I have a 2 year old Epoxy/EPS board that took a big ding. I've cut/cleaned/drained the ding and have added a Q-Cell / Epoxy mix as a filler and filled the gap near the finished level of the board's finished surface. I'm expecting that when I add a couple layers of cloth with this RAKA non-blushing epoxy & hardener I'll end up with a bright white patch on the ding.
1. Is there any tricks to either pigment my epoxy when applying the cloth and final polish resin to match this slight yellow sanded finish board?
2. Can I simply use a polyurathane or acrylic paint added to the resin to get the color then add the hardener mix and apply?
3. Or do I simply cloth it up then airbrush the color to match, seal & finish a call it a day?
I would experament and do some test runs before attacking the board
or do what Ambrose does with his board repares fix them and lable them with the event that left the scar, like little stories of what happend or what the person said to him when they brought it back all banged up,,,,, some funny shit on them boards.
I like the story idea & date idea. A good old sharpie and epoxy it in. Might be a nice touch. I'm living here in AZ now?!?!?! I might have to call around to some boat repair shops to find some tint. I'm not sure where else to look. Anyone online you would point me to?
I found some pigments on www.foamez.com. It looks like these might work. Call it a $15 experiment I guess. Maybe a sharpie and story might be the best idea.
why did you get an EPS board for in the first place? I tell my customers, any color clear you like, it is built for performance, not beauty. fix it, get it water tight, ride it, it is you red badge of courage.
My EPS is ugly, sun cooked, dirty wax, but still water tight and in my car right now for the next good session.
why did you get an EPS board for in the first place? I tell my customers, any color clear you like, it is built for performance, not beauty. fix it, get it water tight, ride it, it is you red badge of courage.
My EPS is ugly, sun cooked, dirty wax, but still water tight and in my car right now for the next good session.
Poly is for pretty
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Hello Fetter.....I'm with Jim on this one....
Do a water tight repair , don't worry too much about the color.....I just fixed one of my custom EPS fish....That board dripped for three days...Yeah...three days sitting in the corner waiting,,,,drip...drip...drip...Got to get the water out first...
I hear you guys. My common sense tells me that any repair I do to match will only fade diferently than the rest of the board anyways. Oh, and speaking of dripping. WOW! I had a very small ding on the nose that I simply sanded to prep for an eopxy layer or 2 and it started sweating?!?!? I leaned the board on a pillow in the corner for a week on it's nose and the board dripped for almost the 8 days! Not much after day 2, but it still left a couple drops on the pillow after 6 days. Crazy. Are those XTR Epoxy boards easier to repair. The claim seems to be they don't take on water when dinged. That would be nice so that you could do a quick patch and continue your session. Unlike draining for 3+ days. Thoughts?
One of the tips I’ve seen on here but never tried is instant coffee mixed with the resin to give it a aged tint look. But again, the board will keep yellowing and the ding won’t match again. It is a badge of courage. Might as well leave it white.
The funny part is it was a buddy's head as I got into him!!! It's the perfect ding for a a cartooned sticker of him or his name with a sharpie in the least. I might play with the instant coffee thing though. Thanks. I'm still intrigued by adding a drop of paint or two to get the color close. Not sure how the so little paint would affect the epoxy though.
You’ve got to get it dry first, check the archives for several methods. Clean out the damage with a sanding barrel in a dremel, this will open it up and also make drying easier. Any water in the repair will cause discoloration as the epoxy exotherms. You do not want to epoxy fill anything deeper than 1/8" or you’ll have bigger color problems when it gets hot. Use polyfoam and 5 min epoxy for plugging any deep intrusions into the blank. Color the filler and use a clear lamination over the repair. To get an “old” look on a clear epoxy, use regular pigment (opaque). Mix a tiny toothpick tip of brown into a slightly larger amount of yellow. Add this to your epoxy filler mix (which will be clear if you use good cabosil) in tiny amounts until you get a match. Make it lighter because it will darken as it cures. If the filler mix gets too dark, add white micro-balloons. Do not use paints to color epoxy. You can use it over cured epoxy (urethanes only) but not mixed with it. All eps foam will get wet; doesn’t matter if it’s extruded or expanded. Some will absorb water, in others water will penetrate into open areas in the foam structure. Either way, the foam is wet where dinged.
Thanks peteC. Good tips. I almost f’d things up today. I used some styrafoam from home depot and some Q-cell mixed with the RAKA epoxy to bind the perfectly cut piece. After 10 minutes I noticed the epoxy was eating away the foam block. I quickly removed the styrafoam block and scraped it to where I started. I guess I need to find some polyfoam. Where do I find it? Isn’t all styrafoam created equal? Help please.
I'm pretty sure it was the heat from the epoxy cure that caused the melting of the foam I will try to use another slow curing epoxy tomorrow. It think it will cure with a lower heat level.