Rope repalcement in rub rail

the grinch wrote: Where could I find new rubber and rope?

I wouldn't pay dealer prices! Go directly to rubrails.com

Where could I find new rubber and rope?

Wouldn't nylon be a better material? I would think cotton would mildew easily.

^^^ Definitely would work too. The wrench was the only thing I had handy. Make sure the end of the pipe doest start fraying the rope. Same goes for the wrench.

I just did this as well, and I achieved it by using a regular old 1/2" wrench. It was a piece of cake but make sure you clean the rubrail out very well before you start or you will get your new rope all dirty.

-Remove back cover plate and remove old rope
-Thoroughly clean the rubrail out. I'm sure there will be quite a bit of gunk in the grove all the way around
-Get your rope (I think it takes around 50ft of it) and take it through the closed end of a 1/2" wrench (or whatever size you need so that the rope you're inserting barely squeezes/slides through). Only pull maybe a foot through the wrench.
-Wedge the closed end of the wrench into the rubrail just offcenter of where the coverplate goes on the back of the boat. This is a pretty tight fit, I'm sure you'll get it in there though.
-Grab that 1 foot of rope that you started through the wrench, and just start pulling it around the rail, keeping it close to the boat so you don't yank the trailing rope out of the rail. As you go around, the rest of the rope will feed through the wrench right into the rail.
-Once you get all the way around to the back, you will have to trim the rope obviously, and then work the wrench out and wedge the last little bit into place.

Once I figured out this method it took maybe 10 minutes. I had to do it over though because I didn't clean the rail, and sliding the rope all the way around really made it dirty. This may not work with the larger diameter ropes (5/8"), so I would get 1/2", 3/8" would probably work as well. I wouldn't worry about the rope coming out with the smaller diameters, because it's not going anywhere once that back plate holds it all together.

Hopefully that all made some sense. Let me know if you need any clarification.

I just wanted to write a post to tell others of another way to put the rope into the rub rail.
I had read the posts of using the heat gun, liquid soap and possibly making a tool to slide along the groove. I was afraid of the tool slipping and gouging the new paint and glass work.
I found that all I had to do was use a snap ring pliers and open the groove while my brother pushed the rope in. I did my 1988 2001 in half an hour. I was pretty easy.
Just another option...