Post-repair exposed metal

Hi all,

So I went and replaced the side rail foot grip pads on my hobie 16. However, I ended up sanding off some of the previous glue which had been on the bottom of the rails and in some places sanded so much that it exposed the metal (I'm assuming aluminum) underneath. In some of these places, the new rail grip pad does not cover the metal, so there are patches of metal which are purely exposed on the underside of the bar.

I'm worried about that metal rusting long term. I sail on a lake but will be dipping the boat in salt water about 4 times a year. Is this something to worry about? If so, how should I go about protecting the exposed metal? Should I just simply spray paint over the exposed metal?

Thanks in advance.

Side rails are aluminum, so they aren't going to rust. They could potentially corrode, but since there's no stainless steel attached to the rails (rivets or fittings), I'd say risk of corrosion is pretty minimal. I would just shoot them with some black spray paint. As long as you rinse the boat off after sailing in salt water, it shouldn't be an issue.

sm