I’m looking for some opinions on what could have happened on a board I sold to someone who came back months later and said they had an issue with delamination. I asked him if he ever left it in a hot car and he said he never did and kept it in a board bag.
The construction is #1.5 lbs EPS sheet foam glued together with 3M 77 (spray contact cement for EPS foam), board is vented and has a color cloth inlay. Glassed strong with double 6oz on the deck and single 6oz bottom with a fin patch. Vented with an auto vent.
I have made many boards and a few SUPs using 3M 77 for gluing sheets of EPS together, never had an issue like what this guy came back with. Basically I thought at first there was a delamination on the bottom, there was a huge air bubble from the fins to almost half way up the board.
Once I cut it open I realized the sheets of foam had separated, you can see in the pics the extent of what happened, I should have grabbed a pic of the bubble but I forgot.
I have been racking my brain on what could have happened and my mind keeps coming back that he did leave it in a hot car, because the amount of air that expanded to push the sheets of foam apart had to be pretty high, so high that the auto vent couldn’t handle it in a short period of time.
I think if the foam sheets didn’t give away first, I think the glass would have been delaminated, air has to go somewhere. I gave the guys money back and I’m going to try and salvage it using some spray foam and clamp it back together.
Any one have thoughts on what could have happened? It’s a shame as this was a nice board, I surfed it for 2 years before selling it and never had an issue with it.
**Correction I used 3M 78 not 77
