I have an older Byrne 8’0 with glassed-on fins. The right fin has broken, not completely off but I can bend it towards the rail quite a bit. I assume that any anchor that has held the fin sturdy in the past has broken (are there anchors on glassed-on fins ???). I’ve dried it out completely and was looking for advice on how I should repair it.
The glass around the fin is still attached to the board so I was going to do one of two things:
Cut around the inside edge of the fin aboud 1.5 inches away from where the fin meets the board bottom to expose the damage uner the fiberglass. Anchor the fin in place somehow and then resin and glass.
Forget about an achor or cutting and inject ding repair resin under the glass and bend fin back into place until resin is oozing out… let harden.
I’m not sure if either of these approaches are correct so any feedback would be appreciated.
I had a situation like this on an old twin fin. What I did was put some resin in the crack under the fin and then fixed the fin back to where it is supposed to be. To do this, I took the board and put in the back of my Explorer, on the carpet. I then positioned the fin and put bags of soil and stuff on top of the board. The weight on top will let the fin set firmly and the carpet held the fin in place. The fin was breaking away so that it would lean toward the other fin, so this may not work as well for you. Anyway, then I took a football shaped patch of cloth and put it half on the fin, and half on the board, and put resin on that. I then glassed another football like patch, let it harden, sanded and whatever, and was ready to go. Maybe this only worked for me? I don’t know, but the fin seems okay now.
My board has glassed-on fins too and one of them is really loose. It doesn’t seem like it bends one way more than the other, as much as it wiggles like a loose tooth. The glass around the base of the fin is all cracked and there is a significant gap between the glass on top and the fin. I have ding repair resin and tried to fill it with that and let harden, so I could go out and have a nice session today, but now, 7 hours later it’s still not hard. I don’t know if I mixed wrong or if it just didn’t dry b/c it’s near freezing in the garage.
Anyway, since it wiggles and bends both ways, do you think I should just try again to patch it with the ding resin and maybe some cloth, or do i need to take it to a pro? I’m new to surfing, and board repairs, and though I’ve successfully repaired many dings myself, this seems like a bigger job. is there anything else I can do to fix it? i should not duct tape and attempt to surf with it like that right? thanks for any help…
Raiya713, more then likely here is what has happen to your fin. When you do a glass on fin system the first think you do is a lam coat on the board. You then set the fins, with a dab of resin on the bottom of the fin and tape the fins in place so they don’t move, you then lay some rope around the base of the fin and lay some glass up the fin and on to the board. So What has more then likely gone wrong is that the glass that was layed on the board has de lamed off the foam. Unless you can get between the foam and the glass you will never solve the problem. The best thing to do is cut off the fin. Clean off the glass, and start over. Not the easist job, unless you have done a lot of repairs I would take it to someone that has the skills to do it right and do a good job. It is easy to set a fin wrong, and the board will surf like s#$t.
Be sure to note the location, toe-in (horizontal angle) and cant (vertical angle) before you remove the fin. (or i guess you could use the other side fin DUH!) Also, be sure to grind all the resin junk off the fin before you try to reset it. Also, get the wax off the board if you plan to wrap tape onto the deck to hold the fin in place. If you approach it methodically, have the materials on hand and a game plan, glassing on a fin is a pretty easy repair…i.e. even i can do it!
