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My question is: How do you know when a "scratch" will take on water? The area is still hard - it doesn't look like the damage came close to getting through all the glass, so I can only imagine some water "wicked" into the cloth or??? Granted, I "should" have cleaned it up and sealed it, but I was thinking it wouldn't matter, but it obviously did on two of the seven scratches.
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Well, taking this out of sequence -
[quote="$1"]
The "scratches" looked like they got into a layer of two of glass, but not that deep, or so I thought, based on all the glass on it, and I, ignorantly it turned out, just left 'em. Well, I went to put the board on the car, a while couple weeks and sessions later, to find water dripping out of a couple of the "scratches."
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Yep, that'd tell me there is definitely a leak. And considerably more than just water wicking in: just that might make a drop or two, tops, but if you're seeing water dripping out, you got something more serious.
[quote="$1"]
Thanks for putting up with my ignorance - I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done this, and thus, there are sure to be those out there who can learn from this.
Ps - As soon as I get my soft ware set up... I'll post some pics... Ha!
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Nahh- not ignorance, just something ya don't know yet. So-
Chances are the board managed to inhale water, temp differences or flexing or something. In any event, your first project is to get the water out as completely as possible. Quite a number of ways to do that, which I won't go into here. But it needs to come out, or else your repair won't go well and you'll have other problems down the line.
Then, the repair. I'd take a throwaway brush and cut the bristles short - those will be stiffer and will do a better job of working the resin into the weave. Sand gently (hand sanding is real good for this, you won't chew into the cloth) over any 'weavey' looking areas, get through gloss and hotcoat and kinda scratch into the cloth faintly, then put the resin to it. Work it in well - thinning the resin a little with the appropriate solvent would be a good idea too. When you can't see weave, you have it done right. You're trying to resaturate the fibers with resin, regain a little strength and stiffness and fill pinholes and cracks that have been letting in the water.
Next, sand the new resin a little, lightly to make it nice and smooth, then a layer of cloth over those spots. You might want to cut down another brush for that. Remember, the glass got compromised there, plain resin alone won't do it. Then, feather the edges, then hotcoat/gloss until it's nice and shiny and you should be done, plus if done right this gets to a near-invisible repair.
hope that's of use
doc...
