double checking

General Discussion
1

Hi,

Today I have started my first ever full surfboard restoration and I just want to double check on some points to avoid mess ups later in the process.

  1. When grinding down the glass, the bottom line is to only grind away the surface coat and stop grinding once I get to the glass cloth, right? How important is it to really only grind away the hot coat and to stop at the cloth? I am trying to grind as accurately as I can but I notice that in places I take away a bit of the cloth accidentally and in other places the cloth is a little deeper - in a “ditch” so to speak - and I can’t really get to them with the grinder. Is it important that I really catch all the spots that are a little deeper and remove the entire hot coat down to the glass cloth? And on the other side, do I need to put a patch of glass cloth on all the spots where I have ground a little into the glass?

  2. The plan is to give almost the entire board a pigment job. After I have taken off the hotcoat, all I have to do is to apply the pigmented resin on top of the ground down surface and then put a gloss coat on top of that, correct?

Thanks,

Nord

2

Nord,

Not sure exactly what you’re up to, and I certainly haven’t done anything like that before.

But my best guess is that your first priority would be to maintain a smooth surface, regardless of whether you make it down to the glass or not. In fact, I’m not even sure if you should be exposing the glass at all. Any variations in resin thickness can show up as color variations in the resin job, depending on how opaque you make the resin, so I definitely wouldn’t go grinding into any “ditches.”

Just sand it down a bit and start with the pigmented resin. You won’t be creating the world’s most lightweight surfboard, but I don’t think that’s your objective, is it?

There are some real restoration experts in this forum, so perhaps someone will chime in with a better approach than the one you’re on.

Good luck and post some pictures of your progress.

3

Hi Nord -

If the board has a surface like a golfball and you are going to do an opaque pigment, you might consider filling in those ditches with a resin/cabosil mixture to save a little weight. Sand everything smooth so you have a fair surface. Consider it “bodywork” on the board before the color coat.

On your final prep sand before the color coat, wear gloves and use fresh non-stearated sandpaper. I’ve seen some nice initial color coats go haywire with fisheyes in the presence of contaminants. Make sure there is no wax residue or greasy grimy paw prints from your hands.

Another trick is to use a cobalt accelerator in the color coat to kick it off before it has a chance to run off the board and expose your repairs and filler.

You don’t need to sand down to the glass… just rough it up for a good bond with the pigment coat. Light sand the pigment coat and acetone wipe before final gloss.

4

Thanks to both of you. I wish I had asked earlier. I spent several hours today grinding away when apparenty all I would have had to do was sand the glass lightly. Oh well, it’s good to know for tomorrow, hehe.

Nord