So I bought this in SD last month, of course within 2 hours of buying it some asshole drops in on me and puts a spider crack in the rail. Have to get out, wait a day for it to dry (it had water in it) then fix it.
6’1" Energy Quad, 2lb EPS, 4x4x4x4
Surfed it for the 1st week of Dec then tossed it in my DaKine board bag and flew back to NY. I was freaking out about having glass on fins and taking it on the plane. I made absolutely sure there were no issues with it before I put it in the bag. I wrapped the bottom with bubble wrap and my wetsuit inside of the bag. Then I used electrical tape around the bottom of the bag so the velcro didn’t come undone.
Get home, look it over and what happened - the airlines damaged it. They managed to crack one of my glass-on fins and chipped one of the swallows. They got the bag wet some how so water got into the crack on the fin.
I’m pretty sure the water is out of the crack now, it’s had about 3 weeks to dry.
My question is, can I just use epoxy Solarez on the fin crack? Or do I need to have someone re-glass the fin? The crack is only about 1/8" exposed, but you can see it runs the inside length of the fin.
Mate I have an epoxy board and any small ding's or repairs I get myself epoxy base superglue give it a lite rub back
and so the glue will grab the surface inject to fill cracks, let it dry, rub till smooth.
With the fin where is it damaged leading edge or base if leading edge inject glue into the fin than clamp it to close it leave for a couple of hours,if the base, open crack at base inject the glue in than reposition with force and leave o/night.
These are the cheapest way’s to repair an epoxy board.
It depends on how bad the crack is, the super glue will work if it’s tiny but chances are it will need to be re-glassed, one side can be repaired if the crack hasn’t weakened the fin, that will save the cost and effort of removing and re-attaching the it. If the fins were glassed on with polyester I would have it re-done either way.
I used to dread doing quad/twinzer repairs when the fins were set that close together.
with poly, i sand out the cracked rovings with a bastard file & then paper, completely, so that no shattered or cracked glass is left. then i replace it with new rovings & a couple layers of cloth. sand, hotcoat, wet & dry. finished.
i can’t see it being any different with epoxy, but maybe i’m wrong. i’m an epoxy kook.
I should explain better where the crack is - if the board is facing bottom up, it’s the left inner fin. The crack is on the inside of the larger one, so that may make my life a lot easier since it’s not between the 2.
You can kind of see it in the picture I attached. In the red circle the white area is where the exposed part is and then the red line is where you can see a crack run under the glass.
Oldy’s got it right. You are going to be playing with it every now and then unless you do it right the first time. You will find that by doing it his way, it is going to cost you less time in the long run. I had a boss that use to say “how come there is never enough time to do it right, but there is always time to do it over”
That’s not a terrible spot. Like Oldy said, sand out the cracked roving until you have a clean joint. Squeak some resin under the fin, and then lay in some wet roving & i’d put a little football shaped patch over it & about 2" up the fin & 2" onto the board.
The good thing is you don’t have to mess with tape or clamps - to squeeze it down while it kicks, wedge a piece of foam or a wooden shim between your inside & outside fins until they look the same as the ones on the right. The intact outside fin will provide a great stop to your wedge to hold the one you’re fixing until its all set up.
They managed to crack one of my glass-on fins and chipped one of the swallows. They got the bag wet some how so water got into the crack on the fin.