Typically, when I bring a board in for ding repair (edited to clarify: multiple dings) I finish up by sanding the whole board, then rolling a thin coat of epoxy resin. I don’t stop rolling until the resin gels up and gets too tacky to keep rolling. The foam rollers cost about a buck apiece, and I will toss it after I finish rolling.
The video is not too exciting, but I wanted to show how very little resin is used for this final coat, just a little salsa cup full - same process I use when finishing up a glassing job with epoxy resin.
Once it dries I will wetsand starting at 320, and finish to whatever degree I feel motivated.
The board is 4 years old, and its got a little mileage on it, as a daily driver in often crowded L.A. conditions. The classic density foam from US Blanks is pretty tough, but collisions, rocks, etc. take their toll.
thanks for sharing your process. When you lam with epoxy do you fillcoat before the thin rolled on coat? I had considered just laying up another layer of four ounce to sand into a bit and then doing a thin coat over that such as the one you do. Haven’t tried it yet though and am scared of potential results and wasted time/money.
Do you tape along the rails (I didn’t see any)? Do you ever get little drips that run underneath? I’m going to embed the same videos in case somebody wants to watch them here on Sways. What about poly boards?
Thanks, I am unable to embed from my phone or tablet, although its simple from my computer, not sure why. There is so little resin that dripping is not an issue, tape is unnecessary.
Epoxy does tend to fish-eye, so if I am doing a thicker coat I start with a very very thin cheater coat, squeegee it on then squeegee it off, basically, and when it starts to gel then I put the thicker coat on. With the thin roller coat as shown in the video, I have found that I can avoid a lot of problems by working the roller until the resin starts to set up, once the roller kinda sticks to the board as I’m rolling I can stop. I use Kwik Kick, so it only takes a matter of minutes. In actual practise what really happens is I roll it on, then watch it. If there is any indication of surface changes, I keep rolling. Then step back and watch. Repeat as necessary.
This is the opposite of poly resin, where the prevailing advice seems to be get it on there properly, and step away. I haven’t used poly resin in years, but with the RR epoxy working the roller is what I do, if I don’t, I can usually see ripples and fisheyes starting to form, but I just keep rolling them out, with a very very light touch. Like I say, eventually the roller will stick to the board as you’re rolling, so there is no pressure at all, you’re just pulling it along. That’s about the time to quit, and let it harden.
The second video is to show the resin once I’ve stopped rolling - its not mirror finish, there is a slight orange peel texture there, but smooth enough to begin the wetsand at 220 or 320 (hand sanding).
I can sand in about an hour, but the sandpaper will gradually gum up. A lot of times I do it anyway, even tho I know I will have to toss the sandpaper. If I wait a few more hours its hard enough to sand without gumming up my paper.
I have not yet employed the roller like this, but at some point, will.
What i have found is that the simply applying epoxy to a prepped sanded surface, will have it fisheye a lot, but if that first thin layer is scrubbed on as if one were scouring the surface with epoxy, I use car wash sponges, then the fish eye separation is largely eliminated.
So I prep, clean, push/scrub a thin layer on, then try to get a thicker layer spread over. Most often i just leave the epoxy’s gloss coat without further sanding. Thicker coats will have the streaks from the sponge, and I believe i’d rather have orange peel texture from a roller compared to the streaks from a sponge…
If I am trying for the high gloss epoxy surface, I wetsand to 2000 and then can spread 7.5CC of resin on over the hull of a 9’6" LB with the sponge technique. By no means as nice as a polished PE gloss coat, but I’ve given up attempting that level of gloss, and do not use PE anymore. The smear coat of 7.5cc is not as glossy as thicker layers of epoxy allowed to cure to its natural gloss, but so be it.
Hi Huck. Let me see if I understand. Youre stripping the wax off the board, doing a ding repair, then applying a thin layer of epoxy to the entire board and sanding it? For a ding repair? Mike
I use duct tape or just a quickie fill in the meantime, but yeah, once I have enough dings to make it worthwhile I do remove the wax, fin, and leash. This go around I fixed / filled about 9 or 10 dings, some big some small, the little ones kinda disappear but here’s a few pics of the bigger ones.
Pressure dents on the bottom and rails get filled with resin and glass, on the deck I might do a little of that too, but not as much, cuz its the deck.
I do this periodically with the boards that get a lot of use, and hence, a lot of dings, its one of the things I like about epoxy boards, its relatively simple to do, uses very little resin, doesnt add any significant weight, and gives a nice uniform coating to my old war horse daily driver.
I’m old school and I was taught to take care of my toys, I know thats kinda out of sync with our disposable culture.
I wouldn’t attempt it with a poly glass job, but I don’t use poly. Once the dings were repaired, I sanded and coated in an afternoon, wetsanded the next morning and I’m good to go.
I don’t worry much about cosmetics when repairing my own board but overall the board still looks pretty good. At some point I may re-do that resin pinline.
Yeah probably seems like a big pain to others, but works for me.
I don’t do big drippy resin coats like I see in the videos, and so also just wanted to show my method for applying a super thin coat with minimal resin.
Not saying anyone else should do this, just sharing another perspective.
And typically my quickie ding repairs could use a little refinement, so gives me a chance later to clean everything up a bit.
