I recently purchased a 1999 42 Lightning. My boat is in overall excellent condition, except for the deck rails. The paint seems to be chipping off. It apears that to remove the rails you need to take down the head liner. Has anyone attempted this, or have people just repainted the rails while they were on the boat? I DON'T want to remove the head liner Any info would be helpful!!
Thanks,
Joe

I can't possibly imagine going thru all the trouble of removing the rails, just to paint them. Tape, masking paper, plastic......body shops do that all day long. Good Luck with the rails,

Im not 100% sure, but did they powder coat them in 99? If so painting over that could be a problem.

My deck rails were getting loose in some spots. I had my local marine repair tighten them up. They said it was quite a job, had to pull down the head liner. All is ok now, but they were crying that the $300+ that they charged me was not enough. They said something like if you find my A$$ in your boat it is because I lost it there. ;-)

Uhhh...yeah. Been there, done that. If you can avoid doing it, by all means DO SO. My rails had a couple bolts missing and a bunch were loosened when I bought it....I didn't notice until it rained and my v-berth was SOAKED (btw...I got caught in an absolute downpour 10 minutes after leaving the dealership!).

So, your answer would be YES, you do have to drop the headliners to get to the bolts, plus you have to remove the mirror at the front of the v-berth. The biggest PIA was dropping the liner in the head (not much room to work in there).

If, by chance or circumstance, you do end up removing the rails, when you go to put them back on, be aware that they are under tension...in other words, your bolt holes will probably NOT line up. Save yourself some time....buy a bunch of coarse-thread 5/16 rod, some stainless washers and nylock nuts and some rubber fender washers. Cut the rod to like 6" lengths or so (can't remember exactly), thread it into the rail so it sticks out far enough to penetrate thru the deck holes...put down the fender washer on the outside (I used silicon there as well), then use the stainless hardware on the inside. This is DEFINATELY a two-man job...you don't want to scratch your deck with those rods...but trust me, I gave the standard bolt method about 5 hours of my time before I gave up and came up with this technique.

The headliners really aren't THAT bad...I'll be taking mine down again this winter to install those LED lights that Back4More found.

Hope this helps.

mike

Sorry I made you more work Mike...But I'll be at too if that makes you feel any better.

Does not sound like fun, will try masking off the deck of the boat and painting. Thanks for the help!!
Joe