Rub rail & the backing ( holder ) 222 O'Day

[Charlie R]

Newbie here,

Just bought a 222 O'Day 1986 with the understanding I'd need to replace the complete rub-rail system which came with the sale . Has anyone been through this procedure? Any tips are appreciated I think I'm gonna love this trailer cruiser.

[jpturkey]

I replaced the port side rub rail and other repairs on my O'Day 192 (a smaller version of your 222) a few weeks ago. I got the part from D & R Marine. The only hassle was that they only have it in white and mine was beige. It looks ok anyway if you make any transitions at the corners. I decided to take out the screws and retain them and fill the holes with marine tex and drill new ones. I used a crayon to mark where not to drill into the screws holding the deck onto the hull.

The rub rail holder is only slightly flexible. Try to do the job in the heat of the day and season so that it bends abit easier. I also used a rosette or counter sink on the rub rail after drilling the holes so that the screw heads went into the rub rail like the original. I was was able to get by putting the old black rubber piece back into the rub rail holder. Due to its age, it was stiff and took a bit more effort to stuff into place. In retrospect I might buy that part new too. The rub rail is plastic and cuts easily with a hand saw. I used a hacksaw.

The investment of a few bucks and few hours yielded a much nicer looking hull than the beat up rub rail I had. I bought a couple more fenders and will attempt to pay more attention to protecting it now.

[Charlie R]

jp,

Thanks for the reply.. I didn't wait for a reply and went to work by learning and doing method or was that the other way around.

I purchased my 222 O'day this spring and wanted to get it wet. I had to replace both sides as previous owner started the job but never finished. Had to remove both port and starboard quarters.. He had purchased both the holder and the back insert. The tough part was to get the white holder to uncoil,,That took a week. I used a heat gun to soften the white backing,cut an 18" piece of insert to place at the bending points so the when I did bend it it would not close off the slot to hold the insert. The two stern corners came out very well but the bow is just Ok.. If I had it to do again I would have made the bow a seperate piece and spliced it towards the stern keeping a smaller section to handle and get the bend to contour better than I did. The job looks good and the boat looks like new.

[jpturkey]

I did not try to bend the rub rail holder around the sharp bends of the stern and bow. I treated it like it was wooden molding around a window or door in the house and cut mitered corners. Then sanded, used MarineTex to fil gaps and sanded again. It worked for me.