[img_assist|nid=1061858|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=504]
Check out the leash hole drilled into the fin. How do i go about fixing that?!
[img_assist|nid=1061859|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]
[img_assist|nid=1061860|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]
You’d have an easier time solving the current global financial crisis than you would have restoring that wreckage. I just don’t get it.
“Check out the leash hole drilled into the fin. How do i go about fixing that?!”
“That” is the least of your worries…
Who said I like things to be easy. :) I like long projects and difficult solutions. I’m an animator by trade and very patient and meticulous. Fixing old broken things is not only poetic but so satisfying. I plan to restore this puppy to preserve the history and pass it on to my kids when they’re ready to appreciate it. I’ll also take hundreds of measurements and post those up here for anyone wanting to recreate the board.
Pointdog,
When I’ve restored this board, don’t come asking me to solve the current global economic crisis ;) You gotta look under the dirt and see the potential. You’re right, you just don’t get it.
Hang20-
Definitely not WAVESET. There is no box. Typical glassed-in fin technique used by G and S during those years.
I would just hang it up as “found art”. It looks pretty cool as is.
The routed in fin in the “black box” was typical of the Hynsons and the Fryes pre WAVE set.
Maybe one of the glassers from the era can come on here and explain the steps. I’ll email Sam Cody to explain it. Sam if you’re lurking, send me a message.
Serial # indicates fall of '67
I've fixed / restored way worse than that. You guys are faint of heart.
With a little TLC and some color it could be very nice.
Yes. It could. But it wouldn’t be a Frye anymore. Fryes of this era didn’t have color so it would be over restored. In antique car shows they deduct points for over restoration.
My personal opinion, for what it’s worth, is that a restoration should stay true to the original. I once had an old Dewey Weber that was about as bad as this. We restored it but in keeping with what a board of the era from his factory might have looked like.
We were able to still show the stringer and the decal even though the front half of the board was sunken in and black with mold.
I really think that before restoring an old board you should consider whether or not you are enhancing it or would over restoration ruin any historical value. Sometimes the stories that go along with the dings or the damage are more interesting than having a shiny new looking thing.
Not that it really matters a whole lot. That’s just my take.
The ''Black Box'' was constructed with black fiberglass panel material. 3/16th inch sides, with a 3/8th inch piece at each end. A single rout of 3/4th inch into the shaped blank prior to glassing. Box was under glass (capped), fin was inserted prior to hot coat, sanding and gloss. About an inch, or inch and a quarter deep, as I remember. Not a bad technique for the time. I checked them out, when I did some contract shaping for G&S, when Hynson was out of town.
Agreed. I recently turned over a mid 60s board that I scored many years ago for cheap money. It was in pretty good shape, but had multiple small dings and nicks. I thought of doing a total resto with opaque panels, etc. On the advice of Alan Seymour (who knows a lot more than I do about this stuff), I just left it all original and patched the dings up properly. He really liked the board, and said the dings tell a story, so to speak. The board sold for triple what I paid, yet half of what i would have received had I sold it 5 years ago. It went to a good home, where it will be ridden and not become wall art.
The antique car vs the antique surfboard can be looked at two ways. If you have a good solid foundation, leave it original. If you have a rotting hulk, make the best of it by patching and covering up years of abuse. I have a '29 Ford pick-up that I m in the process of turning it into a street rod. It was so far gone, that a restorer wouldn’t touch it. If I owned the board, I’d hot rod it!
Surfifty,
Being an old hot rodder myself I agree up to a point. The way I look at it, all old Ford’s (two doors and commercial at least) should be hot rodded. Even perfect examples. The same with most Chevy’s and MoPars, Mercurys too. Maybe the occasional Lincoln or Caddy.
But not so with Deusenbergs or Hupmobiles or cars like them for example. Not that they are anymore sacred than the others, they just don’t make good hot rods (aesthetically). Same with some of the signature model boards. They only came one way. Most of them. Adding color or accoutrements that they didn’t have just doesn’t do them any good.
Old stock boards on the other hand came with a variety of fins, color designs, stringers, etc. So taking an old clear stock Hobie, Weber, or Bing, etc. that is sunken in, has mold, chunks missing…and adding a period correct color job to cover up defects will actually enhance the board.
