I purchased the rigid rubrails from here: http://boatbuildercentral.com/products.php?cat=65 I am having a heck of a time figuring out how to install it. Problem is the plastic is so tightly coiled that it takes alot of force to straighten it out, I doubt the #8 screws speced for this rail will hold it in place as I can barely get it straight. I only have today to get it done. I tried letting it sit on the hot driveway for an hour and it did nothing, I tried a hair dryer which was hot enough to burn my hand, but made virtually no difference to the rail. I bought this type of rail to save some cash over a taco kit, I hope someone has a good solution that will solve my buyers remorse. Please help as I only have till this afternoon to do this.
I have it sitting in the garden tub now with hot water. Hopefully it will make it pliable enough to work with.
I got the water up to almost 200 degrees and let it soak for 20 minutes while maintaining the temp. It did NOTHING! Finally the wife and I decided to just muscle it, what a PITA! I would not recommend this product in the future!
I had the same thought process as you to no avail. Then I thought of gravity. I poked a hole in each end and then anchored one end to a tree and the other to the back of the truck and let gravity pull on the truck and hence pull the coil out of memory. All was done in direct sun. Laid perfectly after that.
It was a pain, I tried stretching it from my jeep to the garage, let it set in the sun for a bit, then when I went to unhook it......THWAPOW!....shot back like a dang slingshot, lol. I'm just gonna deadend them on the back for now, later on when I'm doing touch ups I will see about making some end caps or something.
