Advice on repairing my board

General Discussion
1

Hello everyone,

I was doing a search around the internet and came to this awesome site. This is my first post. I was surfing today and my leash snagged the tail of my board and basically ripped the tail. Please take a look at the pics below. The glass is all delaminated and peeling off and the foam is cut through. I have worked with fiberglass in the past as I use to work in the auto-collision field and I have customized cars using fiberglass. I have some tools and a compressor that should do the job for this repair. I am thinking if I should repair it myself or bring it to a professional repair. I “think” I have the skills to repair it myself but I am not sure what to do about the broken foam inside (what do I put in there?). If I am able to repair my board than I would like to step up and build my own board(s) some day. I was thinking about getting the necessary suppies at a popular place here in the San Francisco Bay Area called Tap Plastis. Below is some links to some supplies I found. Your help and advice is greatly appreciated. :slight_smile: TIA

BTW, sorry for the long post.

TAP Plastics

http://tapplastics.com/

S-2 Glass-4522

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=88&

S-2 Glass-4533

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=87&

TAP Surfboard Resin

http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=38&

2

This happenned at 3-4.5’ Ocean Beach? Better make sure your rail saver is set to fit correctly.

Gotta strip/rip/sand off the loose fiberglass first.

Easiest fix, flip board upside down, tape off the DECK side, so resin doesn’t drip thru, fill the bottom side with lam resin, wait cure, peel tape, apply a coat of hotcoat resin, sand flush and surf.

Correct fix is to remove all the loose glass and foam, to make a clean wedge, then insert a matching wedge of poly foam or blow foam, or 2 part foam, sand 1/32" below the glass level, then glass using lam resin and cloth, wait set, then hotcoat, sand flush, then gloss coat.

3
Quote:

then insert a matching wedge of poly foam or blow foam, or 2 part foam, sand 1/32" below the glass level, then glass using lam resin and cloth, wait set, then hotcoat, sand flush, then gloss coat.

Thanks LeeDD for the quick advice. Where can I get the foam from? Does TAP Plastics sell the foam? Do you recommed the products at TAP Plastics?

4

here’s another way to attack it, works for me - I get a bit leery about cutting out pieces and putting in foam, it’s kinda like cutting a piece out and welding in new steel for a fender dent that you could fix adequately with a little hammer and dolly work plus a little filler and paint.

Tape off the deck with plenty masking tape and up around the rail so you’re making a kind of mold/cofferdam, 'cos it’s curved and easier to mold it curved than mold it and sand it curved later - set it on horses and shims so the bottom is level right through there.

Pour in sanding resin/cabosil mix, not too thick, say no thicker than cream, catalysed slow. Tap on it and work the stuff in with a popsicle stick as you pour, so that there’s no air bubbles. Let it get up to the level of the bottom plus a little, hold that torn glass up. Then, set that torn glass strip in some of the cabosil mix too, put a light flat bottomed weight on top of it ( layer of wax paper under the weight ) and let it go off.

Okay, what you should have then is something that will need sanding and some glass - I’d suggest 6 oz - that might be best run up to and around the leash plug, lapped well by on all sides. Sand any high spots - if you have a jitterbug sander or one of those nice little pneumatic 6" disc/random orbital deals that’d be perfect,100 grit paper - flush before glassing. Squeegee the cloth to get out excess resin, not too much, feather edge sand the edges when it’s hardened, then hotcoat, then gloss, then polish. You know how to do that, obviously, you’ve done it on car work.

What bit you was all that naked line between the rail saver webbing and the leash plug itself; in a perfect world you might want to tie that as tight as you can so that the webbing is damned near in contact with the deck.

hope that’s of use

doc…

5

Thanks Doc for the helpful tips. It sounds like you have seen this many times. :slight_smile: It doesn’t sound too bad. Can you take a look at those links to TAP Plastics and see if those products should be ok such as the fiberglass and resin? Is this cabosil ok? http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=44&

I’ll make sure to post some after pics to let you know how it goes. Good thing I still have all my collision/refinishing supplies cause I knew my D/A (dual action) sander would come helpful. :slight_smile:

When I am done repairing my board I’m gonna need some advice on painting some graphics on my board. :slight_smile: You guys ROCK!!!

