I am replacing the bottom of this toothpick and doing a minor restoration on it.
it was built by Bill Wallace himself in 1998 along with 11 others, they are 1957 models, just like he made way back then.
the owner is a local guy and surfs it very frequently with Midget Farelly.
here are some pics…
the last time he surfed it befreo bringing it to me it got really heavy out in the surf all of a sudden, this was the reason!
a 10 inch split in the ply bottom, the rest of the bottom wasn’t much better either.
this is what it looks like after removing the ply bottom and all of the longditudinal internal battens, most of which were either damaged in removing ply, or in need of repair or replacement.
damaged internal batten needing repair.
the internal nose blocking has also delaminated, it will need re-gluing, this will be done when gluing in new battens.
this is me taking over the backyard yet again!
all cross-ribs were either loosened from the blocking, seen above, or the blocking was loosened from the outside rail, seen below.
I added two extra battens for strength, there was only the center one and the outside ones originally, the center three were replaced totally, I managed to salvage enough timber from the old battens to do the shorter outside two.
gluing and clamping of cross-ribs, nose blocking and new battens.
an opportunity to restore a master’s work. awesome. this is my kind of thread. great pics & explanations robbo.
Rob,
What you are doing here is most IMPRESSIVE. I’m not sure I would tackle that job on my best day. The photo documentation is superb. Thank you shareing the experience with us. It’s a beautiful thing!
Ah. That’s what I like to see. Restorations. Looks like you are taking over the whole house.
When I have the time and space I’m going to build one of these 16 footers. Well done. platty.
I thoroughly recommend you send these photos to Australian Longboarding .
Bruce Channon would run them , I reckon . Along with an article …maybe you can print off this thread , with your comments step by step with the photos .
Does Midget know where you live ?
HE would be stoked to see this to, I’m sure !
great stuff , mate !
cheers
ben
p.s. - have you surfed / fixed YOUR board now ???
Bill,
You are correct! Look at that…Working in the living room, glueing up, bucket of whatever on the living room floor carpet, sawhorses with clamps, paint brushes…this is great. Not a drop spilled anywhere! A true craftsman. Viva Swaylocks!!!
That board isn’t just a piece of history, it’s a really good longboard design. . . . plenty of length, a pintail, and sensible nose lift. . . . probably it is ridden frequently because it is so much more efficient at riding waves than the usual truncated icecream stick foam noseriders which pose as longboards these days . … . probably blows them all into the weeds !
A great looking Kookbox, thanks for the pictures.
next came the glueing up of two pieces of ply to achieve the length required, the original bottom skin was specially made plywood from individually glued up sheets of veneer, 3ply.
To make things a little easier and also trying to keep costs down for the owner I decided to use a waterproof sheet of hoop pine 3ply (2.4m by 1.2m) cut in half lengthwise and then joined end to end this just gave enough length to do the job.
the original nails used were copper boat tacks, I found these VERY hard to get a hold of, after trying a few places I went to a custom timber boat builder and he suggested that I use silicon bronze tacks, he said that they are actually a better nail for the job, so thats what I used, all 300 of them!
It wasn’t an easy task to wrap the ply around the frame, for those of you who understand the meaning of “compound curve” you will know why! basically it’s easy to bend a sheet one way but to then add another bend to the equation (compound curve) well things really start to get tricky!
here was how I joined the two sheets together, taped them on the face then flipped the lot, laid a 600mm by 600mm piece of 4oz cloth and glassed with epoxy resin. it turned out so strong. unfortunately though the epoxy made the ply glue bleed slightly at the join so it is slightly more visible than I would have liked, but who could have seen that coming?
I used epoxy glue around the edges and construction adhesive for the rest of the internal framework when fixing the bottom skin. tacks are approximately 40mm apart depending on how much strain was on the ply.
when dry I trimmed of most of the waste with a router and flush-cut bit, then finished with hand plane and sand paper.
well this is far as I go with this one, the owner has sanded and re-varnished this a few times since he bought it so we both agreed that he would do the varnishing on this as he knows how to do it and also to keep costs down.
I was very happy with how it turned out, let me tell you though it was and IS harder than it looks to do a job like this!
It certainly surprised me, there are just so many things to think about.
so , it’s finished already Rob ?
that was quick , well done …you can fix your mal now !
ben
awesome robbo. thanks for sharing.
Thanks Robbo. . . . that’s what I call a REAL longboard. . . am ogling that tail and therocker, very nice !
Thanks Robbo. . . . that’s what I call a REAL longboard. . . am ogling that tail and therocker, very nice !
or is that a real LONG board?!
all of the above perhaps…
hi Robbo, are there some ideal waves for those toothpicks over your way? I was thinking of long gently sloping reefbreaks . . . are you getting keen on one yourself? . . maybe there’s an exclusive toothpick club out there what with a dozen Bill Wallace toothpicks around plus some of the older ones.
