I have a 8’2" mal i built a few years ago. its been laid up and borrowed and abused over the years.
The other day i cleaned it down (properly) for the first time in over a year
Ive found the deck to have some issues, the glass appears to have cracked along the stringer in some places due to pressue dings, some water has entered and the foam is a little coloured, Its a very light milky coffee colour, not brown or rotted looking.
Just wondering on the best way to repair?
the area affected is about 4-5ft x 18" (board is 8’2" x 22.5 x 3)
There is no apparent major delamination and glass is still stiff all over the area. Im guessing its best to cut out the glass above the discoloured area, sand the foam back a little and fill and re-glass?
Or
would it be safe enough to sand back to the cloth and install a new layer of glass over the top and maybe add in an extra stomp pad for durability?
Fin box also looks to have a few spider cracks and some water ingress too. im expecting this to be a tricky repair but cant find much info on it.
Either way ill be extending the deck repair to wrap the rails and tail to sure up some previous dings and giving the entire board a new hot coat to make sure everything is sealed up good after the repair jobs.
Ill try and get some pics up of what im talking about when i get home.
hi from wales, try sanding the whole deck taking off the old sand coat include the rails if needed and re cover with either 2 or 4oz mat, hot coat sand back and re gloss as you like. this hopefully will save alot of time dealing with each individual crack or delam, ive used this method a few times and it adds a little weight but not enough to drastically change the ride. hope this will help.
My repair plan for the deck is it just sand it back to cloth, fill any major delams i find once that far then glass a sheet of 6oz over the top and rails.
For the fin/tail not sure on best thing to do to be honest
thinkning best thing might be to take the glass off around the box and all the way to the tail. Then glass in a layer or 2 of 4oz to make up the difference and wrap the tail and hopefully keep strength around the fin box. Im not sure if this is good idea as i know it could seriously weaken the fin area,
Or would the same method for the deck work here but use lighter glass?
Don’t cut out any glass that is still bonded to the foam! First make sure that there’s no water in the damaged areas. Get a grit barrel (coarse) in a dremel tool and grind out the cracks. If they’re just in the hotcoat, hit them with styrene and fill with clear resin. If they go down to the foam, use a resin/cabosil filler, and laminate cloth. On the finbox, first check to see if it’s loose. If not, grind out the cracks in the front, and prep sand 4" all around. Fill the cracks. Mask the slot and lam a piece of 4 oz over it. Do the same for the cracks along the stringer. Forget about the water stains - they’re in the foam; if it’s not delaminated, it will look worst if you cut off the glass. Know when to limit the time/material investment in an old board; it often is faster and more economical to make a new one.
hi, all id do on the bottom is cut away all delamed glass in the tail area, patch up each area separately and possibly add a 4oz patch over the area hot coat and sand and polish as needed. regards
