MacGregorSailors.com

The plastic that holds the sliding hatches on the M model gets crappy quickly. Any way to paint it or something? Mine is cruddy and the top layer of the plastic powders away...??!? I guess due to sun exposure. Anytime something rubs on it it leaves a visible scratch.

Ixneigh

Yes I'd replace it with teak, but for frocks sake Roger should have used starboard.

Ixneigh wrote:Yes I'd replace it with teak, but for frocks sake Roger should have used starboard.

Try Hasp polish

When I painted my boat I removed and cleaned these up by giving them a simple sand job. I used 600 grit and they now look like new. I'm not sure how long they will hold up before they need another brush job, but I do not think paint will stick to these, so there are limited options short of replacing with an alternate material. I also added large dimple washers to improve the finished look... Here is a link to a mod I made that includes the re-finished rails:

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1517

Chris.

For the first year of having my boat I watched those rails slowly get more and more grubby. I tried quite a few cleaning products, bleach etc with no result. Then I found the simple answer. A bucket of a warm water and a coupla Brillo pads. Brought my mould covered plastic rails up to looking like new, in minutes

Try Hasp polish

This one isnt going away soon, is it????

a protective coating of XD-100 should keep them looking new for years

I find SS Tinnerman washers..but only find the 100 degree heads for machine thread screws.. Where did you find 100 degree heads for SS wood screws??
That said, I may well be showing my Ignorance? I didn't open the boat up and determine that in fact I need wood screws...

u12fly wrote:When I painted my boat I removed and cleaned these up by giving them a simple sand job. I used 600 grit and they now look like new. I'm not sure how long they will hold up before they need another brush job, but I do not think paint will stick to these, so there are limited options short of replacing with an alternate material. I also added large dimple washers to improve the finished look... Here is a link to a mod I made that includes the re-finished rails:

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1517

Chris.

K9Kampers wrote:

Ixneigh wrote:Yes I'd replace it with teak, but for frocks sake Roger should have used starboard.

Try Hasp polish

Hasp polish is good, but do not forget to use gate latch rubbing compound first. Lol

Divecoz wrote:I find SS Tinnerman washers..but only find the 100 degree heads for machine thread screws.. Where did you find 100 degree heads for SS wood screws??
That said, I may well be showing my Ignorance? I didn't open the boat up and determine that in fact I need wood screws...

For the most part, they are machine screws and nuts... walk into the cabin, look up... see all those 1" round covers in the ceiling? They have a nut behind each one corresponding to the screw holding the rails on. It is bit of a project to RR the rails. There is a little marine adhesive/sealant at each location as well. As for the screws, the factory parts are 10-24 with 87 deg countersunk heads. When you switch them out to 100 degree you will also need to change the nuts since the 100 deg screws are typically 10-32. Also getting them long enough is a slight challenge... I cannot recall the length needed, but I do know that the longest screws in 100 degree that I could find were about 1/4" shorter than the original screws. Turns out they all reached just fine. There are only two wood screws needed, these are in the center of the vertical rails which support the cabin entry way door.

I think I got some of the screws form McMaster Carr, and I got the tinnerman washers from aircraft spruce. You will also need a 100 degree countersink. I use a micro-stop countersink, you can get that from Avery tools.


Chris.

If I take those suckers off you bet first class teak is going back on. I will use wood screws from underneath. No bolts.
Ixneigh

Mine looked terrible and I was very unhappy scrubed a lot and it still looked terrible. I sprayed Mildew remover on them and they looked BRAND NEW in 4 minutes....I would not believe this if someone told it to me! Before you do anythig drastic buy some good mildew spray and try it. It was the best $6.00 I ever spent!

On Edit....If you try this repost with results or let me know by PM....just curious if I was the only one this worked with (or was it a miracle!)

This one isnt going away soon, is it????

a protective coating of XD-100 should keep them looking new for years

I never thought that anything so slippery could be so "sticky".

- B.

Well actually the mildew is not the worst. The whole surface is turning into the structural equivalent of graham crackers. it powders off anytime something rubs on it. I can scratch my initials in it with just a fingernail.
I may sand it clean and then coat it with uhhhh xd oil or hatch polish or mayby even epOxy of some sort.
In Rogers infinite wisdoms he engineered these boat to loose the new look quickly so potential thieves would not be tempted to test the hatch hasp. Gotta love him!

Ixneigh

Only just found out probably the easiest way is a pressure washer, clean in seconds mind you some water can go inside

raycarlson wrote:a protective coating of XD-100 should keep them looking new for years

XD-100? What is that?