Deck rail ding repair ?
 

My slip neighbor clipped my deck rail with his anchor while pulling in during a thunderstorm yesterday. It was pretty bad weather and he felt terrible about it. It's a small nick but you can see a VERY slight bend in the rail now where the impact was. Is there anyway to repair this without replacing the entire rail? And if I did replace the entire rail, how would they do it without taking the entire cabin apart?

Is the rail compressed down toward the deck? Or is the actual circumference of the rail pushed into itself?

Both.

A slide hammer with a fixed loop around the rail, or perhaps an airbag under it might have moved the rail back into place; all depending on how strong (large) the backing plates are; all of which is something I'd be very hesitant to "test".

But since you have damage of both as described above, I don't see an easy fix in your future. Anything like spot welding to it and trying to pull the dent out or similar has way too many risks.

Thanks, Sydways, I didn't think so either. How would I replace the whole rail ? Is that even possible without stripping the inside of the cabin?

My rail got tweaked in a dumb docking incident. We tried many different ways including jacks, come alongs , rubber mallets to straighten it with no success, that stainless railing is very tough. Probably need to remove it to fix/rebend to original shape.
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Yep, that was pretty much what I thought, just figured I'd try in case someone had a brilliant idea. Adding this to the "off-season" list.

Spoke to Fountain. Can order the rail for about $800 and the head liner needs to come down on the sides. Definitely a end-of-season project.

my 91 might be different but all i had to was reach up and unbolt the ralling from the side. There were like side peices that held the lights unscrewed and everything was right there. not a fun job, but no head liner had to come off. might be different for a newer one.

My bow rails are getting ready to come off my boat, if you'd be interested. They need to be repowdercoated to be perfect, but mechanically they are straight and true.

Thank you, that's nice of you to offer that but if I'm going to go through the hassle of doing this, I think I'd rather purchase them from Fountain as they know the exact hull number I'm ordering for and in the off chance that there's something different from your 2000 to my 2005, that would be a big hassle for both of us. But, I do appreciate the offer. Out of curiosity, what are you replacing yours with?

I'm going to put a few pin cleats in for fenders and then fill the remaining holes. I don't like the way they look at all and can't find any real reason for them other than securing fenders too.