Replacing vinyl gunwales

[Cheeks]

How hard would it be to take the cracked vinyl gunwales off of one boat, and replace them with new vinyl gunwales that are currently on another boat? Can I just pop put the rivets, take em off, and then put the new one on and rivet in?

[sbroam]

The vinyl gunwales I'm taking off next are being replaced by wood - sure, there is some more maintenance, but they are lighter, stiffer, prettier and don't trap water.

To answer your question though, yes. I haven't regunwaled an entire boat in vinyl, but I've replaced a section and it was pretty much just that. Drill, pull, replace, drill again (where the existing holes didn't line up) and rivet again.

[PAC]

What Scott said.... pretty straight forward. Just make sure the sizing is right from one boat to the other (lenght, width of hull material, etc.).

[Cheeks]

OK thanks.

I agree about wood gunwales being the way to go, but I'm just looking to get this boat spruced up for sale

[rivercowboy]

I have replaced both vinyl and wood gunnels. The easiest way to get the rivets out is use a hand grinder and grind the top of the rivet off the gunnels you are going to toss out.
Or drill, poke and continue 100 times.
I had to put vinyl gunnels on my original Blue Hole OCA because the original one's were broken and twisted. It's a single thwart two digit serial number boat from the first production, by the way...

And it's not for sale!

Made gunnels from sassafras for another tandem boat. They turned out beautiful but it was a full day of work to shape them.

[Longboatin]

chris I replaced the vinyl gunwales on my tandem after the Savage debacle by drilling out the rivets. I sourced the new gunwales from Tussey Mtn Outfitters in Bellefonte, PA. and could be had with or without aluminum insert. I opted for insert. Putting on the new gunwales was super easy utilizing stainless self-tapping screws.

[Einar]

I replaced the gunwales on my Viper 11 several months ago.
Just drilled off the rivet head with an oversize twist bit and use a nail punch and hammer to punch
the rivet "nail" thru into the gunwale rail. About a 2 hour job, including removing the deckplates.

Before installing the new gunnels I cut a small section off (1") of the replacementgunnel, slipped it on and ran it around the hull scribbing a depth line around the hull with a pencil as a marker to reveal that the new gunnel had slipped on to the max depth possible. There isn't much leeway in thedepth. i also dot marked the existing rivet holes onto the hull with the felt pen to locate them and to be able to place a new rivet a distance away from old holes.

The hull without gunnels on is floppy do I wrapped it with a ratchet strap and tightened. This caused the boat to straighten out making it easier to slip the straight gunwale onto the hull edge.
Oops, before starting I first slipped the gunwhale on amidship then put the ratchet around both. The ratchet straps also served to keep the gunwale pulled down onto the hull, adding ratchets as I went.
The royalex width varies so I used a heat gun to soften up the the new gunwhale to make it flexible enough to expand where needed and then tapped it down with a small mallet, down to the depth line. Putty knives and a paint scrapper tool helped here.

I drilled and hand blindpop rivited the gunwhale on easily and then did the other side. As you get to the ends it might help to have an assistant and beer as the tension developes in the new gunnel making it a little harder to slip on.
Not how they did in the factory but it is not a hard job. One long afternoon or 2 evenings should do it.
Probably easier using self tapping screws.

[mahyongg]

"Spruce" up would include wood, too - although I would recommend Ash ;D .D