One of my friends broke off a fin on his board the other weekend. Took a hit in the groin, and luckily he can still call himself ‘Mr.’
The board is PU/PE, and both plugs on a side fin broke. One split in two and came out and the other came out damaging the foam and glass a bit. Note: I haven’t seen the board first hand yet.
I am making EPS/Epoxy boards and so have no scraps of PU foam or PE resin around but I thought that I might be able to fix it nonetheless.
What I am thinking of doing is getting a couple of plugs, and the high density foam inserts that FCS supposedly now offers for EPS installation, and routing out the bad holes, epoxying in the foam insert(s), remarking the fin positions and then glassing over the foam patch (after rough sanding the area around it), sanding the glass patch and then doing the FCS plug install.
Does this sound ok to any of you out there?
I am not sure of the diameter hole for FCS, I am kind of hoping that I can use the hole saw that I use for installing leash plugs. (1")
Use the search feature and check the archives. Unless there is massive amounts of foam missing, you can just reset them using filler and glassing over.
What Johan1 said, that’s a much simpler solution. Even if it opened a bit bigger hole, putting in a new plug and filling with resin and milled fiber will be a much cleaner repair.
Epoxy resin will work fine on PE/PU repairs, it what I use (RR).
Unless there is a lot of foam missing or there are horisontal tears through the blank filler will be fine.
putting cloth to the bottom of the hole and chopped fibres in the the mix will add extra strength.
Use an old fin and cut down the lip on the plugs where the fin goes, so the base of the fin is level with the new plugs and fill inside the lip with putty to stop resin getting in.
Rough up the plugs with 60-80 grit, score the foam, and add a fillet under the existing glass.
Tape up around the holes and build a resin sump or dam to stop excess ressin spreading over the board. Use a piece of Phone card under the middle of the fin base and at the tips to rase it up a notch, so you can sand all the lip down to the plug without those semi-circular dips.
Measure the cant from the other fin with a sliding beval and transfer to a wooden or card triangular block, use that to set the cant on the replacment plugs and tape the fin in place while the resin goes off.
Add the glass to the bottom of the hole and slowly pour the mix 2/3 up, paint resin up the sides of the hole, as you push the plugs in wiggle it a bit to remove air. Get any bubbles left with a pin or paper clip as they rise.
Tape a wet towl to the deck (you may need to put a plastic bag over it to get it to stick) under the fin plugs to help cut down on heat.
When its set sand it down and glass over, remeber to put putty in the screw thread and tape over.