6,4 beater into kids board upcycling

[guachingman]

Hi crew,

This is my first post so be easy on me…I sincerely apologize to the experts and pros for this heretic post

My two kids 7 and 6 are just about to transition from body boarding, to surfing. I somehow refuse to pay the prices kids boards cost at the shop and the idea of doing my kids first board myself makes me feel cool, warm and fuzzy inside at the same time, so I decided to strip down a couple of boards I had and give it a try.

i did a skim board using the same recycling method and it came out ahem, pretty rough (understatement warning), but I knew there was room for improvements if i put some more time and care into it, it was a couple of afternoons work, and the result showed too… thats as far as my experience goes. My curiosity is as big as my impatience.

My question is this, I fear (I will avoid it if I can) precission work to an extent and I decided to leave the fin boxes alone, and just glass on them and then uncover them from above the glassing. I will sand them fins smaller, the two on the sides sanding the front and the rear one sanding at the back so as to make them “closer”. Is this correct? how much smaller should the fins be?

The “donor” boards are 6,4 and a gun, and they have become 4.9 and 4.7 (wanted to make 5.0 but my mind thinks in metric and I cut too much, yes you can call me a butcher)

Also for the artwork how big can I go with the rice paper before I drawn in bubbles??

I include some pics for your amusement, so far i have glassed the bottom of one of them (not shown in the pics, will post some if there is some interest and or replies).

I am also abit confused with the glassing, what would be the simplest method? one bottom, two on top? should I fold the top layer also down? the info on the net although abundant seems also kind of scattered and uncomplete. Bottomline for me is I want the less complicated route since my skills are limited and lets face it, i wont become a shaper anytime soon.

Any help and input would be appreciated, also if someone has done the same thing before would love to read about it, couldnt find any thread on the topic with the search function.

 

Thanks a bunch!!

Rob

 

 

 

 

[fiberglasshi]

First off, don’t be so hard on yourself…this is how most guys got into shaping. Stripping down an old board and repurposing it is like a rite of passage. Keeping the fin plugs is possible for what you are trying to achieve but it’s not recommended for any future projects. You have the right idea as far as glassing, two layers on top, one on bottom is the preferred glassing schedule. Here’s a video we did with a color lamination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_73JZE1B730

You can do a full board logo…well maybe not a full board since it’s your first go at it. There are some tricks to make it lay flat and keep it bubble free. You can pre-paste the logo on, get it really flat and tight, then do your lamination, or you can use UV cure depending on how dark/opaque your lam is. If you can’t keep the fin boxes, then the cheapest option is to glass over them and go with glass on fins. If these boards are for small kids and just need to float and go straight then you can get away with a lot. Feel free to email us or give us a call with any questions and we’ll help you out. Otherwise there’s some pretty cool guys on here that will have some other options you can explore.

[ambrose]

A noble effort.

get the next cadavers

dr frankenstein the first

few leave a large berth

for improvement,and

improve you will.

start with a much bigger

donor board as throwing away the tail with fin 

apparatus is advisable.save all the rocker in the nose

you possibly can.!5’’ wide is o.k.

pointed noses are dangerous

for little fellows companions

in the water surfing,IOW not adviseable.

save this first effort as a benchmark

you will look back on it fondly.

…ambrose…

I have a collection

of early homemade

personal boards

That elicit a cringe

that goes all the way

to my marrow.

your heart

is in the right place.

save is the new post

clik save

 

 

 

[guachingman]

Thanks a lot…I was anticipating slack thus my self deprecating tone! my bad!

My kids asked for a cheetah and a wolf… and i went too big aprox A4 size, when i tried to glue some letters (their name) the rice paper (I think it is, but I got whatever was available) got all wrinkled so I printed again and just placed it, it was ok but the ink went a bit blurry. Am thinking of cutting the whole A4 in stripes so that the resin will also get to the foam directly but dont want to botch the whole cheetah face…maybe a couple of holes here and there where there is no ink…

I just realized that the rails are sharp in the middle (as they are at the tail) instead of round, is that a big problem?

I also figured that being a kids board, their first at that i could get away with a lot more mistakes,  it makes me feel a little lazy ass cutting corners kind of thing for the sake of getting it done but i think I will live through it

The skim board (seen in the pic with the black and red logo) I did away with the tail and nose but I didnt have to think about the fins, I also went back all i could in cutting, thinking of thickness rather than rocker, thanks ambrose I see how cutting to save rocker is the better option.

The thought of having to glass fins and or placing the fin plugs makes me unease. I will proceed as planned for this one , see how the fins look like and slowly get more donor boards for the next one…

I am going to spray paint over the tail to hide the yellow foam spots.

Will post couple of pics on the progress tomorrow.

Rob

 

 

 

 

[guachingman]

got the paper without bubbles…the rails are another story, thought the first layer was flush enough with the foam but seems it didnt and got quite a lot of them. Can I somehow minimize that with or before the hot coat?

 

Thanks

Roberto