Glassing over FCS plugs

General Discussion
1

My friend somehow managed to rip the entire bottom layer of glass completely off his board… I’ve seen serious delams but never a board come up minus a large sheet of glass (all you river jetty surfers might want to keep an eye out for a sheet of glass floating around).

It came off pretty clean, and the nose is seriously cracked, but fixable. My question is, what do you do about the FCS plugs…

Tape over them, glass over them, then cut while green? I’m a little hesitant to let 12 oz. of glass dry over those plugs.

I’ll probably have to sand around them a bit, lowering the foam around it, but I’m still a little worried about having those plugs too low compared to the surrounding glass…

…just looking for some general advice.

2

very interesting problem…

here’s the first thought I had…place/lightly glue thin discs (quarters?) on top of the plugs. Keep the resin minimal around the discs when laminating.

After hardening, the bevel created by the cloth around the outside of the disc should be easily bladed. Remove the discs. Sand the rest before hotcoating (hotcoat with tape over the plugs and remove before hardening).

Im sure there will be other suggestions…

good luck

3

I think I would either remove the old plugs (won’t be hard with no glass holding them in) and then glass & re-plug, or else leave the old plugs in there, glass the bottom, then put glass-on fins over the FCS…

4

Screw down the screws and fill the holes with grease or wax.

Fill up the holes where the fin tabs go with for example foam bits top up with Grease or wax.

Clean off top of plug so no grease/wax is left except for screw holes and tab holes.

Glass as usual and afterwards cut open the holes/tabs with razorblade/carpetknife

I’ve glassed over only two plug at once doing it like this but it worked out fine and no problems using the fins or plugs.

Good luck

5

Just put tape over the FCS circles, glass, and cut them out when there green. sand it down, tape over the FCS holes again. and gloss.

-Jay

6

your betteroff glassing over the plugs it will only make those weak things stronger.

7

Use cornstarch (cheap, readily available and nutritious) to fill the holes, then carefully acetone the faces of the plugs Put football patches at the plugs, being sure to cut holes in the patches so they drop snugly around the plug stumps. I use 6 oz for this, then the full layer over the plug faces. Lam, hotcaot and sand. Use a high speed rotary tool to open the holes. Install hardware/fins. Go surfing.