Hello all, First, I am amazed at how much you can learn from past discussions. I am doing great small repair work now and kind of smile at my previous, really bad attempts. My latest project is restoring a 67 Mickey Munoz Classic Surfrider&. The board is in overall great shape but it has some cracks and holes that need to be filled (all on the rails). I must admit that some of the discussion threads have me a bit confused and I am not sure if what I have done so far is right after rechecking. What I have done is filled the holes with a cabosil/bubbles mix and sanded to 220. The boards original color is tinted (color in the glosscoat a light sea green. What is the best way to color match the repairs - if repairs are done correctly. Do I tint a glosscoat, should I acrylic paint the repairs and then apply a clear glosscoat, or should I glosscoat the repairs and then paint (tinted automotive paint) over top? My main concern is blending the bright white repairs away correctly. Also some pinlines were removed during the repairs. I have a pretty good grasp on how to do them but when should they be added during the above process. I am guessing that major work like tinting the whole board darker may work and surely an opaque job would do it but I would really like to stay as close to the original specs as possible by not adding weight, or by making a complete color change. Thank, Herb Bean
Hey, Herb- Your best bet is this - cut out any thrashed foam under the tinted laminate, then fill so that as much as possible of the original glass is saved and remains on top. I find that works, and what little filler shows will be acceptable. Okay, so you threw away the old laminate, just cut it out. Ut-oh… But, you can salvage it. Use some light cloth, say 4 oz, and tint the resin you use with that to as close as you can come to the original. Carefully, sand it so the edges only slightly overlap the original glassing. Then, go over the whole repair with heavier glass and clear resin. The thing is, hotcoat and such are never perfectly uniform thickness so the color always looks blotchy. Couple of other restoration/repair tricks for older boards- They are always at least faintly brown…so, when making your filler, a few grains of instant coffee in the resin will give you that off-white color you’re looking for. Whenever possible, save as much as you can of the original glassing and, taping it so it comes Real Close to your final shape, fill behind it, then glass over it. Closest you are gonna come to a color match is…the original color. So, go with the original glass. Hope that’s of use doc…
Doc, Great tips - I’ve printed and added 'em to my file. Mahalo, Herb Bean
Y’know, it occurred to me after I wrote the above that the pale sea green tint might be something you could reproduce with Volan-treated fiberglass cloth, though as I haven’t seen the board I couldn’t tell. Most 10 oz cloth I’ve run across has the Volan treatment, so mebbe a quick trial lamination on top of a piece of white scrap might give you a real quick and easy way to get your pale green tint. Hope that’s of use doc…
my girlfriend paints with acrylic. the kind you get in the art store.when she came home to find me in the kitchen with a rather large nose patch on her longboard I asked her to match the color she painted rite on the new foam and it looks perfect even up close and the bond seems good… it was a three color job.
TJ, Were her original color(s) on the foam or tinted into the gloss coat as mine are? I now hoping I could follow a path similiar to what you’re saying by being able to paint my present repairs (which are bright white) to match the original gloss coat color. Then glossing clear. Also, do you know if you can tint resin (my gloss coat) with acrylic paints? I searched that topic but didn’t find anything. I got tints from FiberGlass Supply but they really do not have a great selection. Their yellow is more a mustard, etc. Maybe my direction could be matching the color in this direction. Thanks, Herb
her glass job was a tinted originally, before the wreck…we painted the foam and mixed color on the foam until we got a perfect match. then I glassed 10oz. …Hi, “painter” here… yeah, we read somewhere that you can paint foam with acryclics, so we gave it a shot. you have a great range of flexibility with colors this way because you can mix colors on a palate and don’t have to worry about the dry time you would be worrying over with the resin. the only imperfection was that when the resin dries, it adds a tiny bit of yellow (strange, but true) to the hue of the acrylic paints. But the overall effect is great. it’s been 5 months, lots of surfing and UV and the color looks great. As far as mixing acrylics with resin, we haven’t tried it, but my guess would be that it doesn’t work. but who knows? practice on a scrap and see what happens.
Hi Herb, I haven’t used acrylics mixed in resins ( as the acrylic art paints I’m familiar with incorporate water in there - leastwise you can thin 'em with water ) but… I’ve had good luck with plain old paint store/hardware store pigments, the same stuff they use for custom paint colors. The stuff mixes into resin easily enough, appears ( after several years) to have no effect on strength or adhesion and can be had for a sixpack to the kid who works in the store if you bring your own containers ( baby food jars are ideal) and are reasonably cool about it all. What’s more, the color cards they have with directions for the paint mixer( where you see things like ‘Peruvian Blue - base#47, 3L 2B 1P’ ) give you an idea of ratios of pigments to use for a given tint/color. hope that’s of use doc…
Herb Bean
And a happy Hogmanay to you and everyone else here… doc…
Hey Herb, One trick I use to blend a ding repair is to use a combination of colored tint in a granular suger resin mix(thanks Jim P). I do this first to match the foam color of the old board. Then I use a little tint in the glass lam repair, to finish any other color match needed. If this isn’t invisible enough I then lightly spray / fog a little acrlic paint to blend the whole thing. Use a fine tip with fairly thinned out paint. Just fog enough to blend the edges of the ding. Gloss and polish. It’s a lot of work but it’s good for old classic boards. -Jay
Jay, It sounds so funny using sugar but darn, it makes all the sense in the world since it will give it the natural sparkle that would be missing. Thanks, Herb B.