6

Yeah, that’s cabosil - is that 1/8 lb for six and a half bucks? Kinda pricy. Likewise the http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=38& resin… you can do better at the local surf shop with a $10-15 ding kit which will have the pint or so of resin you’ll need, a little cloth and cabosil. Thing is, that resin has a shelf life, so if you don’t need it again fairly soon it can crystallise and go south on ya or the catalyst goes… I buy resin by the gallon - I do this for money - and it goes sour on me now and then.

You might say I’ve done this before, yeah… this same method works well for fin cuts in rails, the occasional blunt trauma, you name it.

Let’s see… the DA sanders are nice, ain’t they. Me, I never get rid of a tool, you never know when you might need it for something completely unrelated to the original use. Except maybe makita stuff, that I get rid of.

Painting on top of the glass…that’s definitely not my thing, the other guys can help out there. And if PeteC comes in on this, pay attention. He has this habit of taking my quick and dirty repair methods and making 'em better.

hope that’s of use

doc…

7

The Tap plastics resin is just OK, it’s not as clear as other surfboard resins - like the smaller bottles (maybe a quart) you can get from a surf shop (like WISE or SF Surfshop or Aqua). The cloth is fine, though.

An alternative, if you go to Santa Cruz, is Fiberglass Hawaii, which is a surfing specific store. Actually, it is by far the best place to get supplies - nearly every shaper within 100 miles goes there regularly.

I wouldn’t waste my time on S-glass for the repair (unless the board is made of S and you want to stay with it). Tap has 5.8 oz E-glass, which will work fine. Or even 4 oz glass.

The little string in the leash plug should be AS SHORT AS POSSIBLE and still allow the leash to be attached.

There are a LOT of docs at Doc’s site, reading through them will be very useful.

http://jfmill.home.comcast.net/dings/dingdex.html

8

Thanks doc and blakestah for help. I’m probably going to run over to Wise after work today 9/13/2004. I was in SC yesterday but I couldn’t make it to Fiberglass Hawaii. Next time I am down there I’ll check it out.

doc- I have my 220 volt MIG welder that can weld 1/2" steel that can be used for a nice surfboard stand. Do you know where I can find a template or a “how to” build a surfboard stand? Thanks everyone for your advice. I’ll make a reply post when my board is repaired. :slight_smile:

9

Making a surfboard stand.

Get two saw horses.

Bolt a 2x4 on top of each

(optional)

Tack carpet to the 2x4

10

A 220V MIG welder…damn, I want one of those. Or one of those cute little ESAB 161s that’ll do MIG, stick and TIG. You can only have so much fun with wood, foam and composites. Metal is the ballz.

Okay, while there have been a bunch of shaping or repair stand drawings out there, many involving 5 gallon buckets full of concrete, if you’ve got a welder that’ll do heavy stuff then you can do a repair stand that’ll be The Nutz.

First off, your materials list. Some 1/4 - 3/8 inch plate stock, a couple of big truck brake drums, some pipe. Pick a size of pipe that’ll just fit inside the center hole in the brake drums or bigger: 3" would be nice. This is all scrap, mind you, trade the junk yard a sixpack. Oh, and some casters, score those someplace. Pipe insulation too, mebbe two sets/bundles so you can have it thick. Then, ya do this

Width? A little less than your widest board, say no more than 22" overall. Height? a comfortable working height for you, say around your navel with a board on it, under your belt buckle for just the rack. These are custom. Yes, you could most definitely make the height adjustable with pipe, a nut welded to it over a hole and a bolt going through to hold it by friction. I’d weld the plate on intermittent, like you do sheet metal, so it won’t warp. You’re undoubtedly a better welder than I am, though, so go with what you like.

