1st board glassed & sanded how do I finish it?

This is board number one for me. I got it shaped, painted, glassed, hot coated, fins placed and sanded. I was thinking of an acrylic finish, but I had a couple of spots where I exposed the cloth while sanding, so maybe I should gloss it? I so, what grade sandpaper should I  sand it to before glossing?  I was searching the archives but got more confused by different techniques and recipes for gloss coats. Is there a simple way to get it sealed and ready to ride?



The exposed cloth is just to the point where the weave is barely exposed. So if I used the Krylon just on the exposed parts and then hit it with a scotchbrite pad to knock down the shine, then it’s good to go?   or Krylon the whole board?  Then wax it, now are we talking car wax to finish or Dr. Zoggs ? I just don’t want to wick water into my board. I’ve gotten this far with a lot of Swaylock help and I appreciate everyone’s input. Hopefully I’ll have a ride report soon.

How far into the weave did you go ? If not to deep. Hit it with krylon clear coat. Simple an effective. If you gloss just sand it to 120 gloss than start at 240 grit when Sandin your gloss coat.

You can ride it now if you want. A lot of people don’t do gloss coats, just sand to 220 or 320 on the hotcoat, wipe it off with a tackcloth, and wax it.

 

A2, good tip on the clear coat. I had to sand down to the lap weave on my last board (Problem with the hotcoat because of the cold weather, so I did a second hotcoat and had to sand off like 1 1/2 lbs of hotcoat resin to get it under 7 lbs) I’ll throw some clearcoat on those spots. I was going to put a very thin layer of hotcoat resin, but its hard to sand the surface off when its that thin.

nice work skunk. A solid #1 board. wax and ride.

sand to 80 grit and gloss coat it.  You’ve gone this far, why cut corners now.  Plus it will look the best you can make it look as well as be better sealed…

my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary.

I re-hot coated over the exposed weave, sanded to 320, put some car wax on the bottom and called it done. Here it is waxed up, leashed and ready to ride tomorrow. That crooked sticker is going to bug the shit out of me, but I learned what not to do next time, in fact I learned a whole lot of what not to do next time. Thanks for all the help I got from the members here. Ride report tomorrow.


krylon next time if you have slightly exposed weave. it dcomes in different finishes, you dont have to use gloss. thin layers on the entire board, make sure the whole thing looks wet, dries to semi golss or whatever finish you chose. it protects it better, wax wears pretty quickly after some time in the water.

What’s the point of the car wax? Just in lieu of a gloss coat?

I rode it yesterday in some real crap high tide backed off beachies but I liked the way it paddles and catches waves. The sand bottom had some big deep holes from recent storms so the wave would break outside & then immediately reform, roll to the shore and dump. Short rides but I can tell it’s gonna be a decent ride. The car wax just brought the color back to nice and bright. I learned a lot from making this board & it feels pretty good to surf a board I made from scratch. Can’t wait to start the next one, an 8 foot mini-mal for my daughter. I’ll splash out for the Probox install kit & go with their system for future boards. The UV cure resin is the way to go for me. The Solarez LOW VOC low odor only got the wife mildly irritated instead of pissed and the odor doesn’t linger, and is amazing that it gets hard enough to sand in 3 minutes or so in the sun.

Epoxy doesn’t smell at all…

Although, you won’t be sanding in 3 minutes, that’s for sure

Board looks sweet! You’re stoked!