I have a 1962-63 Bing Pig that is need of some restoration. Its condition is 5/10, needing serious repair in the nose and about 8 other medium-grade ding repairs. I think I can fix it to rideable status, but first I was curious to know how much a full restoration typically costs. Any info would be great.
I’m in Thousand Oaks, California. I’ll try to post pics if I can.
-Ross Bushnell
bit hard to tell without seeing pics. even then, it’s hard to judge stuff like delamination, perished foam etc in photos.
dave platt (platty) posts on swaylocks & he is the man around here when it comes to restoration work. you’ll learn a lot if you visit his website:
http://www.davidplattsurfboardrestorations.com.au
maybe you could send him a PM.
also, a couple of lovely bing restorations can be found here:
http://www.classicbingsurfboards.com/bingrestorations.html
all the best with your bing mate. i’d love to see photos of it.
Thanks so much, oldy. I can’t wait to get this bad boy in the water.
As soon as I get some photos, I’ll post 'em.
I can point you in the right direction. A couple of guys on the central coast are good bing guys and have a few on the bing site.
drop me a line
She’s in need of some TLC, but I think some elbow grease will produce a solid rider.
If anyone has advice as to who I should contact for these repairs, I’d be super appreciative. My goal is to be surfing it by summer. Am I being realistic?
We charge 300-400 for a complete restoration and re-applying the pigment gloss coat. Hope that helps.
Austin
that’s pretty cheep for all that work!
rbushnell: thanks for posting those pics mate. lovely old girl you got there, even if she’s more than a little weathered.
reminds me of a board i restored for my dad.
before:
during:
after:
but geez it’s laborious, itchy, time-consuming work. i’d take up austin’s offer if i were you!
i hope you can post pics of it finished one day.
Cool board oldy. I’d love to see more “in process” photos. What steps did you take? Did you have to completely re-glass it?
Austin’s estimate is about what I was hoping to spend, I just wish he was out in California! Had I picked this up 2 years ago, I’d be doing the work myself. But seeing that I’ve since graduated college and taken up my latest hobby–a job–there just isn’t the time. As for the finished result, I’ll definitely post pics.
-Ross
maybe all of this talk / help is a primer for the jump into do it your self mode. I’d bet there are enough Bing Heads out there who will share your stoke…maybe you might have to set your time table back a notch or two, but the value of ownership will increase with your own input. Surfboard restorers need to make much more than what Mr. Austin is advertising.
I’ve talked to the great “Fatty” Leslie in Fort Bragg she’s got a more realistic $$$$$.
I say Give it a go yourself, this board looks like a perfect project.
==Good luck
Oldy,
In a word, holy-crap-that-is-awesome! Nice job on that restoration.
Ross,
It is all a matter of what you have and what you don’t. It sounds like what you had in college was time, not money. Now, you have a job, so perhaps you have money, but little time. In that case, paying for restoration might be a good option…but it won’t be cheap. Or just make it watertight and surf it.
My vote, as if it mattered, is restore the bad boy. Spending that much time with a piece of history and getting to know it so intimately would be a complete blast.
–Ben
That is such a hard question to answer, even with the pictures to look at. It all depends on so many different things. Plus, sometimes a restoration will go so well, it's like a higher force is at hand. Sometimes, even a simpler job just won't come together without a fight. Kind of like the occasional board that goes through the shop like this: The shaper has a hard time with it, then, the glasser has problems, the sander has problems, the fins come out messed up, and the polisher burns through the gloss coat! The board was jinxed from the time it was poured into the mold it seems. I would say $400 at the very least, thats if nothing comes together quite as expected. $550-$700 for a real nice job and a board thats ready to live life again. But in order to charge that kind of money, you the customer have to be happy with the restoration. That's just my humble opinion and you know what opinions are like! Unless you have all the supplies and equipment to do it yourself, I wouldn't suggest trying to do much more than making it water tight because restorations are difficult even with experience..In my opinion of course.
So it’s been a few months, but the Bing pig is finally done. After days of sanding and some serious rhinoplasty courtesy of Bruce Collings (Malibu, CA), the end result is one smooth operator.
April 2007:
the huge Bing logo and the competition stripes were not original, so I decided to investigate and see what was lurking underneath…
I sanded off a patch of the next coat of after-market blue and saw that the foam was like new! The 2" balsa stringer was especially thrilling.
check the tan line: the dark brown stripe is sunburned foam (where the board wasn’t painted)! the original owner must have painted the board the first day he got it in 1965.
July 2007:
unreal score mate…
Awsome, love those Bing boards.