I have the casters shown on one side of the drum, doesn’t have to be, on front or back would maybe work fine too. You don’t wanna carry one of these ugly heavy muthas. Lean it and roll, like a dolly.

Variations on a theme - don’t make the board supports out of steel plate stock, weld on some angle iron with pre-drilled holes instead so you can fasten 5/8" or 3/4" pieces of ply on there to do the same thing. Or healthy bar stock. Either one will let ya modify the board supports with something easy, like a saber saw.

That work for you?

Hope that’s of use

doc…

11

First off I would like to thank everyone here at Swaylock’s and especially LeeDD, doc, and blakestah. :). Below are the pictures to my first repair. What do you think? I got an estimate from someone and they said it would cost more than $60.00 and a week to get my board repaired. It cost me $20.00 of materials and a day and some fiberglass on my arms. :frowning:

Basically what I did is cleaned the wax off the board with a plastic spreader and acetone. I D/A’d the repair area with 80 grit and taped up an area where I poured in some resin with Q-Cell. Waited awhile and sanded the Q-Cell mixture with 80 grit and glassed. Waited some more time and hit the glass with 80 grit on a D/A and straightened it out with 120 grit on a block. I the sanded glass area some more with 180 and 320 grit. Next I added more resin and sanded with 180 grit on a D/A and wetsanded with 240 grit. The last part I didn’t have the materials for hotcoating or glosscoating (not really sure what to use) any links or info on this would be great. Also this board is a used board so I didn’t really go all out. It has dings all over that I will repair and paint later. So what do you think of my first repair?

12

Not bad a-tall. In fact, that was one HELL of a good job. I’d be more than pleased with it if it was my work.

At that rate, it’s just the gloss, that layer of resin over the cloth you did already was your hotcoat, ya done anticipated that. If you’re happy with the look of it, then you’re fine as is. You don’t have to do a gloss, but if you want to, then…

For the gloss, just thin your sanding resin a little with acetone or preferably styrene- if you just have acetone, that’s fine, it works real well for me. You’re looking for a viscocity about like milk. Use lots of catalyst, so it’ll go off okay in such a thin layer. Mask around the area, run a strip of tape along the rail so you’ll have a drip line, brush it on lightly and wet with a throwaway chip brush and let it almost go off, just starting to thicken, and pull the tape . With any luck the edges will sag down and you won’t have to wet-sand or polish 'em any. Then, flip the board over and repeat.

Polishing- well, you want a fairly aggressive compound made for fiberglass work - the automotive rubbing compounds contain red rouge abrasive which can stain the resin pinkish. You know how to use a polisher, I’m sure, the only thing with this is beware of heat buildup; what you can get away with on metal will cook the cloth away from the foam.

Y’know, you did do a helluva good job. My thinking is that it’s a whole lot easier when you have the familarity, feel and comfort level with your tools and of course the good tools themselves. Nobody ever hand-sands a ding repair enough, but when you have skills with a good power sander… Oh, and next time, longsleeve T’s are great for ding work, that or old sweatshirts you’re none too fond of. Also, if you have any other dings, well, you’ve gone through the basic procedure already, with this one. As The Old Man used to say, all to infrequently…

Ya done good

doc…

13

Ideally, you prep with the Q-cell well enough that you have just enough room for glass and hotcoat. Then, lay on the glass, and resin for it. Let it set. You should only need to sand it on the edges, the middle should be fine. If you sand through the cloth, you might as well start over. The hotcoat covers the cloth so you cannot see it. You should really have minimal sanding done after the hotcoat. The ‘trick’ is getting the filler layer close to perfect. The glass plus resin is your strength…don’t sand the glass.

14

The repair looks great. Doc’s advise always works. You really don’t paint a clear board like yours. As you can see by your repair, the cabosil cures to much the same color of the board. You can “tune” the color of the filler by adding small amounts of sil-cell (fumed silica) or Q-cell (a little more whiter). It is nearly impossible to get a board repair to be invisible, even on pigmented or painted boards.