I just finished shaping and glassing a PU board for my daughter. This is the first board I have shaped and glassed in over 20 years. I purchased all the materials from Foamez. It has a 4 oz bottom and 2x 4 oz deck in clear polyester resin. Everything is great but……I was expecting the board to finish out “whiter” than what it did. It is not as white as my Surf Prescriptions PU board that Doc shaped for me a year and half ago. Attached is a photo of both boards. I have read that some other foams such as Arctic are whiter and some resins have optic enhancers but I am not sure if this hype or what. Foamez told me that their resin is Sylmar and the blank I used is US. Has anyone been able to make a board super white like Lost and Surf Prescriptions?
In your picture the board on the left looks whiter on my monitor. I have started painting my shapes white before glassing. Its an extra step but the boards are definitely whiter and stay whiter longer by taking this extra step.
Cerex N-Fusion Titanium White layer against the foam. Seals the blank, and whiter than white. Otherwise, you can paint the blank, use aerialite cloth, use resin with “optical brighteners” (a touch of purple tint makes it look whiter.
Thanks for the input, I’ll check what cloth I used and also if I used 249a or 249b. I’ll also see if I can get some Cerex N-Fusion to compare (note sure what it is yet but I assume it is resin).
Mako224 - can you still see the stringer if you paint the blank. I really don’t want to lose the look of the stringer. What paint do you use?
Mgarrbutt is 2/3’s of Right on. The other part of the equation is Start with the whitest PU Blank you can get your hands on. I’ve been told that both Surf Prescriptions and Lost are using Arctic. Maybe not 100% but for the majority of their boards. I was in a few shops that carry those two brands and several others last summer in Santa Cruz and the differance between those boards and several other brands in the rack that I know for sure do not use Arctic was very noticable. Us Blanks has come a long ways with their blanks. They are noticeably whiter that they were 2 or 3 years ago. But Millenium is a “smidge” (as our President says) whiter and Arctic has made it a goal to get as white as possible by adding an optical brightner to their foam’s formula. Put one of each of the “Big Three” Poly blank company’s blanks side by side and you will see what I mean. BGF Aerialite is the “Whitest” cloth on the Market, but Hexcel has gotten whiter recently and they are marketing themselves as such. Silmar 249b has an added optical brightener. Put BGF Aerialite over a Arctic blank wet out with Silmar 249b and you are as white as you are gonna get without taping and painting your blank. Painting and all that Cerex and infusion bull shit is really just a waste of time and money if all you want is a white or “clear” board. Lowel
It’s gonna be yellow in few months no matter what you do. Why worry? ( We used to add a dash of white pigment on short sanded finish self destruct 4 ounce glass job potato chips.
Nice board. Obviously you didn’t forget the things you knew twenty years ago. But materials have changed. Everybody thinks they manufacture the best blanks-Resin-Cloth. They all have their + or -. What you use should depend on what you are after.
It seems like the standard glass schedule for custom boards out here is 4oz bottom and 2x 4oz deck. This is the lay-up that I have been getting for the last 10 years at least. Although I know my decks are totally compressed and trashed after 8 months!
Cleanlines and McDing……what weight cloth are you guys using for shortboards?
Also…thanks for all the info! I’m going to try an Arctic blank next
I quit making shortboards. I like single fin eggs,hulls and the occasional fish. I use six ounce bottom six ounce deck with a 3/4 7 ounce (or thereabouts)volan deck patch. Also putting a volan tail patch on bottom. I just like the look of volan.
Most are glossed and not polished. I get pretty good glosses and when you cut the wax off the surface they scratch easier. Polishes are for showrooms. I also sometimes spray acrylic clear over a sanded finish. On hulls sometimes I wetsand the gloss.
Best way to get a pure white board is to sand it to 250 and spray with white auto urethane paint of some sort or go old school and use white pigmented gloss resin. this gets kinda tricky. Another story all together.
I had a personal board that I did with white opaque cut lap top and bottom the looked unreal for many years. But…dirty wax just looked dirty. Ain’t life a bitch.
Maybe im just not that hip but I never understood the gotta have the whitest and lighest board?..
4x4 on the deck is great if someone is floating your bill or you weight 100 lbs. Haha or if your in marketing and trying to figure out a way to sell more boards. Tell everyone their boards are dirty and they weigh a half oz too much.
Surfboards get covered with wax and sand, tossed in the back of car, hammered in the surf… it doesnt add up to me.
A good durable lam schedule would be double 6 on top and single 6 on bottome. I mostly use double 4 bottom and triple 4 top. But my boards are mostly stringerles EPS and epoxy.
i’ve used both and CET is very white - kinetix super white is at least as white, and the fast formula is the kicker for me to use it over CET. Kinetix also now have a filler coat specific resin, which I haven’t used but will be shortly.
