Top Rails Bent Inward

[bsbrega]

My AGP (Esther Williams 27' round) top rails are now pretty much all bent inward after 15 years of ice and snow on the cover. But it doesn't seem to matter. Does it matter? Someone told me the rails are mostly cosmetic.
And does anyone have a good method of painting the rails? What's a good paint? I usually brush-paint 'em. One year I sprayed. Didn't work out too well. . .

[matt4x4]

I doubt that the top rail being bent is going to be an issue, as long as it is still strong so you can place your weight on it while boosting yourself up out of teh pool, it's doing it's job, having the flat top level is irrelevant.
I would however take a couple off and inspect teh wall under it to see if it has a kink in it where the top rail slides over it to seat - this may have happened over time.
To paint, I find I have great success painting just about anything with Tremclad, the best way to prep it for a good lasting finish is:
wipre greases off using varsol, let dry, scrape loose paint off and scuff up the remaining surface with 120 grit to 240 grit sandpaper - the higher the number the finer the sandpaper. Clean it once more with varsol, let dry.
Paint on one coat of tremclad primer, this will help get a good bond and smooth out imperfections. Paint the desired color of tremclad, or mix grey and black to try and get a good match to the remaining pool structure (I'm guessing it's a grey shade). Rememeber that once paint dries it darkens a shade.
Another paint I'm really happy with is Krylon fusion - works really well on plastics, but it could become very expensive since it's only available in rattle cans.

[hrsdennis]

Hi, it is cosmetic, not structural. I had a customer once who took all of his top rails to his buddy that owned an auto paint shop. They were sand blasted and painted just like they would a car. They looked nice.

Dennis

[bsbrega]

Thanks to both responders so far. And Dennis: how does one take off the rail?

[matt4x4]

each is different, most are screwed at the post - first take post cap off - screws are on underside with most, then you should see the screws exposed for the top rail.