Thanks for your response. It does seem like a big job, bigger than I should attempt, but my other problem is that I’m in Chicago. No surf shops for…at least a thousand miles. So any repairs, I pretty much have to do myself. I have a repair kit w/ ding resin and all that, and fin rope, my only probelm is that I don’t understand how to use the rope exactly. I just got off the phone with a guy from the shop where I get my suits and he tried to explain it to me, but I think I’ll just have to try and see… is it possible for me to set the fin properly if I look at the other side fin and it’s angle, or is there some secret trick to it that I have to be a pro to know? I haven’t been able to surf in 2 weeks and today was going to be the day. I’m really bummed and want to get out there ASAP so sending the board to be fixed is really the most undesirable option. But if that’s the only way…
It is not the easist job to do with just a repair kit, but I will try and talk you through it. The fin is set so it points at a spot some where between the nose and like 5 inchs back. Run a strate edge down the other fin and with a pencil mark the spot where the strate edge crossed the stringer. You can take a piece of paper and set one edge on the board and fold the paper so it matches the cant of the good fin. Cut off the bad fin, lay down some glass and resin mix it hot so you don’t have to wait too long, do a real clean job and you will not have to sand it. Just as soon as you can work mark the front of the fin so it is in the same place as the other fin( this is the same number of inches from that X on the stringer that you made and the front of the other fin) use the paper jig that you made off the other fin to set the cant. Tape the fin real good so it does not move. You can use super glue for this if you wish. Don’t use much of the super glue just enough to keep the fin in place long enough to do the next steps. Take some of the rope and lay it along side of the fin, it needs to run about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch past the front and back of the fin, you don’t need a lot of rope just enough to make a good fillet. Cut two football shaped pieces of glass big enough to run from the end of the rope on each end and up the side of the fin and on to the board by say 1 1/2 inches. Cut two more pieces of glass the same shape but make them big enough to go to the tip of the fin, and out on the board about the same. You need a 2 pair of gloves for this next step. Mix up some resin hot, dip the rope in to the resin one piece at a time and lay it along side of the fin where it meets the board, change gloves. Lay down the one of the small pieces of glass on each side of the fin and paint on some resin making sure to get all of the glass wet. Now lay down the larger pieces of glass and paint on some resin. Wait for the resin to start to kick and with a sure foam file or a knife cut down the extra glass and resin from the fin. paint on another coat of sanding resin. Let it kick. If you have done a clean enough job you can surf the board, and do the next steps later. Sand and foil the fin, apply a gloss coat and sand and polish. Good luck.
My suggestion is ‘neither of the above’ . Raiya, this may be of use to you too, so… allow me to illustrate
Make yourself a template or record angles and positions
grind away the glass and fin rope at the base of the fin. remove fin, grind away excess glass, etc on that ( not shown)
put a reinforcing layer or two where the fin was
use a hot glue gun to put the fin back in position - hot glue is nice, you don't have to futz around waiting
Fin rope, as long as the fin base, a bundle of fibers. saturate in resin, put in place, smoothing with a gloved finger.
glass patches that extend uo the fin and onto the bottom. Several layers, going from largest to smallest as you work, is best. A brush is a very good tool for this.
kinda self explanatory.....
Only one side has been shown, for ease of mind of your friendly neighborhood lazy illustrator, but you can imagine that ya do the same for both.
Thanks for the advice… I have hot glue gun so that’s great but I don’t have fin rope. What is it? Can I use something else instead? I don’t live near a surfshop or shaper and don’t think I got one in my ding repair kit.
Sure, fin rope is just a bunch of glass fibers, literally. If you take a comb to a short piece of fiberglass cloth (or my favorite, woven roving ), working from the edges inwards, you can kinda un-weave it and get the strands, bundle 'em together in parallel and there you have it. Its function is to act as a fillet, a substance that fills the near-right angle joint between fin and board bottom, so the glass cloth you pu on over it can take a bigger radius bend as it transitions from the bottom to the fin. This means the finished joint is considerably stronger and stiffer.
Could you use filler? Sure, the reason they use glass fiber instead is that it wets out to a perfectly clear and transparent substance and looks very good.They use filler powder/resin mix for similar joints in most GRP boat construction, for instance, where you won’t be looking through a clear lamination . But you can get adequate glass fibers and make your own from just about any fiberglass cloth, so you might as well.
Hot glue guns are handy things for this sort of repair, where you want something to get stuck and stay stuck, though you will reinforce it heavily later on in the process . I like to run a bead of hot glue down the centerline of where the fin will go, then use a cardboard template to make sure it’s angled right. A couple of minutes, the glue has cooled and it’s there strong enough that you can put the fin rope to it, then the cloth, then sand.
