Found a throwout firewire rapidfire,
first post and looking for tips on how to repair this creature.
seems like the leggie / rail saver hasnt been setup properly, boards been ripped right through…
never worked with epoxy before so need all the info i can absorb.
go for it!
What you have there goes a little bit beyond basic ding repair. Check out http://www.boardlady.com for some very good repair info. Don’t go slobbering big gobs of epoxy into those cracks because you might melt large portions of the eps core from the heat generated by the curing resin. Check out the “repairs menu” section of her website.
as it seems by the photo you posted, i recommend that you will re install the leash cup since half of it has cracked.
for the epoxy help: everything must be sooo clean, never touch with dirty hand, if you use compressor make sure its not spitting oil.
prep the area with 40 griit make sure you have 0 shiny spots.
when you lamanite, do not overwork the resin.
for the filler coat everything must be clean otherwise you will get some fish eye on the surface and belive me, you dont want that to happen.
use RR and make sure you use ADDITVE F-that a really helpful stuff…i just finished my 4 oz of it and i cant get it anywere in my country now so im in a little trouble…
ohh, and never use actone use only above 99% ethnol
would something like this suffice?
So steps would be
-40 grit sand and ruffing up of areas.
should i peel back the lifting fibreglass?
then layer on fibreglass resin and catalysts as normal / listed. (what are the ratios mind you)
then lam/hot coat and sand back with 120 grit 3/4/500 grits…
appreciate the help tremendously, thankyou!!!
cut the fiberglass behind with a razor knife or use a dermal tool with a cutting blade, pull the peeling glass back to your cut line check around that edge to make sure that the glass around the cut line is still bonded to the foam. feather the edges in and do your repair
That’s nasty. I’d try to get some RR under that bottom flap and clamp it down, unless it peeled all the way to the rear fin box. If its pulled up off the box, I’d put the board back in the trash lol.
If you can get that skin back down, the rest of the fix ( except the leash cup) is relatively straightforward. Clean it up, bog it, fair that, and glass over.
Good luck with the leash cup if its cracked. It might be easier to just install a second cup and seal up the original so it doesn’t leak.
Don’t start tearing away at stuff like it’s major surgery. Mask off all the areas where you don’t want excess resin. Get yourself some of those nifty little epoxy syringes - like the one on the right shown below. Inject epoxy under all those flaps until it’s oozing out. Apply some big sheets of wax paper, some thin plywood over that, and clamp it until it cures. Get out your coarse grinder and smooth it all out as best you can. Now laminate some patches of fiberglass over the entire repair. I’d go with patches big enough to allow for an overlap of a couple inches. Follow that with fill coat. If everything was fairly smooth under the fiberglass patches, you should be able to hand sand it smooth at this point.
Double check all your FCS plugs for cracks and/or damage. If loose, you may want to cut those out and replace with new ones.
On the cracked leash plug, just get a hole saw and cut around it. Once you’ve got the cut around it, you should be able to pop it out and replace with a new one. They’re cheap at any fiberglass supply outlet.
With any luck, it’ll look and ride OK.
