Bend in the stainless bow rail...

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BoatCrazy

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As some of you know I bought a 17ft center console last year. When I bought the boat a tree had fallen on it and did a ton of damage above the rubrail..

All that is fixed except for a bend in the bow rail. Its not a huge bend but enough to drive me nuts.

Whats the best way to bend it straight? I was thinking of putting two pieces of wood on the top and bottom and then use some straps to tighten it to pull it straight, but Im afraid of flattening the rail...

Its maybe a 1 foot section thats bend downward.

Any ideas?
 
Personally, I don't think it can be done without replacing it. While it may be possible to get it straighter, it may still drive you crazy everytime you see it.
 
Depending on how they're attached to the deck, the force needed to straighten may pull out screws. Maybe large clamps and 2x4 or 4x4 to pull against.
Hard to say without pix.
 
I don't believe you will be able to re-bend it straight.

I had LI propeller make some repairs to my bow rail. He had to cut and weld a new section in. It looks much better but it doesn't look like new. If you only have a straight section he could probably do a great job. You can Google for his info if you want but let me know if you need a number.
 
the 2x4s will bend it straighter but you will need to bend it past straight so when it springs back it is straight.
 
You can probably do it in place with :

2- 4x4's at least 5" longer than the affected rail section

3- 2x4x ~4"? spacer blocks to attach flat to the 4x4's . 1 at each end of the bottom of the top 4x4 just over the still-straight sectionnext to the beginning of the downbend , and 1 in the middle of the top of the bottom 4x4 to push up on the lowest part of the dwonbend. *Groove the blocks close to 1/2 the tubing cross-section so they will not crimp/flatten the rail tubing.

3 short pipe clamps to vertically clamp the 4x4/block sections up/down toward each other . 2 on one side 1 on the other side in between the 1st 2.

Tighten each clamp a little at a time so pressure stays pretty balanced . When the rail is just straight, loosen the clamps and measure how much the rail springs back down. This is approx how far you will have to continue bending upward past straight to reach your goal, but check agin before going that full distance.

If therre is substantial horizontal curve in that part of the rail you may need wider stock and more clamps to stabilize.
 
You might want to avoid messing with it while it's on the boat because you'll probably wind up pulling out the screws or something.
I've got a kink/bend in my bow rail that was there when I got the boat. From what I hear, if you find someone who fixes these things they charge a crazy amount of money to do it. If the boat was newer I might consider it, but since it isn't, I've resigned myself to living with it.
If you do come across a local person who does this kind of work for a reasonable amount of money, please let me know.
 
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