60's Bennett / McCoy board - restore, repair, preserve?

General Discussion
1

I’m trying to decide what to do with a ca 1967 Bennett surfboard, shaped by Geoff McCoy.

It has many dings and is far from water-proof, and if it was a new board then the individual dings could all be repaired.

If it was a relatively new board which had landed on the rocks and got all those dings in one event, then I’d cut out all damaged material, fill the defects with resin/Q-cell mix and then glass over each ding individually. But this approach would be a kind of vandalism for a board of this age and leave it pockmarked with shiny white spots everywhere.

I see this board primarily as a collectible, but would not mind trying it out in the surf once or twice.

So my main aim is to not reduce the boards value as a collectible, or preferably to increase it’s value. It making it waterproof and surf-able would increase it’s value, then I’d take it for a surf some time, maybe at some single fin classic meeting or similar events.

Do you think that well done repairs with colout matching etc would increase the value?

Or would it be best to leave it alone?

Or fill defects with resin and glass over the lot and polish it so that the original material is preserved but protected from further deterioration?

I’ll post more detailed photos of the dings later on if required.

Thanks for any help with this, Mik

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Not sure if full size photos will work on this site, lets try…

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3

Follow the three"R’s" Repair, Restore, Ride.

4

Geez, that’s actually a pretty clean base to start with. When I think of the beat-to-crap logs that I used to like to bring back…

Personally, I usually stay away from q-cell fillers unless I really need to fill, because the white drives me nuts. You can tint of course - lots of good stuff in the archives for that, ranging from coffee to mixes of yellow and sienna if I recall? The smaller stuff usually gets a filler of chopped cloth and resin for me, capped with just enough cloth to ensure that it’s solid. The “secret goo” (for those of you who remember the ding repair bible) tends to blend pretty subtly, even without a color match. Clean out the broken and discolored mess with a minimalist approach. You can match weights and weaves, and really work to hide the stuff, or just do clean, simple repairs that are well finished and buffed, and treat the dings like the evidence of a life well lived. I usually go for the latter at this point. Unless a board is otherwise trashed beyond saving, I don’t like hiding them behind tints and stuff. But to each his own. A shame on this board in my opinion, as it’s overall pretty darn sound.

Lots of ideas on removing/repairing the stress cracks as well - from a prep and 4 oz cap, to a more simple fill. If its just the gloss that’s cracked, go with the latter. If you clean and prep them well, a bit of styrene brushed into the cracks just before reglassing can really help make them dissapear.

And please do ride the darned thing. Looks fun to me.

Last words - take your time and enjoy it. Just do a couple of little dings when you have time and it’ll get there. It only really becomes a pain in the backside if you want to get it all done in a weekend.

5

Hey mate how long is the board ? ? 

6

Some of the old repairs look as if boat resin or over-catalyzed resin was used.  Those repairs (especially the nose and tail rail) could be ground down and redone.  That alone would be an improvement.  I would try mixing in some pigment in the filler and/or the lamination for a closer color match.  A little pigment would likely go a long way.

The stress cracks show perfectly why they should be attended to on all boards… they have taken on water and become stained.  Those will be hard to change visibly but grinding them down, covering with 4oz, hot coat and gloss will make them water tight.

Don’t go overboard with the ‘normal’ dings… carefully remove the worst of the loose stuff and try using one of those epoxy syringes to fill any gaps inside.  Again, a little pigment might go a long way to minimize objectionable visuals.  I have had some good results dabbing styrene directly to exposed fiberglass to help make shatters disappear… dab some on and add filler.  After reshaping the filler, dab some more styrene, followed by immediate fiberglass and resin.

I agree with Jeffrey - it’s a good starting point for what looks to be a nice rider.

 

7

Thank you all very much, great advice, I’m now looking forward to tackling this project.
The board is 8’3’’ long and about 24’’ wide.
I wonder if it would work to collect the foam dust during ding preparation, and then add it into the top layer of filler resin instead of Q-cells. Would that produce a close color match that will continue to age similarly to the rest of the foam?

8

How did you determine that it’s a McCoy shape?

At 8’3 x 24, it is certainly a very early transition shape, and a nice one, at that.

