Can anyone tell me the proper technique to place and glass a hawaiian print cloth on a surfboard? I’ve been told so many different things that I would like to have at least two that are the same! After shaping do I glass the bottom of the board first prior to installing the cloth inlay on the top? Does the print cloth go between the two layers of glass cloth or directly on the foam? Can suncure be used? Thanks for any information that can be provided.
Glass the bottom first. Cloth inlay goes directly on the foam. IMPORTANT: Use only cotton, silk, or cotton/silk blends. Synthetics melt in contact with poly resin. Sun cure will work with cloth inlays.
Yep Thrailkll is right.
Tape a line on the deck for a cutlap then lam the bottom and cut the lap when its cured.
Tape the glassed edge of the cutlap on the deck then lam the inlay on.
Cut the inlay along the tapeline. You will then have a butt joint between the cutlap and the inlay.
I suggest basting the join between the cutlap and inlay so you dont get any airbubbles when you lam the deck
If your using sun cure resin, it wont take long.
Use sanding resin for this as it sands easier
When that has cured, lightly sand.
Lam the deck as normal then hot coat and sand
After sanding you can do a pinline to cover the join then seal as you wish
Either spray finish or gloss coat
Cheers
Thanks for the information, I really appreciate it. Any other helpful ideas will be appreciated. I can't wait to try it.
mfsurboards
Inlay is really unlimited. I go through JOANN’s Fabric Store and skim through the cloth. Here’s one of the cloths I found that worked out pretty well. As Bill Thrakill say’s be careful of the cloth you choose. This was cotton.
Kind regards,
surfding
Mike, that's killer!!!
Thanks Resinhead
Had to do a double pinline to hide the lap.
Kind regards,
Michael AKA surfding
Howzit surfding, I used to buy all my cloth for inlays at Wal-Mart, and in Hawaii they have so much aloha print cloth you have a hard time picking which one you want. Not sure where you live but if there ia a Wal-Mart nearby go there and check what they have, they usually have a good selection at a great price. Aloha,Kokua
Howzit Bill, I used to do the inlay on the deck and then when I galssed the bottom I would just free lap past the cloth edges, Worked pretty good and the way you do it is the other way to do it also since I have done it that way to. Aloha,Kokua
Ya, but what nice pin lines you did. I’m still so far off from getting a clean line like that. How about some help with doing that super clean pin line to finish the job right?
Pinlines help to hide sloppy work.
Kind regards,
surfding
…vintage fabric; work done the way Kokua say
deck color is tanned not foam color; custom fin to match
Reverb
Nice work , looks really clean. Your boards are always impressive.
Pity about the leggie plug though, maybe a loop would be a better look ?
Cheers
Mooneemick
…hello Mooneemick, thanks for your words. I appreciate it.
yes, may be with a loop looks better
Those plugs are the deeper ones, I don t see them anymore or known who sells them
When you inlay fabrics can you still see the texture? Like, would a silk inlay have a sheen look or a thin pile a mat look? Or would velvet look like a wet dog? Pendleton Woolen Mills in Portland has nice vintage plaids that would go with today’s trend but I don’t know how virgin wool reacts. Corduroy might look cool too.
I realize that ideally the fabric should go directly on the foam, but I have a beater board that I'm planning to rehab. I was wondering if I could rough sand and put fabric between the old glass and a new layer of glass. Is this begging for delamination? Since the board a beater, I'm not too concerned with the added weight of an extra layer of glass.
Thanks,
Ray
The only help we can offer you is that you E-A-R-N being able to pinline like that. But here’s a smidge of info for insight: the narrower the tape the harder it is to ‘feel’ the curve you are pulling. Wider is easier but you can’t bend wide tapes when taping for deck insets (reverse of taping for an overlap from the bottom). Different grades of tape bend and stick better than others. Some are aggressive stick and handle high temps, and some are pure crap. If you do resin pins you have to develop timing to get a great job, and if you use cobalt you might poison yourself.
I suggest you use acrylics for your first pinlines and never use the cobalt…don’t forget to have fun! 
P.S. Reverb… that’s bitchen work… luv the matching skeg! A leash hole thru the box mighta been a better call?
Reverb the fabric in the fin is a nice touch. Your are truly an artist!
Kind regards,
surfding
…Hello Surfding, thank you for your kind words
DS, I really do not like put a hole in the box; avoiding possible major repairs.
looks better but I do not do that way; plus, the owner didn t mind about it.
Hi Guys,
Does anyone know if I can glass in 100% polyester on my board? Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers