CI Single Fin Ding?

General Discussion
1

Aloha,

I just bought a CI single fin (6’9") and had a chance to ride it twice, once in Jalama and another time just south of San Francisco. Great board, love the glide. I returned to Oahu and began taking off the wax to put on warm water wax when I noticed three very distinct heel ding right next to the stringer. Each heel dent has a circular crack through the glass with a crack in the glass running parallel to the stringer. I have been told to use the fingernail test to see if the crack is above the surface. My nail definitely catches on these heel dents. My question is if I need to make repairs and if so, what is the suggested course of action. Also is it odd to have such massive heel dents from two pretty mellow sessions? Especially onces that crack through the glass? I am 175 pounds.

mahalo

2

Hey

Take what you want and forget the rest.

First of all, you should laminate a small circle of glass over each of the dents, to waterseal and also to improve it’s structural strength.

Those “heel” dents are probably dents caused by your knees when you go to stand up. This part you can forget. Place your heel right at the dent, and you will probably not be lined up to turn the board, ride the board, or even close. When I human being is laying down, and goes to stand up on a surfboard, they use their two hands, yes, and also the tops of both their knees. In the old daze, the wetsuits would wear out right at the spot, top of the kneecap, from standing up.

Believe it or not, I don’t care either.

3

Aloha Bagus I fix bad pressure dings with resin and some cabasil or thickener just sand well and use a plastic squegee to flush out the dent so its flush and put a layer of 4oz over it . If I get a new board I know is a keeper and it starts denting I will add a tailpatch after I fix all the dents, this helps.

4

kirks got the right idea. i would do the same thing. Austin S.

5

Don’t listen to those guys, I have been doing ding repair for a long time and here is what you need to do. Shove some wax in there and get back out there.

6

I tried to take some pics of the dings, but they didn’t really come out. The dings are all on the tail end of the board about a foot from the tail. They are more than just heel dents, they are pretty much cracks in the glass. I can’t imagine they were made from getting up on the the board and pushing off my knees (I don’t think I even do that). Anyways, I am going to get a second opinion from Jay Rush here on Oahu. Thanks for all the advice so far. Anything I should be concerned with making a repair that close to the stringer?

7

Ok, who knows how the dings got there… I never ask how somebody dinged their board, as it’s generally as embarassing as how my boards get dinged - in any event, what Lee has suggested is the right way to go about it - and I’ll go into a little more detail-

Remove all the wax from the area, including washing it with the wax remover you like; I generally use acetone. Use a white, clean cloth rag for this, many cloth dyes are soluble in acetone which can give you a lovely bit of color in the cracks that you really may not want. You may have to get those last little bits or film of wax out of the cracks too - depends on how fanatic you are about it.

Okay, now sand 'em lightly with some medium-coarse paper, say 80-100 grit. This will get that last nagging bit of wax off, plus give you something the new cloth and resin will bond to. Remove all the dust - that cloth rag, dampened with acetone, is good for this.

Cut some pieces of light cloth, 4-6 oz, oversize for the dents so that you have maybe a half inch lap on all sides. Use a throwaway chip bristle brush to paint 'em down with sanding resin. Let the resin pool in the circular depressions and go kinda light on the edges, so you’ve got a fairly level pool of resin in the middle that’s maybe a little higher than the deck of the board. Let that harden.

Okay, now, get your 100 grit out and sand so it’s all flush and smooth to the deck of the board. Mask around your sanded areas, thin your sanding resin just a touch with acetone or a little styrene if you have it, or go nuts and buy a little glossing resin and use that. Paint it on lightly and thin , try to avoid leaving brush marks - in painter’s terms, use a wet brush and very little pressure. Oh, and do yourself a favor - you’ll be using another throwaway chip brush for this, take a plastic cheapo comb and use the fine teeth on that chip brush to get out the really loose bristles - no fun when they suddenly appear in your gloss and you gotta get 'em out.

Awright, when the gloss is just barely starting to kick, pull the masking tape around it. This can sometimes let the edges of your gloss ‘collapse’ and you may not need to sand 'em - your call there. You can sand 'em lightly with various grades of wet and dry, all the way down to 600, followed by polishing…though for a deck, with wax on it, that’s kinda overkill.

Yeah, you could just sand lightly, put in filler and call it a day, but I find that those tend to crack out eventually at the edges plus the filler is only translucent - you see this cloudy area - if you do it well with resin, glass and such, it’s invisible and it won’t crack out on ya. Repairs close to the stringer- nah, not really an issue. You got cloth in there to deal with strength, shouldn’t be any problema.

hope that’s of use

doc…

8

Doc,

Thanks very much for your thoughtful and detailed explanation. I will roll up my sleeves and give it a go this weekend. Swaylocks rocks! I really appreciate all the great information found on these archives and responses to questions.

mahalo

9

de nada, man. Though next time you might want to spec. heavier glassing if you can. As was mentioned, if this continues to be an issue, I’d think about sanding the last third of the board and putting a deck patch on there.

hope that’s of use

doc…