So I picked up this old board from a friend for $20. He was going to give it away and I offered to buy it when I saw the bottom channels and the label. Wasn’t sure about the details but I was pretty sure this was a board of some significance. Plan is to fill in all those channels with bondo to make the bottom smooth again, then a couple layers of glass and finish it off with a few coats of paint to hide all those dings and blemishes………or maybe not. Yeah, I thought you’d say that. Actually just want to seal the holes/cracks in the glass and make it water tight, surf it (if we ever get something worthy) and then hang it on the wall. Have already used a small sanding disc on the dremmel to sand around the repair areas, most are about a ¼ inch to a nickel in size. Next step will be to fill in those spots with resin/milled fiber and some kind of tint to match the existing brown (did I read here used coffee grounds work – not sure how to get that into the resin w/o making a gritty mess). The bottom contours at the tail rail will be rebuilt with some thickened resin. Not planning on using any glass – don’t want to go down that path of sanding and feathering. Going to leave the pressure dings alone unless they are cracked through. Final step unsure – either a total new hot coat or just an acrylic spray. I’m limited to materials on hand – RR epoxy, don’t want to buy or mess with polyester. Any comments/hints/suggestions? Any idea on how old this board is? Blank is marked 759 – HG - 6-3, that and the tail sticker obviously points to Hamish Graham as the shaper, but not sure when/where. Also the previous owner bought the board used and it served as a dorm room coffee table on milk crates (explains the lovely pressure dings) through college, proving that higher education doesn’t always lead to higher intelligence. Not to point fingers, as I once (in my early very ignorant years of surfing) repaired a bad rail crack with my wife’s hot glue gun. Sorry to make you spit out your beer again. Any comments, feedback and/or suggestions appreciated.
A Hamish G channel bottom Byrne? And you’re going to fill it in? No, no, no…
Put it somewhere cool so it won’t be overheated and wait a few years and it will
be worth tripple or more that what you paid for it. Hamish is still alive and shaping
here in Cali but these boards are the new collectors edition. Fins glassed on too!!!
If you want to muck with it, just patch the dings with normal resin and cloth and don’t
worry about matching the color, the repairs will fade into the board if you know what
your’e doing. Please don’t modify this board. Too many of these are in the landfill as
it is. Mick surfed a channel bottom at JBay so these designs are timeless… Just my 2 c…
Made in Santa Barbara. Late 80s/early 90s. Get some poly resin and fix the dings properly.
Join the “Vintage Surfboard Collectors” group on facebook.
Jost some pics there. If you got this for 20 dollars surely its worth getting it professioally fixed, cause its a really nice example of an 80’s channel bottom.
I have repaired plenty of old pu/pe boards with RR epoxy, never had a problem. But I always use fiberglass and sand/feather too, why wouldn’t you?
That board is a beauty. Please don’t mess with it too much. My feeling is that if you are going to be fixing the dings you need to be using fibreglass and Polyester resin.
Hey thanks for the great feedback, yes no worries - no bondo, lol. My goal is minimal repair to make it watertight and avoid messing up any artwork. That’s why I don’t want to get into glassing because it would require lots of sanding to feather the repair area, glass, more sanding flat, top coating, more sanding - I’m just seeing that mushroom into a big mess. Plus the existing glass job on the bottom (where most of the dings are) is very thin and brittle. Instead I just want to mix up some resin and milled fiber to get some thickness w/o becoming white, then filling in the repair areas. I’m going to tape off the edges too to keep things contained and neat. They are all pretty small (see sample pic below). Any reason why epoxy is a bad choice here? I’m thinking maybe 1 oz tops to do all the repairs. Then maybe a coat of clear spray acrylic to seal any cracks and I’m done. Thanks for the vintage surboard links, did some googlin, wow lots of great boards there. I promise I’ll be carefull. No bondo.
I guess everyone has their own ways. I have repaired a lot of old poly boards with RR epoxy and never had any issues, but poly resin polishes up shiny-er. I use small pieces of glass cloth for ding repair, always have, it’s never created any problems for me, never mushroomed into a big mess, it’s clear, strong, easy to do and invisible when completed, but to each their own.
OK Huck - compromise - I did use some glass patches - very small less than a quarter in size, but stuck w/ RR. Total material mixed was less than 1 oz, including filler for all the repairs and topcoats. One small bactch was 3 ml, using medicine dropper to measure. Used a dremmel, small sanding block or R/O sander for the sanding depending on what/where. Masked off the repair areas to help keep thing neat, used a plastic baggie taped to the rail to rebuild the tail. Tried my best to match the faded brown - ended up with mostly white, some yellow with some greenish brown mixed, then went back later and rubbed on some brown “stain”. Here some pics of the repair in progress:
So it was sand, tape off, fill, glass (where needed), topcoat, sand, then went over the whole board w/ 220, and a final coat of acrylic. Here’s the final results, hopefully this is an improvment:
Looks good to me!
wow looks epic!
Really? I have one in my garage, it’s pretty beat to shit and doesn’t have the channels. Think it’s still worth something?
You are to be commended.
Great repair with a stunning outcome.
Thanks for sharing the process .