rub rail maintenance

alan campbell said:
Any suggestions on improving rub rail on my older grady white?
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Wash it. dry completely and then rub it out with acetone. That works pretty good and you will get back some of the original color. I have then applies 303 protectant and mop and glow based on a few posters recommendations. I don't think the Mop and Glow worked any better than the 303 but it sure is less expensive.
I tend not to use things like Armor All since eventually they always seem to case black streaks.
 
i use collinite fiberglass cleaner to remove crud then wax with collinite fleet wax;

has given me pretty good results;

-slugg
 
Washed mine with soap and water then painted it with Penetrol. Still looks good after 4 months.
 
I first remove the round center piece, tighten and seal all the screws, wash round center part before reinstalling leave soap on it when pounding it back in for lube, then clean total rail with boat soap water and a scrub brush. I found that I had a lot of loose screw that was causing water to leak in to the cabin. The way I sealed them was removed the loose one stuck them in 5200 then screwed them back in. Just a opinion. It tighten the boat up alot.
 
I believe the rub rail screws are 90% of the problem people are having with the water in the forward bilge. I especially like the part about removing center tube, its unbelievable how much crud is there!

Chris
 
A guy on here mentioned Protect-All. I got some of this Sprint at Walmart and the stuff is great!! I use it on everything and the rub rail still looks good from April!! Not holding up on the cockpit though. Too much scrubbing to get the black crap off, nothing holds up in the cockpit.
 
Many recommendations from others on here and THT, but what I found worked best for me so far due to my rubrail was in pretty rough shape in regards to aging, the Interlux 355 worked the best hands down in removing the aged layer of rubber. I used some cotton towls, rubbed them with a very firm action and fairly wetted cloth and you could feel it removing the layer of aged rubber. It left a very smooth surface that looked new!

Then, after a wash/rinse and following week, I put on 2 apps of the Mop-n-glo and wow, it really looks nice.

Now, after a few months and several trips out in the salt with wash/rinse cycles, it still looks great!

I thought this rubber rubrail was shot and needed to be replaced, but the 355 seemed to melt off the aged rubber layer giving me the new layer to now protect.

I did try acetone, 315, mineral spirits, alcohol, and some other products before finding out about the 355. Some worked and other did not at all, but none of them did as well as the 355. I say this just in case yours or anyone's is in bad shape, give it a try! It is a little on the expensive side, but what isn't nowdays! :(
 
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