hello again,
I damaged my center fin as you guys can see in the pictures(first time fin destruction). I have fixed all my rail dings, done tail dings, nose dings, repairs on the bottom, you get the picture, but never a full fin box repair. it does look like the plugs will need to be replaced. my question is, how difficult is this project? what would the price range to fix a repair like this? San Francisco ding repairs tend to be pretty steep so I want to determine if I can tackle this job. thanks again for all of your advice.
How’d you get get a sideways hit of that magnitude that only affected the trailing fin. Not a difficult repair in the right hands. I’d probably put in a FCS fusion plug.
This would be very difficult for a noob to get right. I’d guess here in Hawaii that repair would cost about $75
i was ending my ride and just as I was going over the lip the wave snagged me backwards, I slung behind the wave and the board must have directly hit bottom or a rock. bites are both intact.
Bud is dead on with the estimate. It is about $40 a plug for the old style FCS like you got. Most repair shops will remove the old plugs, fill the holes with foam or Q-cell mix and replace it with a fusion center fin plug. The actual work is not that hard if you got the Fusion jig / router for this. Is that board a thruster set up? That center fin looks a bit long for a thruster set up. If so I recommend perhaps using a center fin box 8.5" or 10.5" type and replacing the center fin also. This will depend on the thickness of the tail. This will make your board a 2+1 set up.
With the fin in do you feel play or movement in the plugs from side to side? If not; the cheap fix is
to sand the area around the plugs and overlay with a six ounce football patch. Tape off the slot and screw hole or use flour packed in them to insure that resin doesn’t seep in. Q-cell any indentations. Hotcoat and sand. Otherwise take a hole saw to them and remove the plugs and reinstall two new ones with 1/32 milled fiber. The alternative is a Fusion box, which can be installed the “hard way” by tracing the plug onto the glass and cutting/digging the foam out with a Stanley knife
Unless you are really talented, creative and frugal, take it to someone who knows what they are doing and already has the tools for the job. To do it right yourself you will likely wind up spending more in the long run.
It’s a $200 repair on a $200 surfboard…total blow out !
One month rent in San Fran? About $2000 - $6000
So before we go too crazy fixing a 15 year old board let’s get our life in order…
Popped the kernels, added some 99 cent junior mints and stayed frugal. I fixed my own board and now I have enough cash saved to buy 3 x $20 boards. thanks everyone
after calling a few places, the price range was a little out of my budget. Living in S.F the price for EVERYTHING substantially goes up. Someone quoted me as high as $160 (80 per plug), said forget it. I said phuck it, let me give this a crack. What I did was cut all the loose glass and foam that had been completely damaged and shaped the area as square as possible. the plugs came loose after I removed the surrounding foam and glass. I sanded everything inside including the plugs and cleaned it up. Made a paper outline of the area and sahaped a piece of foam I had left from an old board. made a Q-cell mixture and filled the bottom layer and positioned the plugs, inserted the foam snug and filled it more with the q-cell and resin. let that dry overnight and layered it with two pieces of 4oz cloth. it is ugly but I think it worked. when I get home I will sand it down and do a hot coat. I had to rush to work this morning and pretty busy at work . what do you guys think?
Good on you for going down the DIY route, the more times you do it, the better you get. Just an observation though, with centre fins, I think the practice is to put the screw holes of each plug on opposite sides, so you don’t have pressure being exerted on the fins from only one side. Don’t know how this will effect the long term viability of your repair, only time will tell I guess…
Nice job man! Looks like it’s gonna work. Don’t get too hung up on how it looks at the moment. The main thing is that it’s water-tight, light and strong.
I think this is how a lot of us here ended up making surfboards. I used to smash my boards up so much that I basically had to learn how to fix them myself as a financial necessity. Doing this kind of work you’ll really get a feel for working with surfboard materials. The one advantage you have these days is that there is so much information online about fixing and making surfboards. This didn’t exist when I started. There was a lot of trial and error for me!
If it wasn’t for forums like this and people who really care about other surfers I would have never build the courage to do it myself. One thing that I learned about the whole process is that I need to be a little more organized and patient. I should have shaped the mold a little thicker and begin sanding off the extra foam in order to try and match the surrounding layer. the repair area reminds me of jello fruit salad. I guess it is a nice reminder for the next time I have to do ding repairs. I am sure you will be hearing from me in the near future.
