Rub Rail Replacement
I replaced the rub rail on my C-25 a couple of years ago. I got it directly from Catalina. You need to tell them the style of extrusion on your boat. After some trail and error with A) a hot air gun B) rubber mallet, I found it faster and easier to start a short section (1-2")in the lower grove of the extrusion, pull down on the length of the remaining rubber which stretches the upper part of the rubber,and push on the upper part of the rubber with your fingers until the upper part pops into place. You then keep alternating this procedure ( pull up/pull down)all the way around the boat. You need to keep one hand on the rubber as you pull down to keep the installed portion from popping out. You may need to use a hard rubber mallet at times to do a final seat if it doesn't pop in all the way. They sent me about 60ft off rubber for my 25 ft boat. I used a hot air gun and mallet on the first ten feet. I did the remaining 50 ft with out the air gun in about the same time as the 10 feet with the gun. Now I did do it by myself, so if you have someone who can continuously keep the rubber plyable with a hot gun, that should work just as well. But with just me, I had to keep getting and putting down the hot air gun and took more time. Since I had just painted my deck, the new rub rail really set off the boat. Made the 20 yr old boat look nearly new. Good Luck. It's well worth the effort. Dick
