I just picked up a 10’ 1968 Bing David Nuuhiwa Noserider from a customer’s garage. This was his high school graduation present in '68 and the board has a lot of nostalgia… When I spoke to the gentleman on the phone his original budget was about $200. I wanted to wait until I actually saw the board to quote a price not knowing if it only needed a few ding repairs and maybe a new gloss & polish or ???
After seeing the Bing I realized it will need a great deal of restoration work. I’ll post some pictures. We are now working with a budget of $300-$400. Which gives me 10-15 hours of labor plus materials.
The goal is to really make this restoration sing…it’s a beautiful board that really needs some love. I’m concerned about the gouges in the foam and the missing parts of the stringer.
Please check out the photos and give me an idea of how you might tackle such a restoration with this budget. All of the fiberglass has to be removed along with the fin on the hull side. The board will then need to be re-laminated, hot coated and glossed. The deck most likely only needs a new gloss coat, then the entire board has to be polished.
The cavities where the stringer used to be would make an easy mold to pour resin then laminate. But I’m still concerned with all the deep gouges in the foam around the nose area.
Pretty cool score, I would strip it completely, fill the gouges, clean up the blank, grind the fin, back yard or professional volan glass job of your color(s), and surf it........
Hi Tom. Try and keep as much of the original board as possible. Stripping it completely, if the glass on the rails and deck is still bonded, in my humble opinion is unnessary and froat with danger. You may end up pulling chunks of foam off the rails with the glass.
Ok, this is how I would attack it. Remove the fin and prep it for resetting. I would then remove the the remaining glass on the bottom to the trim line. I'm assuming that the glass on the rails is still bonded to the foam. Then I would grind the rails trying to feather them a little from the foam around onto the deck. Hope this makes sense. The foam on the nose needs some attention. As does the stringer. I'm guessing the stringer is HD foam, Balsa then Cedar. Should'nt be to hard to sort out. As for the foam I would cut it out and replace it. With this restoration I would be suggesting to the client that a pigment job be done on the bottom and around onto the deck to the trim line. And finish with a pinline on the deck. This will enable you to fill all the dents and gouges in the foam on the bottom and any low spots on the rails Q-cell. Do an initial fill on the foam and do a tight screed with a putty knife. So as to avoid to much sanding on the foam. Glass the first layer. Then fill any lows and sand fair. Second lam. Hot coat with chosen color and sand. Put it on nice and thick. Then sand back hard to get everything nice and fair. Then do your final pigment coat. I normally do a cheater coat on the rails first and sand the edge back. If you are going to get any sand throughs it is going to happen on the rails. Depending on how the weight is going you can either do a clear gloss and polish or polish the pigment coat. Either way you will need to be carefull not to sand through the pigment coat. Oh don't forget to reset the fin. Post photos of the restoration. Hope this helps.platty.
If strip anymore glass off that thing, I’m gunna drive out to FL and slap you upside the head. Listen to platty. Be tender to that board, it’s a gem. There’s alot of boys out here on the west coast that would kill for that thing as-is. As for the the $ that you are charging… you probably want to at least double that amount. That thing is going to be alot of work to fix right. I’ll be watching -Carl
I do have a few concerns… The stringer/HD foam is completely missing from the nose all the way to the bottom of the concave (about a 2’ section). I wasn’t sure if Platty was suggesting filling this area with a Q-Cell mixture along with the other gouged out foam then do a first lam? Keeping in mind the budget (which already seems pretty tight) I would imagine restoring the stringer isn’t an option…
And I agree about the pigment, but should I go opaque or a translucent tint? If I go completely opaque we lose the remaining stringer (hull side) and the tail block which appears to a thin strip of red resin and HD foam.
The foam and the stringer on the hull are in really bad condition. The stringer section is rotten/missing at least 2-2.5’ at the nose and there appears to have some type of solvent damage to the foam in this same area… All this and a pretty bad patch of kinda half laminated marine cloth around the nose on the deck and hull.
I’ll start working on the board tomorrow. Also, wondering what tool you guys use to cut and remove the delaminated fiberglass? My plan is to cut along the seams of the rail and removing the jagged sections on the hull, leaving all of the fiberglass on the deck untouched. Then laminating the hull and wrapping to the deck cut-lap with a pigment dye and pin-lining the deck as Platty mentioned. Just wondering what tool is best to cut the fiberglass clean along the seam. I’m thinking of a cutting wheel on a rotary tool or the dremel has a neat cutting blade which works like a minature router. This may be best as I believe I can accurately control the depth using this method?
I'm guessing the stringer is HD foam, Balsa then Cedar.
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Back in those days redwood was commonly used, not so much cedar. But I reckon if you can bring this back from the dead you'll be a hero no matter what you use.
materials are all available to restore the stringer !......HD foam-cal redwood- balsa - take out all the rot with narrow, razor sharp chisels-go with the grain
Austin Surfboards did a Hobie for me a couple years back that was same / worse than this one. The cost was low – they quoted it ahead of time and stuck with the $$ even after realizing what they were up against. Much appreciated! Short version: they completely cut out the rotten 3" balsa stringer and replaced with a new finger jointed stick (couldn’t find or afford a 10’ length of 3" balsa at the time). At the same time they reglued the redwood stringers on either side. From there, lots of fiberglass work and then solid resin pigment. They restored the original fin while they were at it.
Tom. As kayu suggests all the materials to repair the stringer are easy to get. Sorry for not touching on that. Sounded like you had a handle on it.
In regard to the pigment / opaque work. I was suggesting you do a pigment coat over the lams. That way you can mask off the stringer and the fin and tail block.
My weapon of choice for removing the delamed glass is a 3" putty knife. I slip it under an edge and push the knife and tear the glass. Quite often when cutting down a cut lap edge the glass will tear down the original cut line.
"I'll start working on the board tomorrow. Also, wondering what tool you guys use to cut and remove the delaminated fiberglass? My plan............................."
STOP NOW !
If you need to waste time and money restoring something work on that cool van....... Today's going rate to restore a classic auto is somewhere between $65 and $125 per hour. I love your classic surfboard but you're waisting your time for $400........
A guy comes up to me at the beach one day and says ..."Jim says you restore surfboards"....
I say..." I repair surfboards"...........done deal......
-Carl
