Finished shape, need glassing advice

General Discussion
1

Okay, its been some time now after a lot of QnA on here and I have finished shaping a 6’9" fish, with double wingers. I got some pics I’ll try to post. Anyway, now for the glassing.

I’ve done a lot of reading, but here’s what I got goin on, please anyone but in if they have some advice and tips - maybe even caution of pitfalls.

I bought some stringer masking tape, and am planning on shooting the foam surf green. Then start with the bottom to glass, and was thinking of adding white tint to one mix, black to a 2nd and then of course clear in a 3rd cup and lay the color down first and kinda swirl it out HOPEFULLY to get a sort of marble affect. (?) Then just do a clear deck lam. However on the deck, I was thinking of adding a basic pin line around the top rail where the cut lap is. This is one question, i have a merrick board that you can see that the pinlines are tape, not tinted or drawn on. I cant find any resources on this tape and or using it. Opinions would be nice.

K… think that about covers it. Other than that Im going to install 4 proboxhawaii fin boxes. The idea is to be able to ride as quad or keel. I am making the fins also. Will have pics of that too!

Thanks guys!

Tyson

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Nice wings. Epoxy or polly?

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Was thinking Epoxy at first, but am prolly gonna go with poly, keep it real :slight_smile:

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Hey OriginalSin,

first off, the board looks really fun- congrats.

Upon reading the color and glass schedule, I am wondering if you plan to shoot sea green waterbased

paint then doing a cutlap with colored resin over it?

Advice: the cutlap requires firm masking-off where you must “mash” the tape pretty hard for a good seal.

This action will abrade the paint on the blank causing white patches.

Perhaps if you do a cutlap on the bottom (white/black/grey/clear swirl) first, then spray the exposed

deck foam green (masking the rails where the cloth is), then glassing the deck clear using the ‘freelap’

technique.

Not sure if you’ve made many boards, if not:

To be honest, for a first board any color work is stepping up the challenge, but I did the same thing

too, I wanted my first board to incorporate a lot of ideas that I was dreaming about and no one or

big costs got in the way…

…but I gather you are quite a craftsperson. Just remember pigments in resin affects the way they

kick off, they go off a little quicker in bulk form and a lot slower when laid out thin.

As for the pinlines, that is really safe, since it won’t be time-critical like doing your first lamination.

(assuming the “first lamination”) (curious how much you’ve done, too :slight_smile:

Hope this helps

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Hi Tyson -

The dual concave through the tail looks really fast.

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Nice board. It’s cold in Washington. Connect with some other Swaylockers from your area. I’m sure there’s some tricks to glassing this time of the year in your area. I worry when it drops below 65. I saw a cool swirl done with grays and blacks… Go for it!

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a couple of thoughts - unless you’ve done lots of glassing, expect those wings (and the fish butt crack) to give you fits, especially if your doing cut laps. Make sure you don’t kick your resin too hot, you’ll need time to negotiate all those corners & cracks…

I’m not sure how you can put 4 boxes in the right place to run as a quad or as a keel fish. You’re going to have the wrong toe-in for one thing, the keels need to point straight ahead…which you might do for the rear fins on a quad, but they’d be probably not the best place for big keels… I’d consider putting a 5th center box at the back instead, you might be surprised at which fin set up you like the best, particularly with the length of your board…

pin line made of tape? ugh.

looking good, keep us posted!

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Why paint at all? Just do a resin swirl.

Everybody’s got their own way of doing it, but here’s what I can offer…

Tape off the cutlap on the deck side, and mask the deck with paper. Flip it and lay out the cloth. Put on some Cream or Hendrix, and tun it up.

Mix your pigments into the resin (use PLENTY of resin - 2 to 3 times the amount you actually need is not uncommon, and make as many different tints as you can handle. Mix in the hardener, then pour them out all at the same time (a couple cups in each hand, pouring all at once, all over the bottom, making sure to hit the rails, letting it dribble down and around). Remember this: whatever hits the cloth first wins.

Picture the effect you’re trying to achieve in your head beforehand, then be sure to pour out the tinted resin in a pattern that will get you that effect. Once all the resin is poured out, swirl any pooling resin into the remaining dry spots, then start lightly working in the resin with as little excess motion as possible. Don’t over-work it, so you avoid making mud with the colors. Pull out the excess, starting at the middle, and working from stringer to rail, lapping the rails as you pull.

When the resin cures to a semi-hard state, flip and cut the lap along the tape. If you got the tape down good, not too much will bleed through, and a good pin line will make it look sharp.

Feel Free!

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So it sounds like the fin box placement for running as twin keel and quad is going to be somewhat of a challenge? Any advice on this?

Also with the glassing schedule… is it only the lam coat that you’d put resin swirls in, or could you also do it in the sanding coat? Hope thats not a stupid question.

I’m still baffled on how to get a basic pin line on the top deck… thinking of using automotive pinlines… might work.

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Hey OGSin,

Swirls are best done in the lamination since hotcoat gets sanded off a bit.

Get away from the automotive approach. Hand tape the pinlines.

Heed Keith’s advice, pinlines should go onto the sanded board. Have a look

at an expert: Larry has been doing it for 40 years,

http://www.plusonesurf.com/LarryCrow.html

Be sure to have a lot of pigment in your epoxy and smash the tape down REAL

good. Notice he lays the tape down in “sequence” so it is pulled off with higher

tape first. The brushes he uses are quality bristle ones, FYI, and he cleans them

with acetone (rather than go with the cheapies I use for hotcoats, I just chuck em).

Hope this helps.

George

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Howzit PlusOne, I did resin swirls in the lamination for years but I’ve gotten into doing foam stain swirls on the foam instead. I like doing them since it seals the blank which keeps those pesky pinair bubbles from happening and when laminating you don’t get uneven resin saturation into the blank due to uneven foam density. Aloha,Kokua

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Nice looking board, Originalsin. I love my big 6’9" fish on small wave days or evenings on Baja pointbreaks…mmmmmmmmmm, Baja pointbreaks.

I digress.

Depending on the age and model of your Merrick, the pinline is most likely resin. It leaves a bump just like tape would. Glossing over tape could lead to some interesting sanding to do later…

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Chipfish has been playing with multiple fin setups for a long time… reach out to him.

Swirl the lam resin. I’ve got a guy here in Jerz that I work with that does swirls in the hotcoat, and they come out pretty cool. More like an acid swirl than a true marble swirl. He tints/swirls the lam, then swirls the hotcoat, too. Pretty interesting. He’s also done swirls in the lam, then painted some pretty amazing artwork over that, then clear hotcoat over both. Gives it great depth. Truely talented guy, and a painter by trade.

For resin pinlines over cutlaps (and I don’t do them any other way), you just freehand tape on either side of the cutlap, keeping it uniform width and evening out the curve in any place that went wiggly when you did your cut. This is done after you lam the deck and cheater coat the whole thing. Then you mix in your pigment, making it pretty dark, and use the accelerator in the resin/hardener mix. Paint it on, and pull off the tape, just like in the video clip. Try playing around with a wider pinline, then a thinner one on top of that, offset, of a different tint. You can get some cool lines once you get good at it.