I rescued this board from my neighbors trash can! Noticed it as I was pulling in my driveway. Only the front half was in the can, went to the door and asked if they had the other half, and shazam, I've got a broken Takayama that I'm desperate to get back in the water. Not looking to get this to a 'sellable quality'.. just want to do a good job and surf this thing.
Here is a picture from the deck. obviously only half of this thing has seen sun. Neighbor said he forgot about it, half of it got sun, half of it didn't. He only rode it a couple times before the break. Aside from the places damaged in the snap it looks to be okay.. ish.
(saw on another thread you're a Takayama fan, and are around SD)
I researched as much as I could stand, if I'm missing a good thread send it to me. I read the broken board thread by Bill Barnfield, and I have a few problems ahead of me.
1: In BB's thread he shows standing the board upright so he can glue it with qcell to get the rocker right. I like this idea, but how to do it on a 9 footer? Stand on a ladder?
2. The thread stops before I got to see his glassing technique. I've read a lot about a 'diamond' way of doing it, but I'm still a little fuzzy about what is going on there.
Also, to attempt to fix the color difference or not.. It doesn't bother me so much, but if there is a simple way that is worth doing..
And I've heard popsicle sticks and such are dumb ideas, "the glass will be all the strength it needs"... is this still true in such a crucial part of the board and not just the nose?
I have only rebuilt one board broken in half. I added a short stringer (about 3' long) epoxied into the foam, and epoxied a footlong piece of 2x redwood into the rails on each side, then shaped them to match. I also added a wood veneer on the deck over the break. Overkill, I guess LOL. I glassed with one diamond shaped 6 oz. piece on top, and one on the bottom, feathered the edges as best I could, you can still see the edge in the right light, but only barely.
The board was a 9' 6" stringerless GSI epoxy veneer Walden Magic popout, and I had never ridden it before. Like you, I inherited it after the break. I'm sure it weighed more after my rebuild (its at 20 lbs. now, I didn't weigh it before).
Just one 6 oz. top, and same bottom - I added so much structural support that it didn't require any more. In fact, I'm sure its more rigid now, as a result. It surfs fine, I really enjoy it when the surf is around 4-5'. I've had it out in bigger surf, but it has so much volume its hard to get it out past the breakers, and when its steep and pitching I really like a smaller board with more rocker.
The orig. owner (lockedin) is a much more hardcore surfer and better longboarder than me, he told me it was a bit flexy and corky before, but he still really liked riding it. He broke it night surfing Malibu on a huge swell. It broke right smack in the middle, the wood on the deck is directly over the break.
Diamond meaning... well, if you look at the wood I put on the deck - that's the area I glassed, and about the same size and shape on the bottom. I glassed the patch just like always - lam, hot coat, gloss coat. I used white pigment in the resin, but you could still see the patch, so I wetsanded and painted the whole thing with white appliance epoxy spray paint when I was done.
Over here at The Low Tech Lab we have a top secret adjustable jig for fixing broken longboards. It's only Top Secret because my camara stopped working last weekend......I think it's a curse because I built an SUP.
The biggest thing is to get the two pieces glued back together with proper rocker...and you have three stringers... the Bill Barnfield thread shows a chair and some bungee cords???? We use the same concept....
Send me a pm...the Jig is near Old town right now but I can go pick it up if you want to use it. Read SDRepairman's post. He's got it down....
i dont have any snaped in half boards in right now so i dont have any pics
but all i do is prep the board just like BB, then using some clamps and peaces of wood i realin the board first to make sure i can get everything right then take it apart and i will use some pour foam to reattach, the stuff is so strong if you dont get it right the first time and it cures all the way it can snap the board in a diffrent spot so you have to get it right the first time
if sting ray has a jig i would definetly try and get my hands on it for yourself, im sure it will save you alot of grief or bring it by my place and we will play around with it
hey Huck that is a great job on your first snaped board, looks great
My wife says I need to slow down and lay back a little...Can't help every guy that bangs on the door......
......OK.........
if you can wait a week or two I'll take care of the Honey Do list to keep her happy...and then more surf stuff...
The Jig belongs to a guy named MarkSSD. Think about a galvinized metal fence that goes around a school yard, Every 12 feet there's a metal post about 8 feet tall.......
That 8 foot post is our vertical piece. Then we have two horizontal boards attached with "U" brackets. The horizontal boards are adjustable..... I need a photo right about now......
Tkest10 came by.....We glued the two pieces back together.....We talked.....Some delam issues some dings...Big time learning process.....Tkest10 will come out ahead of the game when the project is finished.....I want him to do a fabric inlay over the snap.....it doesn't matter at this point.....fun,fun,fun
Ray.....
.......and.....the Bondo on the FREE board was a joke!.....but I really did do it !!!!!
A fabric inlay is a creative way to hide the repair, hope you can post photos of the rebuild. BTW, how did that red Surftech hold up - still riding it? Very nice thread, thanks for linking to it.
