I'd like to show you guys a bunch of glamorous photos, but I find myself doing real grunt work on the boat right now. Today I started to play with the guide-ons and bunks.
First, I decided I would reuse the roller guides, but only after I realized I could mount them in a different location than where they were. Originally, they were mounted at the very back of the trailer which I realize is "traditional" as pictured here. The first pic is from when I first got the boat and the second is after the herculiner was applied.
The problem I saw with them here was that the piece that the triangular part of the bracket mounts to sticking out from the trailer was not built to handle a boat like this bumping into it. For example, if someone were to stand on it, it would likely bend, and in fact, both are bent as we speak and the previous owner had apparently welded some flat bar across the top to the frame to help stabiize it, but it didn't work. I bent them back as staight as I could and they will still be used to mount my lights and license plate.
The roller guides were no longer rolling, so I decided to take them apart (like everything else I've touched on this boat so far #-o ) and take a look. It turned out that everything had a fair amount of rust, but it also appeared to me that the hard rubber part was about an 1/8" too long as it was binding against the metal angle that supports it. So, I cut off about a 1/4" off the length, wire brushed all of the pieces, then applied a thin layer of grease to the spindle and it spins much better now. Here's some more pics.
After cleaning and applying some rust converter where needed, I remounted the roller guides here. This pic also shows the little piece of flat bar that was welded onto the other bracket.
It feels alot sturdier here as it's now tied into the fender, not to mention, I like having it closer to the wheel to help my chances of never hitting the fender with the side of the boat.
I'll post my bunk pics next, which still need to be carpeted and mounted.