353 with separating rub rail. (repair)
 

I finally finished my bottom repair and I am now moving to the rub rail repair while I wait for one more fix on a stringer that I missed. I am going to hire a pro to do that work because I feel that is far to important to do myself.

The rub rail on the port side was very loose from about the corner of the windshield all the way up to the end of that section. I took off that entire section (easy), cleaned the surface, removed the bolts that hold the hull halves together and started to clean out the plexus. In my case the cleaning out the plexus is easy. There is almost zero adhesion and it is popping right off. The only issue I have had so far is trying to get the panels off on the inside. It was late in the evening when I got to that point so I took a pass. Once I have that figured out I think this job can be done (at least in my case because the plexus is so easy to remove) in about a weekend or two with two people. It took me about 2 hours to pull the rub rail, and clean about 15 or so feet between them. The only issue I have is that there are a number of screws that are broken off and I need/want to get them out. I am hoping that when I get the inside panel off I will be able to grab them with vice grips and take them out from the inside. If not I will have to come up with something to get it out on the outside. There are about 6 of them that are broken off.
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Does anyone know how to get this panel off? Not only will it give me access to the bolts behind it but it will also allow me to get rid of this pattern. It makes me sick to my stomach.

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I want to say this is clearly not the fault of Plexus. This seems to be that it takes them to long to put the hull and all the screws together. The reason that I say this is that you can see on the pieces of plexus that come out that it is flat on one side. The other side is not flat at all. IMO this means that by the time they got to tightening down the screws to much time had passed and the bond could not be made. Plexus is a great product but it is very particular in how it is used. You really need to work with in the confines of its design. I am guessing on these earlier boats Formula was still leaning? At any rate like I said on the plus side it is so poorly installed that it is very easy to remove.

wow, that is an awful whatever color/pattern that is.

You ain't kidding!

I would protect the existing paint with a few layers of blue 2" tape. Then drape the paint with paper so nothing gets on the paint. We used a plunge cutter (fein tool) or now everyone makes one. Bent a 2" blade slightly in a u shape. Then it was easy to clean the inside lip of the deck. Remember not to over squeeze the plexus, it needs a bit of material to complete the bond. Its really not that tough of a job. Getting the rub rail back on is sometimes the hardest part. It tends to shrink when pulled off the boat.......Good Job

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Fossil, did you remove the inside panels? If so how do they come out? I took a quick look at it but could not see how. I popped the speaker out but that did not show me anything but that the speaker wires are short and fell to god only knows were ! LOL. I am going to pull the lights next but it does not seem like that is the way in there. Hope so!!!

the speaker soffit is a little different in a 382, If I remember correctly there were 2 tiny screws that held the panel in place that covers the entire bottom of where the speakers are mounted. This would be the white panel about 4" wide and 4' long. The colorful panel in the pics may come off? Behind the head and the helm was challenging.. The TV also was on the port side so there was some access there. Remember these interiors are mostly completed before the deck is installed. So at some point someone had to reach in there to install the nuts on the bolts. I do remember using lots of band aids on my hands and arms.........Wish I was closer I would come over to help..

I was hoping to be able to take a good look at the panels inside today but my son has to get his football gear at 5. Crap! The plan for now is start with removing the lights. After that I may have to go mid-evil on it! LOL. Not like I am going to put that but ugly thing back in there!

You gain access thru the lights and speaker grills. I have the same boat, plexus just fell off like yours. I pushed a plastic shim to separate the hull and deck to run a bead between the hull and deck.

I didn't run the bead all the way to the tip, I left the thru bolted section in the very front alone. I went back with 5200 once the Plexus dried, and filled screw holes and any gaps.
For any broked screws that I couldn't remove or the hole was too big for a new screw, I drilled a new hole a 1/2" away (for the plastic part of the rub rail only. The stainless insert was not an issue.

Thanks that is what I assumed. I have to hit Maine this weekend to do some work on my house. Hopefully I can get a night to take a look at it in the upcoming week.

