see it alot better and you always have a place put your tools and your beer. Which is important.
I am soory I don't have any pictures up close but i can certainly get some in a month or so my boat is all covered up for the winter indoors.

Good luck ..... if anyone has any questions just ask and i will try and help.

Jeff

Whew...thanks Jeff! Cleared the PM box too.

I might just experiment with the rubrail around the ST platform. For some reason they used non-stainless rivets instead of stainless screws so they all look like crap. I might go nuts and just drill 'em out, get the rubrail off to work it, then use screws to re-attach.

No problem ......
I would hesitate taking that bad boy off it is a pain the azz putting back on.
Take the rivets out one at time and replace them the same without removing the rail. Or do as i did paint over it you will never know .... seriously .....

Jeff