1978 Morgan OI Rub Rails Nasty

[LadyMorgan1978]

Hello, we finally fulfilled our dream of owning a sailboat and cruising. We bought a 78 Morgan OI that we are upfitting and restoring. The black rubber rub rails leave black marks all over EVERYTHING. All of our clothes are stained and our hands are black from just a gentle brushing against them. They are not rotted, and are all intact, and are faded but still look OK.

Every time it rains there's black water lines down the white hull from the rubber and it's unsightly.

Anyone know the best way to restore this old rubber? Restore it to look good, shine perhaps and most importantly NOT leak down the hull and rub off on all of us all the time?

Thanks so much!!

[tkeithlu]

The central problem, I think, is that the rubber rails are rotted. Maybe not all the way, but deeply enough to leave rubber dust on everything, including you. You can try sanding gently by hand and see if you can get down to the good stuff, or look carefully at what it would take to replace the rubber strips. Here are some available types:

https://www.mcmaster.com/rubber-molding/

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by LadyMorgan1978

Hello, we finally fulfilled our dream of owning a sailboat and cruising. We bought a 78 Morgan OI that we are upfitting and restoring. The black rubber rub rails leave black marks all over EVERYTHING. All of our clothes are stained and our hands are black from just a gentle brushing against them. They are not rotted, and are all intact, and are faded but still look OK.

Every time it rains there's black water lines down the white hull from the rubber and it's unsightly.

Anyone know the best way to restore this old rubber? Restore it to look good, shine perhaps and most importantly NOT leak down the hull and rub off on all of us all the time?

Thanks so much!!

I have a 1978 Morgan Out Island too and still have the original Aluminum rubrail...scars and all!

I would just remove the rubber rubrail and go back to something closer to stock. The OI's in 1978 had an anodized aluminum rubrail that was 1.5" wide. The same shape is really hard to find now and alot of us have switched to the closest dimensioned stainless rub rail.