After i got feedback on how to approach the repairs to myt board, i went ahead and decided to totally refurbish the board… its an 8’2" egg shape made just for gulf coast waves. basically this is a sand down, fill, re-paint, and re-gloss.
the first question I have before I get into the artwork, is can I paint onto the sand coat then just use like a krylon ultra clear sealer and still get the look of a gloss coat, without having to do a gloss coat (my skills at gloss coating are sub-par to say the least).
heres pics of the work in progress, more will be added as I get more done.
STEP 1: CLEAN IT - scraping off the old wax, tehn use a wax remover to take off the residue.
STEP 2: SAND IT - sanded around the areas in need of repair first as well as the rails, nose and tail (used 220 w/ a random orbital sander)
STEP 3: FIX IT - cleaned out the old broken glass and sanded teh edges of the repair to give is a nice area for the epoxy to adhere to
STEP 4: SAND IT SOME MORE - kept sanding until my back started hurting from leaning over so I sanded partitions into it to give myself break points (the old paint made for a great depth gauge… also using 120 now instead of 220 for teh larger areas)
so thats where im at now… I did have a little hiccup w/ foam-ez. they accidentally sent my poly repair kits instead of epoxy, but 1 quick call and I had my epoxy kit 3 days later at no extra charge. BIG thanks to foam-ez for great customer service. also, if anyone needs a polyester repair kit, I got 1 left that I cant use… free of charge of course, just message me w/ your name/address
STEP 5: CLEAN & PRIME - cleaned first w/ a tack cloth then wipe it down with denatured alcohol. Next, prime the board w/ acrylic laquer car paint. (PPG)
the top turned out a little blotchy (first image of primer), but im covering it over witha white undercoat for the graphics… so oh well…
STEP 6: SAND PRIMER - The primer coat had small bumps from the dust, so i sanded with 400 tehn stepped to 600… smooth as a babys behind. (note: I used a piece of upholstry foam between my hand and the sand paper to even out the pressure and prevent too deep of sanding)
This board is actually a tribute to the car that saved my life… Dont know if you read a previous thread of mine… I was in a nasty car accident thatmessed me up pretty badly, but through a ton of physical therapy I’m getting my balance back and getting back into surfing…
for the color, I went to mazda and got the color code off my car and had a can of PPG mixed for me to make an exact match (Evolution Orange)… here’s the board proposal, and below was the car…
BOARD
CAR
not exactly the car you want to be in when you get in a high speed 5 car pile up… but notice the door reinfocement… that one chunk of metal saved my life.
STEP 7: BASE COAT - painted the base coat white today, tomorrow I will begin taping off for the graphics.
I also found a super handy tool if you like FCS plugs… the tape dots you can get at office depot fit perfectly over an FCS plug… same diameter and they stick really well so paint wont seep under them.
any input on the graphics? I was kinda shooting for the same paint scheme that they put down the middle of miata spec race cars, just a simple race stripe w/ 2 thick lines bordering it, tehn pinstripe the borders. oh, and bottom will be completely orange.
I like masking tape...I'm good with a rattle can...When I do crazy stuff like you're doing I always make sure it does not look like a Costco board. So far you look really good...Not Costco or plastic...I like the orange/white design that you posted...
I have a question for anyone w/ experience using PPG… i have a pack of 1000 and 2000 grit for the top coats… is it better to paint the top coats and just go straight w/ a 2000 wet sand then clear coat and buff? or should I start w/ the 1000? basically, I need to sand down teh dust particles on the white w/o leaving marks and w/o sanding back to the gray primer… i’m having a little bit of a hold up on this being my first time doing this w/ car paint and my extreme fear of screwing up days of work.
edit: I couldnt get a good pic of it, but basically, the white coat is orange peeling, and im afraid that if I sand it, it will leave noticeable swirl marks after I clear coat it… What I want to do is paint white, wet sand, mask off, paint orange, wet sand, clear coat, wet sand, polish… does this sound right?
STEP 8 - COLOR - finished wet sanding the white layer and sprayed down teh first color coat… i might have made a slight miscalculation in the amount of paint I need, I guess ill have to minimize the overspray on the other side so I can get 2 full coats.
STEP 9: TAPE IT OFF - I layed out the graphics in pencil first then taped them off. I had to make a getto-rigged rail banding tool to get the right distance for the outline. and I used some of the plastic sheeting on the wall as the coveing…I just cut myself out a square section to use.
the tape off turned out all right considering my complete lack of the proper tools to do it… I guess that masters degree in architecture was good for something other than sitting around the house looking for minimum wage jobs… -_______-
STEP 10: PAINT IT AGAIN - sprayed down the paint for the top and blended the rails fairly well. the next challenge will be to even out both the top and bottom coats with 10 oz. of paint left.
tomorrow will be re-coat, followed by pinstriping, followed by clear coating and buffing/polishing.
Looking good. I have done many boards with car paint and enjoy the change of medium. You may want to spray a light clear at this point, if you haven’t already, that way if you make a mistake with the pin lines you can wipe it off without worry.
STEP 12: PINSTRIPING & LOGO - put down the pinstripes and logo… I used the sponge brush off the cap pf a bottle of white-out to do the pinstripes… worked out very well.
so, tomorrow ill just finish up the clearcoats and polish up the board.
as a bonus… here’s a list of mistakes I made as kinda a tips list…
1: primer not sanded TOTALLY smooth… caused orange peeling on subsequent coats.
2: did not wait long enough for board to dry FULLY before flipping… it felt smooth, but when I flipped it back, it stuck a little to the racks and pulled up a small piece of paint near the nose (very very small, but still bothers me)
3: did not calibrate spray gun correctly… for a car, 40 psi may be great, but for the board… 25-30 works better with a gravity fed HVLP gun.
4: did not mask off for pinstripes… they look pretty rough, but atleast it gives it a home-made quality to it… I guess ut gives teh board character
5: did not make a double-stick template for the logo… I used masking tape and cut out the logo from a block of tape… the tape stuck to the paint I used and blotched in a few small spots
6: did not clean out the gun between coats and went to get some lunch… came back and the gun was jammed… spent 2 hours cleaning it out
FINALLY FINISHED… thanks to everyone who threw some tips my way and words of encouragement… finally done and polished up… now time to take it for a test drive the next time the surf kicks up.
get some foam...different types of foam.....play around with your new skills...
water based paints......spray gun / airbrush / touch up gun......I spray a lot of cardboard before I paint a surfboard.....Fun Stuff.....................
Scott – that board looks crazy awesome – nice job! I am about to paint a board and I wondered if you had a few tips on how to get such crisp taped off lines. In the past I have had paint run under the tape and it seems to me that it tends to flow with the glassing fabric. The type of tape you use or any other technique tips would be greatly appreciated. Again – great looking paint job.
to get those lines I used 3M’s green automotive tape… its super sticky and then i used my fingernail to press down the edges… just run your finger along the tape with moderate pressure