Howzit Basil, Doc has done a great job of explaining the process, but I want to add that after you stick the fin on with hot glue you need to trim all the excess glue off. The only glue that should be left is what is under the fin where it is attached to the board, use a razor blade for this step and be careful not to loosen the fin in the process. If you use resin to attach the fin before glassing you don't leave any bumps or lumps which will make for a poor lamination. Aloha,Kokua
Do it as Doc advises. Fins can only break, they never become loose. Almost always it’s a problem with delaminated glass underneath the fin, which must be repaired first. This means removing the fin and delaminated glass, filling, and reglassing. Sand the whole fin so the resin will adhere, and clean up the bottom so it will tack down better. Don’t be one of those guys who laminates repairs with sanding resin either. If you can’t get the rope or roving, you can cut up some cloth into tiny pieces and mix with some lam resin. Use this to “mold” a fillet; it will be clear like rope. As soon as you get the radius and shape (use wax paper), cover it with the cloth and lam it per Doc’s drawing. Careful on sanding the hotcoat, don’t go thru the cloth.
thank you so much for taking the time to write all that stuff out, and the diagrams are awesome! I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, I’m waiting till I’ve got someone around to help me out. I did a temp. repair job in the meantime so I wouldn’t have to miss out on the huge lake waves this week. i’ll let you know if it works out, or not. take it easy, and have a great weekend.
I’m looking to replace a small fin on a 5 fin bonzer. the 4 side fins are glassed in, but one is missing. I’m going to copy one of the other 3 fins and glass it in, but Im not sure what kind of material to use or how to build a fin. I understand how to replace an existing fin, but making one of my own is a whole new can of worms. I’ll never be able to find a match for this thing, so I figured I could do it the hard way and just make my own. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The archives are flooded with the info you want. Go to the Search at the top of this page and start with “fin layup”. Shouldn’t take more than a few days to sort throughit all. I’ve made my own fins and it’s not all that hard, but it’s not all that easy, either. Just be patient and absorb all the info.
I’ve read the Gabe (Bruce Gabe), and much of this thread on glass-on fin repair so I feel comfortable with the whole thing. By the way, there is a video that might inspire some people, similar in flavor to doc and others above. Here’s the link:
If I stick the fin in place with chewing gum, which flavor should I use, and should I base my decision on how sticky the gum is or how good it tastes?
Just your opinion: I have a gorgeous fin to put on, should I really take all of the glass off (as in down to the bare-naked fin), and start over, or should I just glass over some or all (as in the video). I mention this because the fin could have a slight delamination and not be real, real tight. But on the other hand, I am tired of using my exacto knife to cut stuff off. I can buy an angle grinder. But hell if I feel like sanding all that beautiful glass off the fin. I also agree I could just mount the fin on the wall as a trophy and just put a new fin in place (assuming I have one, not a big deal if it’s not too esoteric). My real question here comes down to labor spent - how much does a new fin cost? I simply cut the fin off my board in two seconds (so I’ve already avoided sanding, other than a little to the base of the fin, which has some fin rope still there). Obviously, there could be little cracks here and there in the glass over the fin so it’s risky to cut corners. But wow, I’ll need to do a lot of sanding (and polishing) if I completely redo the glass on the fin rather than just do the bottom. Just wondering if I should be extra conservative here. I think I should - perhaps even just buy a new fin and hang the other one up.
Here’s a pic of that nice fin with >1000 (as in 3M rubbing compound) smoothness. By the way, notice that the foam is in great shape, just a wee bit of damage to the glass under where the fin goes.
By the way, I now store my resin in glass jars, and thanks for the thread and your questions and comments.
Use Beeman’s. If it can handle Mach 1, it can handle fin 3.
Just kidding, I’ve always used a really hot batch of lam and sparingly.
Grind it back to the original fin.
I haven’t done this yet, and I hope someone will correct me if I’m wrong, but if you use UV curing resin you can take your sweet time getting the fillet right, and then take it into the sun. ( with catalyzed resin, if you mixed it hot you raced to shape the fillet and smooth the glass and if you didn’t, you hoped it would kick before the fillet slumped.
