Foam Dent repair

General Discussion
1

Santa Ana’s blew crazy strong a week or so ago. I was

more worried about my mountain place that the shaping bay

and didn’t notice the damage until this week. A stack of blanks

were knocked over on top of a partially shaped blank resulting

in a large dent in the rail. The blank has the bottom shaped in

and the outline within a 1/16" of finished. The dent is about an

inch deep.

The wife’s hair dryer didn’t do squat…

I don’t want to cut and fill if I don’t have too and I’ll have to eat

the color cost of the glass job anyway. I searched the archives

with no help.

Lots of recommendations without specifics on using heat.

Help???

2

I stared and stared at that picture for ages and thought “You need to get some air into that to pop it out”…

Positive pressure is what it needs, vaccuum will suck it out but you need to add air to fill the voids…

Heating can expand the air but not in broken voids…

If you were to cut it out and reshape, just apply glue to an area that won’t show through when you sand it, keep it close to the middle…ie no glue lines, apply enough to hold it in place, it will blend in with the surrounds and when glassed you won’t be able to pick it…

Hope this helps…

3

you need more heat try a heat gun ive seen it work before a hair dryer is to girly

4

Thanks Nat, that’s what I thought.

Any idea on where to get an inexpesive heat gun, what

wattage, etc.?

5

Hi Brian,

the Heat Gun will do it, hair dryer just won’t heat up quickly enough. Charring is an issue, so be careful.

I’ve used an iron in a pinch.

6

Harbor Freight, about $10. [www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=35776]

7

There has been talk of sealing polyurethane blanks with one of the spackling compounds. Some people thought that a couple of blank brands sucked too much resin so they sealed them like EPS.

You could spackle the ding with DAP Fast and Final and then seal coat the whole board with same. Fine sanded, it takes paint just fine and I don’t think the repair would be visible through the seal coat.

8

Guys all you need to do is use steam from the kettle to expand the cells, hot air will not do it you need the steam

Peter

9

Thin semi-wet piece of towel, and an iron. Test on scrap first to get the timing right.

10

Howzit surfteach, A heat gun is the way to go. I’ve used mine many times and it always works even when there’s a crush with a crack in the foam. Like said before the only thing is be careful not to burn the foam. Aloha,Kokua

11

heat gun is the way to go. the foam will discolor a little but it is the price to pay.

12

Howzit rider, You can avoid the discoloration if you move the heat gun around the area. Never had any discoloration when I do it. Also use the lower heat setting.Aloha,Kokua

13

Thanks guys,

esp. George & Kokua…

Didn’t read the last post abut the setting on the gun until

after, had a little discoloration, but here’s the way it went:

The solution, $9.85 tax incl. @Harbor Freight…

The shape out, bottom rail band cut 1st after outline was

cleaned up (not my usual sequence but so far so good)

more to come…