What I don’t like to see is color restorations on old boards that are not period correct. I don’t really care if anyone does it. It just doesn’t appeal to my sense of history or aestetic.
The first time I ever went to Malibu in 1961 I remember that so many of the boards laying on the beach and against the fence had big chunks broken out of them from the rocks. I think some of those boards would look pretty cool just hanging up with all their dings and historical scars.
Thanks guys for the history and general info. Were they still doing glassed in fins when they started to introduce the waveset? My plan for this board is to keep it as yellowed and funky as when I found it. I’ll get the dings fixed and the bad repairs repaired. For the nose some coffee tinted filler or glued in foam to get the volumne back. I actually have some biofoam offcuts which have a nice yellowed color to it already that would glue in there well. As far as the foam goes it all pretty much there. The glassing will be the lion’s share of work. I’ll get it water tight, sand it gently, and regloss. Then I’ll take it up to Malibu and make the old men drool. Maybe they’ll give me a wave, probably not 
Keeping this board as true to it’s original shape is my main goal. I really don’t like the colored panel restorations. It bugs me not being able to see whats under those panels. Thanks again guys, Balsa you rule!!
Thanks Bill T. When I went to work for G&S everything was WAVE set. And then Larry started experimenting with the fiberglass box and removeable fin before Bill Bahne talked him out of it.
I never knew how they did those “black boxes” until now. I always wondered but never thought to ask someone. It’s similar though to the fiberglass box that Larry was experimenting with in the fall of '69. As I remember they used a piece of wood inserted into the channel.
I was in sales and not in production so I only concerned myself with the stuff that I needed to know. Knowing that we had a feature was something I used in sales. How we did it wasn’t something that I needed to tell anyone.
Here is an update on board #320
I took it down to the last sacred craft expo last October and had Bird check it out. He gave me a stearn look right in the eyes and said don’t fix with opaque panels or any of that cover up “restoration” techniques. I love those appraisals! So funny. One of them in Ventura Reno Abeillera implied my friend was a kook and at the latest one Bird chided me for having too much wax on another one of my boards ;) Anyway, Bird was adamant that the dings and messed up repair jobs was the history of the board and should be visible. He said I should repair it and ride it. He recommended Joe Roper’s repair service down in San Diego. So I was originally thinking of doing the work myself but I’m an epoxy
guy. I have a garage in an alley surrounded by apartments and don’t need the neighbors breathing vapors and shutting me down. I wanted the resin and glass work to be done true to the board and poly, so off to Joe’s. For my birthday this last April my wife and I took a trip down there and dropped it off to the repair shop. The young guy receiving the board had no idea the history and had to get the verteran glasser to come and talk about it. I talked to Joe on the phone a few days later to discuss the details (he was on an Easter break when i dropped the board off). I wasn’t sure about adding the leash loop but I gave in and at least it can be sanded off without affecting the board too much. So, the board is now ready for pickup and I’m going crazy thinking about it. There is also a fun little bump in swell for Friday that I’ll test the board out on in San Onofre. I’ll post back here in a few days with some photos and ride report.
UNREAL !!
I'm looking forward to reading and seeing how this went [the repair AND how it surfed , equally as important ! be really CAREFUL with that fin , mate ! ....maybe even template it , and get another one made / make one , too, for backup...]
GREAT thread , guys ! ['Johnny67' , THANKS for starting this ...HOW is YOUR Frye going ...have you got it wet , yet ?!]
" hang20" , will you show SKIP the board , one day , please ??
cheers !
ben
Got is back from Joe Roper’s repair service in San Diego and it is sweet!!!
They fully repaired it, refoiled the fin out, reglassed and rubbed it all out. I went in Thursday afternoon to pick it up, but they hadn’t put in the leash loop or filled the hole that had been drilled through the fin years earlier. I had only talked to Joe on the phone for five minutes 2 months ago so forgetting a few things was totally expected. They got it ready nice and early Friday morning. Perfect job and I’m totally stoked. Here are pictures of it all shiny:
[img_assist|nid=1067191|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]