Repair or Replace Aluminum Toe Rail

[Capt Len]

Worst case? Extruded aluminum can be annealed with an acetylene torch Coat the damaged area with carbon smoke,adjust flame to neutral and gently heat until the black burns off. Don't get the flame too close and don't overheat.Big gentle flame. It melts easily when hotter than burnoff temp with no warning. Let cool. It will be malleable for a day or so until the copper content reforms its normal crystalline structure Downside --- you have remove the damaged part and you lose the anodize. That can be redone but it's not easy and another story

[Capt Len]

Not so bad case. Hard to think that 5 foot extension on a big wrench wouldn't have a favorable result. Jaws padded with lead or copper sheet and little bites at a time.

[JimsCAL]

My previous boat was hit while on its mooring by a boat that lost control during a squall. The aluminum toe rail on one side was damaged - much worse than yours. Yard couldn't locate a replacement. Instead they cut and removed the damaged section, straightened it, fill welded the gouges, and had it re-anodized. Still looked good years later when I sold the boat.

[RexMaugans]

Hurricane Ike rolled over my SAGA 43 and damaged the toe rail in a half dozen places. After the agony of finding replacement rail and two weeks replacing one area, there had to be a better way to fix the other places. I did not want to pound or pry the rail back into place because of potential damage to the hull-deck connection. I designed a device that easily pried the flanges back apart, not only for my boat but for other damaged boats on the dock as well. The machine shop that built mine has built them since for other boaters. http://i44.tinypic.com/i1lklj.gif shows a picture.

RexMaugans

[Bake81]

After hours / days of searching the internet for "aluminum toe rail" repair, I found Rex's device in the US Patent office. Was able to track him down and purchased his first production device.

The initial result is promising and I will finish straightening the rail in the spring. Will let you know how I make out.

Thanks for everyone's advice.

[davidpm]

Bake81:
Since you are not the mfr of the device you can post the contact information you found without running afoul of the forum rules.
Rex may want to take out an add to sell a bunch and support sailnet.

[GaryHLucas]

Originally Posted by RexMaugans

Hurricane Ike rolled over my SAGA 43 and damaged the toe rail in a half dozen places. After the agony of finding replacement rail and two weeks replacing one area, there had to be a better way to fix the other places. I did not want to pound or pry the rail back into place because of potential damage to the hull-deck connection. I designed a device that easily pried the flanges back apart, not only for my boat but for other damaged boats on the dock as well. The machine shop that built mine has built them since for other boaters. http://i44.tinypic.com/i1lklj.gif shows a picture.

RexMaugans

Nice job Rex!
After reading all the other posts my thought was to do what you have done. Back when I had a shop I had a pretty good reputation for straightening bent stuff. Didn't make any real money at it, but it was always great when you saved someone a ton of money.

Gary H. Lucas