Even if I searched all around Swaylock’s to find something that matches my problem, I still haven’t found anything…
I have a 7’2’’ Hang Ten minimal that I bought used from a surf shop here in Italy. It’s a foam/epoxy board, with balsa stinger in it.
After this summer I noticed that there was a big area on the deck (the area is about 3 and a half feet long -1 metre- and wide as the board -about 1 feet and 1/2) wich was delaminated. this delamination doesn’t affect the rails.
It’s like there is a giant bubble between the foam and the fiberglass cloth. In some areas the cloth has attached on a thin layer of foam.
I red on the forums that there are two ways to fix it, but I still don’t know what and how to do it. The first one is to drill holes and fill them with resin and the second one is to take off the glass job and re-glass it.
In a small area -big as my hand- I tried drilling some holes and filling the bubble with resin, but I’m not sure that this process will be suitable for the major delamination area. In the big delamination area I’m not sure that I will be able to fill all the air bubble with resin.
So I’m asking you if you could help me choose the repair method, and tell me few tips on how to do this job.
Please help me because near my city there are not surf shops or people who could help me.
Don’t waste your time trying the hole drilling method. This delamination is way too big for that. You need to strip off the loose glass and re-glass. That will give you the strongest repair. The only exception would be if you are more concerned with cosmetics than strength, like trying to preserve a colored or painted glass job. Then you can try one of the methods that preserve the old glass. There should be several threads in the archives that discuss the methods in detail. Look for posts by Doc or PeteC. Good Luck!
That’s a big delam! What we use to do is slice the glass and inject epoxy resin under the glass and either vacuum bag the area or place bricks to hold it down. After we got it as flat as we could, we would glass over the slice and fill in what we could.
… or plan B which is to cut out the delam and glass over.
Hey mate, I had a 10 footer that had a delam about 3 feet long and about 8 inches wide. Here’s what I did –
I cut around the perimeter of the delam at one end about 2/3rds of the way back witha dremel too. You can use a real sharp board knife. I lifted the glass up off the board. I held it up with a piece of tape, wetted the foam out with resin and slid a piece of 4 ounce on the foam and put enough resin on to wet it all out when I layed the original glass back down. The bubble what still in the glass so I had to make a cut right down the middle of it so it’d lay back down flat. When I layed the original glass down I rolled it down real slow to push the air bubbles out as I went. A little masking tape helps to hold it in place too. After it was cured I lifted up the other end (the other third of the delam) and did the same thing. It was all little high after I was done so I just sanded the whole thing down and shot a fill coat on and finised it out. It was the hardest part of the board when I was done. It didn’t add much extra resin to the board either. I’ve used this same technique on other boards and it worked fine.
I’ll try to fix it with one of the methods ou told me hoping to use the right materials. Surfing is not so popular here, althrought it’s gaining some fans, so I’m not sure to find the right epoxy and/or fiberglass. I guess that the epoxy I’m using will get a little bit yellow, but I don’t care very much about aesthetics right now, I just want to have my board ready for the incoming swell!
I finally took a camera so I can post some pictures of the work done.
I repaired the delamination with two methods: I first tried the drilling holes method (is the small irregular yellow area in the middle-left of the board, you can see the holes) then I decided to take off the glass and reglass it.
I took off the old glass (together with a thin layer of foam) by cutting the limits of the area, and then I planed down the irregular surface to a regular one. I planed down the stinger too. So now the deck is a little bit concave.
I put on a first layer of fiberglass cloth and resin. I couldn’t find any micro baloons so I had to do it to level up the foam.
After it was cured I put another layer of fiberglass overlapping the rails and the delaminated are limits.
I left it two days to cure and then I sanded it and polished it.
Now it’s pretty hard (not much flexible I guess) and not very nice to be seen (horrible I’d say) but at least works.
Ahmmm- that’s really not a bad job at all. I might ask just how much the new cloth overlaps the old cloth on the deck: I’d go with about 75mm or more of new glass on top of the old so that the structure will hold together well. Otherwise, under stress it can separate and lets just say things go badly.
Doc, thank you very much for the interest and help.
I overlapped the new cloth over the old one about 50 or 60 mm (wich is between 2 and 3 inches).
I hope, even if it’s not a 3 complete inches overlap, that will be strong enough. The rails are completely wrapped with the new cloth. As I red on the forum, the main strength elements in a board are the stinger and the rails, so I did a precise job on it. unfortunately I wasn’t aware about the other overlap length (the one on the deck) so I did it a little bit smaller.
I did a search on the net and on the forum about the “hang ten” brand, and I found out that they only make clothes, no surfboards. When I bought my board I thought that the two feet logo on the nose was something about nose riding…
i’m still young in the surf world… a kook as you say, right?
Okay, well, you did a good glass job then, 50-60mm should be just fine, especially wrapped around onto the glass by the rails and using epoxy, I think it will be strong enough.
In the structure of a board, you want to be thinking about how the skin ties it all together rather than just the rails. That’s what gives it continuous strength. The stringer…well, it’s there, lots of different opinions on that.
Hang ten surfboards…well now- could be somebody licensed the logo or something, the guy who had it made had some connection to the clothing company, or maybe they just made a board with that on it. I wouldn’t worry about that, it’s a pretty good board from what I can see, so just have fun with it.
try this:
