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When I bought Smirk, I knew there were a few things to do to bring her back to her original beauty.

First off, besides a good hull polish, was to replace the rub rail assembly. It was literally falling off in places, and basically done.

Purchased the kit from one of the site sponsors. It was as advertised, always a good start...

I began by putting the stiff receiver rail in the hot tub to soften a bit. I guess it became a touch more flexible, but man was it hard to work with. Using woodworking clamps was very difficult. They almost always slipped up and off the gunwales. One flew off and across the barn to my wife's Formula V race car, gouging it's brand new paint job. Oops honey...

I finally enlisted the help of my 24 year old studly son. Between the two of us, we eventually got the receiver rail wrapped all the way around the boat. One thing we did, which undoubtedly made the job all that harder, was to wrap the rail around the transom, instead of bevel cutting it as a separate piece.

We also tried using a Harbor Freight air riveter, which proved useless. It just didn't have the guts to pull the rivet center out enough to snap it off. So, we did most of the job with a basic hand riveter. For that, you definitely will want to find a strong 24 year old guy to pull those rivets. Really... Or I guess you could invest in a quality air riveter. That would help immensely...

To install the final black rub rail, I somehow got my wife to help. Considering I was doing this job in "her" barn, it makes sense. She wanted "my" boat out of there asap.

We got a system going of me feeding the plastic into the bottom of the receiver, she working the top part down with a screen tool, and me tapping with a mallet to seat it. I only whacked her hand a few times, and barely drew any blood at all. Really not much.

The bow light wiring had previously been routed under the rub rail, so we redid it as well. That included drilling a couple holes in the 'glass, so the wiring is totally invisible now. Always fun gauging the hull thickness so as not to drill though to the outer skin... But, I was successful, and am pretty, pretty, proud of that.

Naturally, one thing leads to another... Sadly, it didn't lead to a wild romp in the hay loft. It lead to my seeing the terribly corroded bow light assembly. Heaven's, no way that was staying clasped to my gorgeous new rub rail. So, now I either get it rechromed, our buy a new stainless steel assembly from one of this site's fine sponsors.

Next it to either get the Super Sport Limited's upholstery redone, or buy a new set from one of this site's fine sponsors...