I don’t want to offend the purists out there with the mere mention of my board, but I got an epoxy noserider that needs help. After a steep take off and subsequent short trip into a sand-bar, my board seems to have ‘buckled’ a bit. On one rail, some of the paint has come off and a 4 inch x 1/2 inch area has paint that appears to have bubbled-up (though hasn’t come off all together). The epoxy underneath seems to be OK, but not 100% sure. This is my first epoxy repair and I have NO shops with epoxy experience anywhere near me (living in rural Japan). I’m on my own for this one so PLEASE HELP! Mahalo Michael in Kochi (JAPAN)
I advised a guy on this once and got an unpleasant surprise; is this a plastic covered board, with some sort of vinyl coating over the epoxy/glass? Some are, especially the molded varieties sold outside the US and made by the same people in Thailand who mold the surftechs. If so, probably easiest and best to leave it be or track down the factory rep some of them have training in how to fix the things. . Otherwise sand and do as you would with a conventional board, just using epoxy in place of resin. hope that’s of use doc http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Cheilopogon&speciesname=melanurus
Doc. I repaired a snapped 10’ “Southpoint” longboard not so long ago. It was one of those plastic / vinyl covered ones.I e-maild the manufacturer and they said epoxy will bond to the plastic with no problems.I was’nt entirely convinced so I ground it all off in the area I wanted to re glass.These boards are glassed with chopped strand matt.There is some other glass also on the bottom, could be uni’s but it was hard to tell with the choppie over it.David.
Hi David, As another local ding guy said when confronted with one of the more flogged Weber Performers on the face of the earth ( and a customer who wanted it restored to ‘pristine’ condition after he’d dug it out of a hurricane disaster site ) ; “Nice board ya got there, Johnny. Do me a favor and burn it” . To be honest, if I have to spend a bunch of time grinding away the vinyl to repair a board that’s glassed with matting ( as were all the popouts back in the day ) and using epoxy and so on and so on… which is gonna run into some pretty good money by the time it’s all said and done… I wonder if I’m doing the guy any favors not telling him to just duct tape it and look for a new board, 'cos this one wasn’t gonna last very long and wasn’t very good to start with. I haven’t gotten into the innards of one of the molded things ( and don’t want to ) but if they are all made that cheaply I have to wonder how well the thing is gonna last anyhow and how much work is really justified before giving it up. Or, as my late father used to say; “You can polish all ya want, but ya can’t get a shine on shite” doc…
Doc. I pondered those same questions, and after telling the guy what he was up against,he still wanted to go ahead with the repair.I told him that I had not repaired a snapped, moulded epoxy board yet and he said,“you can use this one to experiment on”. He was going to use it as a second board and it would be cheaper than buing a new one.So how could I refuse.I was up front with him and he was with me.David.
There ya go - can’t be more up front about it than that and even if it doesn’t turn out well you have a customer for life. doc…