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Nice story. I hope your wife did not comment about hot tubbing with boat plastic. When I did my rub rail and receiver (1979 22' Revenge) a member defined the receiver as working with "coiled concrete".....never a truer statement. I was advised to leave the original seem of the receiver at the bow of the boat. I never asked why but assumed it was for expansion and contraction with the changing temperatures. Maybe the same at the transom. I did miter my corner at the transom. Not an easy cut, a compound miter with one piece already installed. Fortunately I saved (at the time...wish I still had a couple of the insert pieces kicking around just in case) the original corners to act as a template. If your installation is "seem less" you might want to pop out the rub rail, add a couple more rivets. sawzall with a very fine blade (or a very sharp trim hand saw) the two corners and the bow if you have one continuous piece. It was Tom Clark who gave me the suggestion> I would hate to see any part of the insert piece pop out through flexing or temperature changes. The rub rail is very salvageable and can be removed and replaced without damage. I have my original black as back up intact. I also swapped out my original black replacement rub rail for a red one and sold the intact new black one to a fellow member. I was planning on doing the whole run seem less minus the transom corners. How on earth did you bend the corners of the insert on the transom????? Heat it with a torch.....more hot tubbing????? Sounds like you have a wonderful attitude and a forgiving and loving wife, both needed for restoring and owning a Whaler.