Stainless stell rub rail repair

This previous spring I had a little mishap getting our new boat on the trailer and hit the wench bracket with the nose of the boat (trailer was too deep on the ramp). The rub rail did its job but took one for the team and now was a nice gash in it which has now rusted a little due to the impact with the carbon steel winch bracket. This needs to be sanded or ground out somehow and then polished. Anyone have any tips on how to do this? My thought was to first attacked it (gently) with a stainless wire brush wheel chucked into a drill and then going to higher grit abrasives. The challenge will be not to run the wheel into the the gel coat.

Ayuh,... Got a Picture of the damage,..??

No, but I can take one l during Thanksgiving as we'll be down at the lake.

Here is a photo of the boat. The damage (not shown in photo) is slightly on the starboard side at the nose of the boat. The damage is only on the stainless steel rub rail.

Ayuh,... I'm thinkin' yer gonna find that, That's an aluminum rub rail...

'n yer probably not gonna be able to do much with it, other than beat it to nearly where it oughta be...

Any scratches, 'n gouges will probably have to stay...

The boat is a 2008 Cobalt 202. I'm certain the metal part of the rub rail is SS as that is what the OEM replacement part is and also looking up the boat on the Taco website shows SS. I realize that I won't be able to ever make it look like it did but I was hoping there would be some way to smooth it out and polish it to make it look a little better.