9

It has “Shaped by Geoff McCoy” pencilled on the tail underneath the glossing. And as far as I know Geoff has indeed been the shaper for Bennett Surfboards for a year or two in the late 60’s.
I don’t know if Geoff would have shaped this board (or any of the boards he shaped at Bennett) according to his own design, or if his job was to make exact copies of an existing design. I’ll have to ask him about that.
By the way, is there a name for this type of board?

10

Looks a bit like a pig outline, wide point back, pronounced hips.

When it was built, we would have called it “one of those new short boards”

11

Here is a picture of the SHAPED BY GEOFF McCOY signature:

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I took some measurements today:

Length along bottom curve:  8’ 3.5’’

Length along straight line across the deck:  8’ 3’’

Widest point at 23’’ from tail:  24.25’’

Nose width 1’ from nose:  18.25’’

Tail width 1’ from tail:  16.5’’

Weight: 9.75kg

 

13

Dang that looks like a fun rider!!!  I would take my time and fix things to the best of my ability and then ride it.  A lot of those old repairs could be ground out and made a lot less visable.  The biggest question is why can’t I ever find old boards like this?

14

I’m somewhat scared of the board, because I have landed on the fin of my longboard once in a wipe-out. That did hurt quite enough with a blunt Gullwing-fin, but could have been lethal with this board’s fin.

The fin also has some stress-fractures, I’m not sure if they need repairing. They are only on the starboard side, the other side is much better. The fin feels good to me despite the fractures. The fin base is undamaged.

 

 

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15

Hey Mr Mik, just for your interest. I found a board nearly the exact same shape. It was a John Arnold (Keith Paull Happening Model). I took it to seb at Soul Surf collectables, he knows everything about Australian boards and there value. He said that anything under 9feet doesnt hold as much value unless its a real special board. I still got 400 bucks on the arnold though and it was in much worse condition, your one if fixed up abit might make you abit more. (thats if you wanted to sell it). 

P.S they ride like pigs ! 

16

This board is awesome.  Seal it up and ride the f’er!

17

Geoff wrote back to me with some information about the board and the time when he was shaping at Bennetts in 1967-68.

I’m paraphrasing some of it here:

The board might have been Geoff’s, of for someone he knew, because Geoff never wrote his name on many boards which he shaped back then.

The shape was probably a standard shape for the time, but things were changing very fast, with everyone checking out everyone elses designs and much experimentation was going on.

No particular names were given to the boards in terms of model designs. 

During his time at Bennetts (1967-68), Geoff shaped his first own design board which he called the “DE”, which was less than 6ft long, and every member of the North Narrabeen Board Riders Club was riding one of them.

Geoff thinks it might be worth having the board restored by a reputable restorator and I think he may well be right, considering all the favourable comments from the Swaylocks members above.

I imagine it would be rather expensive to get a professional complete restoration done on this board. I’ll practice colour matching and hiding of repairs on some slightly younger boards and try to get a quote from a professional in the meantime.

Went shopping today, got filler resin, catalyst, yellow and black pigment, Q-cells, 4oz and 6oz fibreglass and styrene. UV catalyst powder is in the mail, and I’ll have to check out the pet shop for a UV lamp to allow fixing of a wee ding here and there after work when it’s dark.

But I’ll try to keep my grubby paws of this board for a while, until I manage to patch up a few of the other McCoy’s I’ve got waiting to be fixed up. They are no-where near as old and most are in much worse condition than this one, so there is less to loose if I mess it up while I learn how to do this.

18

Cool information. Take your time and research the archives here, or don’t hesitate to ask for help, and it’ll go just fine. Good ding repair is not rocket science, but it demands some patience, experience, and creativity. Your board is really not at all a basket case, so it should be fun.

If you do consider a professional job, really take the time to shop around a bit. Some shops favor cover-ups, which I do not, especially on a basically clean example with no origninal color. A minimalist but careful approach will suit you fine.

I think what got me doing ding repair when I was maybe 15 was getting a vintage Hansen three-stringer (my first vintage longboard… a wild ride to be into the early 80’s in San Diego at most spots) back from the shop with stark white Q-cell patches against the honey-colored foam.

Stoked for ya!

19

Sorry to bump an old thread but did you ever get this board repaired/restored? I would love to see pics of the finished product.

20

I have not started the repair job. But I organised cool, dry storage for the meantime.