A tree crushed my railing

So, I'm in search of someone who can fabricate a new upper deck railing system for my 350 Mainship Trawler. It's 1.25" aluminum and anodized after fabrication.

No one in my immediate area, Louisville, is capable of performing the work. The factory does not fabricate the railings anymore and the subcontractor who does their railings for them only does them out of stainless steel.

I'll try to attach a photo so you can see it. The railing is not salvageable.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

David O.

Well you are there and I am just looking at the picture but I would say around here anyway (South Louisiana) it would be not too difficult to get that railing repaired. A metal fabrication shop who has Al. welding equipment and a pipe bender/press should be able to do it for you. Otherwise maybe have the current supplier to Mainship sell you a Stainless steel assy. if it is the same configuration as your damaged one.*
Good luck!*
Steve

I agree, looks worst than it is. A good metal workshop with experience in aluminium should be able to repair it. Are the deck attachment point not damaged?

Perhaps you should try people who are not into working for boats. I find that any workshop that does boats or Motorhomes, tends to be dearer, demanding and overall with a chip on their shoulder yet not necessarily better.

Will insurance pay?

The best guy in the the Galveston Bay area is JZ Custom Rails...

http://www.jzcustomrails.com/
He does phenominal work but it wouldn't be cheap.

Another is Tops-n-Towers. They do most of their work in aluminum as well.
http://www.topsntowers.com/


I would be willing to bet that you could send them the pictures and they could get a real good estimate of the cost.

-- Edited by Baker at 12:56, 2008-03-29

Ditto to JC Custom Rails. Was the mounting area on the boat damaged?
Steve

Thanks, I'll check out JC. The main problem in that is field measuring for a good fit.

It's an insurance job, it's being taken care of by the marina's insurance. The darnest thing is that I made the marina aware of the dead tree last summer, they got a quote to take it down but didn't do it.

I think I might see how much it would be to change all the railings out to stainless steel. We'll see how the adjuster likes that.

The deck attachments are installed with (4) 1" screws, they were torn out of the deck. So, the fiberglass will have to be repaired at all the attachment points.

David O.

It's J Z(as in Zulu) Custom Rails.

David -

Do those screws that were ripped out go into wood core or solid fiberglass or ??

You're probably aware of the potential problems of railings attached by screws into wood cores (if that's what you have). If not ... I'm sure there are a lot of folks here with advice on what to do when you're reinstalling. It might be a good time to head off possible future problems.

BTW, that's Jason Zepeda at Custom Rails, 281-334-7471. I can second that he does fantastic work, and a very nice guy to work with.

Chris,

I appears to be solid fiberglass around that top edge. I've got it all taped off right now.

David O.

Good - one strike in your favor!