Finishing Toe Rail Installation

On Saturday, the 23rd of July, I took the opportunity to finish the toe rail installation - which included bedding the rails in polyurethane (Sikaflex 291 LOT).  My first task was to remove the rails from the deck, supporting the lengthy rails as I removed them.  I then measured the locations of the weep holes - scuppers for draining the deck of water - and marked and removed material.  There are two weep holes on the port side and two on the starboard side; both are located toward the stern.  The weep holes are roughly 1 and 3/4" in length, and about 1/4" deep.  The picture below shows the chisel used to remove the marked and scored portions of the toe rails.  

Sanding with a block was then used to create a smooth, finished appearance.

The bedding of the rails themselves was essentially a repeat of the dry-fit process:  work from the bow towards the stern, laying down a good bead of polyurethane as the rails are re-fastened to the deck.  With a tight seal of the toe rail to deck, a good amount of polyurethane would ooze from the sides - a good indication that adequate bedding material exists between the toe rail and deck.  Working with the bedding material is messy work, seriously messy work, but required work.  Thanks to all my amateur boat-building friends for their support in the installation of the toe rails!  Here, below, is a picture of the starboard aft portion all put to "bed".

One week later, after business travel out of town, I used Saturday the 30th to install the bungs in the toe rail - using Epifanes varnish to "glue" the bungs in their holes.  

The next day, Sunday the 31st, I used a chisel to remove most of the protruding bung.  After removing most the bung material with the chisel, I sanded the balance to fair with the rail itself.  Moving down the port side, I finished with the starboard, readying the rails for their first penetrating coat of varnish.