Board restoration

I want to do up an old 6’ 10" thruster I have, to sell on. The deck has several delaminations but also one large (4"x10") and many small compressions in the foam. The glass has many shatters and spider webs, so I figured I would strip the glass, fill the compressions with some Red Devil onetime lightweight filler (nothing seems to be advertised as spackle in the UK) and reglass the whole thing. I’m not to fussed about the work load as I see it as a learning excercise rather than to make profit, and I’m not to worried about the repairs changing the weight distribution or flex as I figure at 6’10" and 20 1/4" wide, it’s kind of a beginners shape. But, is it a good idea to fill such large compressions with lightweight filler, and are there likely to be any delamination issues in the future? Also, any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers guys

If the board has a cutline you might consider using a Dremel tool to cut the glass along that line before stripping the deck. A dented/delammed deck may have more foam damage than is apparent. The hull fiends will know what I mean when I say “Dirt it.” Except don’t really Dirt it… vacuum some balsa sheets or PVC high density foam to the deck and reglass it with a freelap to the bottom side. It’ll be better than new as far as strength and if you choose your material carefully you won’t lose any thickness.

My .02… I don’t think spackle of any kind is a very good structural material for filling deck dents.

The best thing you can do with that board is fix the dings, fix the delam, and sell it as is.

Stripping the glass of that board is going to leave you with a blank that will be missing huge chunks of foam. If you want the detail steps look up one of my posts from about 3 years ago. In a nut shell: you sand as much of the glass off as possible…use 60 grit. The heat and grinding will loosen up the old glass so you can cut it off in 1-2" sections from tip to tail. Then when your done it’s best to plane or sand the blank by 1/16 to 1/8 inch. This will flatten out any heal dents. Then use light weight spackle to fill the tear out, voids, and dings…then you’ll need to paint the blank to even out the color. Then glass it, etc.

Good luck.

It’s good you realize this project is more trouble than it’s worth, and just want to view it as a learning experience.

Given that, the next question is: what do you want to learn? If you want to take JM’s advice, you’ll be learning how

to vac a cored skin. If you want a little ‘‘shaping’’ experience, follow resinhead and shave down the deck after

stripping the glass. Either way you’ll get to do a side of hand-lam, a hotcoat, and half a sand job to finish it off.

btw, don’t do the spackle ‘‘fill’’, JM is right.

have repaired several extensively delammed personal boards with spackle. experience shows this: any water intrusion into the spackled areas results in the spackle absorbing the water and becoming “mushy” and the glass delamming…again. this then results in cursing, stripping the glass, drying it out, filling with microballoons, reglassing, etc… as long as there is no water being sucked into the board, spackle works. so for a wall hanger it would be ok.

have stopped using spackle to repair delams. currently using microballoons. going to try pour foam in the near future.