TOPIC: hand rails

ok hand rails , mine were shot. chroming wouldn't be bad but a lot of the rail ends were just worn down to nothing . these were brass with a chrome coating . they were back down to brass. i found some 7/8" fittings and metal supermarkets had the 7/8' stainless tubes
. i was getting good at polishing . i bought the harbor freight tubing bender , it had all the dies in the common sizes but no 7/8' . the 1' die would oval the tube to where my fittings wouldn't slide up the tube. i found Swag Off road , they handle alot of frame equipment and roll cage making equipment rollers and they make a set of dies just for the harbor freight bender. i bought the die set and a shaft they recommended. i tried the first section of tube and it was great. rolled to the same bend as the old one , i learned to make a center mark on the tube then i worked from one side to the other and always came back to the mark before cranking the press again. i slid my stand offs on and it was like factory. i repeated the second tube and i had them . got my stainless rouge and started to clean , you can tell when you got it all , the tube goes from sandpaper to glass clean all over.
took them to the boat and marked and measured , i laid some painters tape down to keep them in place and to mark .. they will be fastened down with 10/24" screws to take a little pressure. stout. they look good and a little bling always look good. you may think my ends are backwards, no i thought if i am climbing around the front of the boat i can get my toe caught in the fitting if i angle them the other way i will just stub my toe. no big deal. anyway here comes a few pictures. http://www.fib[img] www.fib

VERY nice work. Looks better than new.

cap-n billybob,

You've done a lot of nice work on the boat.
Those rails are very impressive.

Don

Excellent well done my friend!

Bob