No problem, let me know how you change the material on the wall, I have the same ugliness in mine.

I have the valances loose in the middle of the bolt. As Snowrunner said you go through the lights. One of the screws is JUST in reach. They must have some cats with skinny arms at the factory. The fronts I have not been able to figure out for the life of me. There is no light up there, Any ideas would be great as I hope to hit the port side this weekend.

Unfortunately like so often happens life is getting in the way. I worked with a friend of mine to get the rest fo the interior apart and get to the bolts inside the boat. I was then able to scrape out all the plexus fairly easily as it was not bonded at all. The entire side fo the boat was not bonded other then about the front 4 feet. Kind of scary to think about. There were a number of screws and bolt that were broken off. I was able to put a wedge between the hull halves and use a pair of needle nose vice grips to back the screws out. It was a pain but IMO worth doing. I used strips of strapping across the hull to support the rub rail so it would not bend/storage. As it sits now I have to get some time with a friend to bond the hull together and get the bolts in. Also note about the entire interior has to come apart. This was a. HUGE bummer. I will make a few changes going back together again. At least we made some progress. Maybe this weekend I can get a little time on it.

Ok finally some updated photos! Still a slow roll getting this done as I struggle through how to make things better and so I never have to deal with this ever again. There are screws that hold on the stainless part of the rub rail. They came out easy for the most part. There were screws that hold the plastic part of the rub rail to the boat. Most of those were sheared off due to the fact that the plexus was used incorrectly and the bond was never made. This presented a difficult problem because I had to back out all the broken screws. It took some time but with some wedges I was able to separate the deck and hull joint enough that I could grab the broken part with needle nose vice grips and slowly work them back out. Took me about 3-4 hours to get them all out. Once I had the rub rails off then all the 1/4 20 bolts had to be removed. Most of them were also sheared clean off. Basically gravity was holding the boat together other then 4 feet of the bow of the boat. So that is really scary to think about.

We supported the rub raid from above with strapping and string. This helped me so that I could do only one side at a time.

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Removing the screws was probably one of the biggest issues. Every screw down the port side was sheared off. Even the 1/4 20's were broken clean off. So basically there was nothing holding the deck to the hull from 5 feet off the bow all the way to the stern. Maybe two screws that the previous owner stuffed in to try and hold the rub rail on. That was super concerning to me of course. If that last few feet in the bow had let go it really could have been a bad result. This picture is my putting wedges in the gap so that I could get the plexus out. In my case this was very easy to do. I used gasket scrapers from Snap On. The stuff basically fell out or just took a hit from the scraper to get it out.
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This is what all the prexus looks like when the stuff falls out https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...88809a9949.jpg

Then I wanted to gain access to the inside so that I could through bolt everything that was possible to through bolt.
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Tape off the sides and clean everything out as best you can.
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I chose to use 5200 instead of Plexus. This is not a nock on Plexus it is amazing stuff but it has a very short work time. The 5200 gave me much more work time and given the amount of time it takes to lay out all the material and then screw the hull together the 5200 is a better choice. There is no question it is far stronger then the way it came out of the factory because it was clear that the plexus did not bond at all on this boat.
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Then before the 5200 went totally hard (about 2 days) I cut off all the excess and removed the tape.
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I watched to make sure I had 5200 coming out all the screw holes as well as looked inside the hull to make sure it got all the way to the top of the hull. The hull is SUPER rigid now. Much more so then before. Almost zero rattles. The next issue was dealing with how to attach the rub rail. Due to the screws moving around so much a lot of the screw holes were not only stripped but a few had pulled the heads through the rub rail. My solution was to actually go with machine screws. I am using #12-24 machine screws. In any location that I can not get to the screw I am tapping with a machine tap and any screw I have access to the back of the screw I am using a washer and nylock nut. This should make it so that the rub rail can never loosen again. Waiting on 4" long screws to come in, hopefully soon so that I can keep moving forward. Last picture is of the foam that they put under the rub rail. I assume to catch dirt so you do not get streaks on the hull? They had it so it will go back in there.
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