For those of you who saw it in the “Show us your Color” thread, this is my batboard - I just finished it yesterday and managed to take it out for a surf same day. It had been roughly 24 hours since I applied the hotcoat (maybe a little less) and I sanded it down right before I went out - epoxy wasn’t tacky or anything weird and sanded just fine. I did have a couple little bubbles I sanded through accidentally and filled with resin just so I could go out real quick, but I’m sure they were watertight. You can see in the first photo the board finished with the hotcoat perfectly clear - however, after I got it out in the water I noticed that in spots all around the board the clear coat was turning white! I had assumed this might be condensation from moisture being trapped in the board (I fear I maybe should have waited one more day for the spackle to dry better), however they aren’t really going away. The board isn’t gaining any noticable weight so I don’t think it’s sucking water through pinholes or anything, but I don’t know for sure - this is my first epoxy board to ever have this problem.
What I think it is: Moisture from the spackle trapped in the board
What I’m scared it is: Pinholes that I somehow overlooked sucking in water
Thoughts?
In this one you see one of the cloudy spots right above the wax (look closely)
Here’s another shot of the nose where it’s more obvious
A note about that last shot - stupid me forgot to pull the clear film from transferring on this logo and had to pull it out of the hotcoat leaving a low spot which I blended in around the logo - I did not re-seal the logo as I was just dying to get out and surf it - I noticed that this isn’t happening at all where the logo is, this is really having me hope that this is somehow caused by something in the hotcoat and not moisture getting into the board
I would think it is in the hot coat. I have tried the following two things with success,
try and apply heat to see if it goes away, not alot, but as recommended to heat cure epoxy, i.e. hot box. Probably won’t work because I think this only works right away.
sand it off
I had it happen on a blue board, looked perfect before I put it in the water, got out, and had a whitish swirl down the center of the board. For that I had to sand it. On another board it happened right away, and put it in my car to heat cure, came out perfect.
I attached a pdf that recommends the same, although I am not a chemist. Has some pretty good recommendations at the end.
One of the many reasons I abandoned epoxy and went back to poly. Years ago I finished an epoxy glass job over color work. Final coat of resin went on the day before. Resin cured overnight and I had just finished polishing the board and gone outside and ran into my neighbor. He wanted to see the board so I ran in the house to get it. It was 20* out that day. I walked the board outside and down to the neighbor’s house…all of 50 yards. That quickly the glass job on my polished finished board went from perfect to milky as I guess the resin was shocked by the cold and caused some sort of reaction.
The final straw with that resin was a red tint job that looked perfect until the board was in direct sunlight for an hour on the beach which turned the board orange. I still have a gallon or more of that resin somewhere that I never finished off.
Pico - all the color was done in the lam using pigment in the epoxy - not much either, just enough to get a slightly translucent light grey. You can tell it’s on the top layer, so I’m thinking the general consensus is my impatient ass couldn’t wait one more day to surf the thing. Makes sense, it was less than an hour from finish sanding to surfing - the red board which didn’t have this issue had been pau for the whole day
If you live on the mainland USA order some greeen room epoxy and get the blue jug resin with west coast fast hardener for your “final coat” or “gloss coat”. Those pics look sketchy??? The images give an impression to me that a teribble final sand and polish occured. Possibly a sh!tty pre final coat sand occured. There is no hurry even with a huge swell. Do it right the first time. Have never experienced the problems you described with fiberglass hawaii, green room, resin research resins. This is a testimony to giving epoxy glass jobs a bad name. Properly applied epoxy resin glass jobs to me says quality, care, and going the extra mile for duarability with aesthetic pleasing qualities. For all you younger shapers and glassers, this is an occurance that has never, as in nevvvvver, happening to the majority of epoxy resin glassers. Epoxy resin is wonderful.
Actually the board is ralph steadman themed and therefore intentionally looks rough. The final sanding was just a quick blasting so I could get in the water. I’m only living in Hawaii for two more weeks, after which I’ll be living in colorado - so finishing quickly to surf it as much as possible was a priority… That said, I’m confident it had absolutely nothing to do with sanding and everything to do with the fact that it was surfed within less than 24 hours of the final epoxy coat being applied. This was indeed FH epoxy, like I said it didn’t happen on the other board which was finished a whole day before this one - I feel pretty confident based on the mutual experience of everyone else in here that I disrupted the curing process by hitting it with very cold water (water has been around 60f here lately) far too soon.
Another member pointed out to me in a PM that most people say let Epoxy set for up to a week prior to surfing it or exposing it to extreme temperature changes.
The water temp is over 70 all year round here. It is currenlty warmer than the air during dawn patrols and feels deliciously warm for 30 seconds. Are not FGH cure times factored at 70F??? Your bottom pic I swear I see a tape line on the rail. After your lam and then filler coat you sand your board and final coat it. Any blemishes should be obvious at this point. If the epoxy is cured enough to sand it is cured enough to surf. You mention so many variables that say it can’t be the epoxy product. The take away for me is why hurry? Aren’t YOU the most important customer you build for?
Nope, no tape line - that’s sanded completely flush but the bottom coat didn’t do this at all, so that’s merely where the deck hotcoat ends and the base hotcoat begins - anywhere the deck turned white stops abruptly where the hotcoat stopped (so yeah, technically it’s a tape line but not in the way you’re thinking).
Another factor to consider - the deck was the bottom of a jug of epoxy, the base was a brand new, unopened jug.
As for water temp, I’m not sure which island you’re on but the water in upper-west maui has been consistently sub-65. I have a thermometer on my watch that’s incredibly accurate and when I’m doing lessons it’s submerged most of the time, so it’s a pretty cold-watered winter this year.
And again, the hurry lies in the fact that I’m moving to colorado in two weeks, and I have three more boards in various stages to complete before I go - there won’t be many opportunities to go surf for me.
Used the bottom of the jugs of FGH for 20+ years. Never had an issue. Seriously consider the three fingers poiting back at you as the culprit. My 55 gallon drum of RR had about 12 gallons of sediment that I didn’t realize until using gallon 30. Never noticed a differernce either. Surface water temps in Hawaii is stone cold fact so look them up. To be splitting hairs regarding water temp is weird. Try to do a better job next time. Throw away the spackle, fill holes in glass job, make water tight boards. IF surfing is your goal then stop building them and just surf with the board you have or borrow one. The next few days are goig to be fantastic for surf. Build boards on Thursday when the winds will be nuking. What a wonderful learning opporunity for you with this build.
Wait, I’m sorry are you arguing water Temps with me based on average temps? Those fluctuate dude. I teach surf lessons every day, im in the water every day. I know the temp. If you don’t live here you have no ground to stand on with regards to that.
I’m not looking for someone to blame, I’m trying to determine what happened so I can avoid it in the future. Your contribution to the thread is appreciated, don’t cross into troll territory
