Aloha, I have a single fin egg that is well loved but still loves to glide. It has an O’FISHL center box that seems to be leaking – when I come in from a surf, water runs out of the box and continues to drip for a while afterwards. The glass above the box is cracked, the result of a collision with the rocks at Rincon on a minus tide. The deck is also delamed. I am assuming that my fin box is leaking, and needs to be replaced. My guess is that the box isn’t securely fastened to the foam anymore, allowing for water to seep in and get under the glass. I read an archived post about fin box replacement, and plan on cutting out the old box using a router and replacing it with a new one. Question: when I insert the new box, should I line the cut with fiberglass? Or pour sanding resin with Q cell inside, and then set the box? Any advice is greatly appreciated, as this is my first time tackling “fin box surgery and replacement.” Thank you, Kit
Hey Kit, After you route the old fin box out you’ll be inspecting to adjacent area of the board for foam damage and water invasion. You may end up routing out a much bigger hole than you think you’ll have to at the outset of the project. If you have to take a bunch of foam out of the board. You can set a foam plug into the board with a layer of 6oz surrounding it with laminating resin. Let the plug protrude from the board and then shape it back to conform to board’s original bottom configuration. If I were doing it I’d reglass that area and then route out the hole for the fin box. If you dont have a plung router a roto zip with a carbide blade is a good substitute for these kinds of projects. Just tape a perimeter guide on the board and go to work. Whether or not you have to put a foam plug in the board or not the hole that you route out for the fin box should be big enough so you can surround the fin box with a couple of layers of 6oz. when you set it into the board with fin in to get it nice and straight. Next you’ll grind it down to suit the board and put a glass cap over it to seal it and blend that into the surround surface are. As you can see you have several stages of rebuilding to do. Take you time and go through the steps and you’ll end up with a real nice job that won’t add any significant weight to the board. There are no doubt some other tricks I’ve overlooked or simply don’t know about. The forum is a great place to learn how to solve problems like yours. I hope a few others will drop by with their ideas for you. I’m sure we’ll both learn a few things as a result. Off to work, Rich
Halcyon’s method sounds right. One extra thing - use laminating resin instead of sanding resin, and use chopped fiberglass instead of Q-cell. The only time you will want sanding resin will be to brush on over the laminated cloth patches before you sand. Q-cell is used to fill voids but it doesn’t add strength to the resin. In this case, new foam glued in will be a better way to fill a void than Q-cell. http://groups.msn.com/thegrasshoppersurfboard/shoebox.msnw