Aluminium toe rail installation, rebed hull deck joint while I'm at it?

[Norado]

Ohoy,

I've done a major deck recore and to get better access for reglassing the deck I decided to remove the aluminum toe rail. All interior headliners and stuff was already down so didn't take too long to get all the screws out. I figured it wouldn't hurt to rebed the rail either as the boat is from '78 and it might be the original caulking/glue in there.

I've sketched a fairly accurate cross section of the joint to better understand the specifics.

As far as I know I have not had water ingress from the hull deck joint and while inspecting the interior I can only identify one area where there are slight black streaks on the inside of the hull.

The hull and deck is still held together with guide screws every 3 feet or so.

My question is this, should I pry open the hull deck joint and scrape out and rebed the joint itself? It's a hell of a lot easier doing it now, than in say 5 years when the toe rail is back in place. On the other hand it hasn't been a problem this far.

Looking from the inside there is a decent gap between the hull flange and deck, I guess I could inject and then smear thickened epoxy into the joint from the inside too seal it properly? After removing some of the caulking and sanding end of the joint with a dremel.

If you look at the sketch observe that the toe rail bedding also creates a seal between the rail and the hull and not just the deck.

[Orion Jim]

All things are possible but I bet prying the hull/deck joint apart would be "nearly" impossible. Especially since you say it appears intact and see no evidence of water intrusion (other than one small area). A couple layers of glass on the outside of the joint would insure no water intrusion ever. You'd just have to drill the toe rail bolt holes again and bed them liberally.
I'd be inclined to leave well enough alone and use 5200 on the inside joint. 5200 is a permanent adhesive.