How reglass a blank with fin box hole

General Discussion
1

I know most replies to this question will be negative and tell me tonot even think about it but here goes…

 

I am going to reshape and then glass an old board made from clark foam blank. It was a hefty longboard with lots of volume so it can be slimed down quite a bit. The question I have is how can I reglass this board when I have removedt he old fin box? Does anyone have any tricks on this one. Can it be reglassed by placing the cloth over the hollow space and then cutting it? Is this something that is never done??? I suppose the leash plug will also be an issue too.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

 

2

How much reshaping do you plan to do? If you have a large enough foam scrap, cut a piece to fit the space where the finbox used to be and glue it in. I’ve done this, and part of the trick is to make the plug a bit large so it sticks above the bottom of the blank. Remove the excess after the glue sets.  In fact, any filling should be done before you begin the final shaping process.

3

I have done them by gluing the new fin box in the hole and glassing over it. Just tape off the slot. Sammy’s way is great if you have a scrap of foam. If you can glue in a new box in the old hole you don’t have to route it. There are other ways to do this. Maybe someone else will weigh in.

4

I’ve re-done a couple of boards with boxes in them, but they also had the bottom glass. I usually tape them up if they are the long straight boxes, but the last 2 I did I stuffed the boxes with flour, general purpose baking/cooking flour. Glassed over them, then cut the slots open again with a sharp razor as soon as the resin is gelled. Then I use a utility knife and cut the slots out nice and clean, and follow up with a file if needed. I found that I can get a nice layer of glass over the box and make them stronger.

For blanks that have holes or need patches, I fill in the hole with a piece of similar type of foam, just like Sammy says. Use gorilla glue or another glue that you can sand easily. Don’t use a resin because it will dry really hard and make it difficult to sand down even. Sometimes I just make the patch really tight and shove it in without a glue, then it will sand down easily. The glass lamination will keep it in place, and if you route the board for another box it will cut through easily. If your next box will be in the same place, you can get a box that is designed to be inserted before glassing. It has a covered slot that you will sand down later to open up. Looks similar to the way futures and FCS fusion boxes have a covered slot that you sand off after the lam.

5

If you don’t have scraps you could fill it with expamding foam. 

6

 

I hate Gorilla glue. The one time I used it on a repair was to reattach the nose on a beater. It definitely dries harder than foam and makes a high spot when you sand it. It does the same thing with wood, and I generally avoid using it except for special situations. A friend of mine restores furniture and she charges extra when a customer brings in a piece that was repaired with Gorilla glue.

I do agree with simply doing a compression fit with no glue, and letting the resin soak in the seam when you lam over the plug.

7

That’s another way. I had a repair a while back on a board that got stomped by a horse. Not kidding. The board had five or six deep, deep hoofprints in it. Some right through the deck to the bottom glass. I filled the holes with expanding foam, using wax paper and dead weight to keep the expansion down. I sanded the excess,glassed over the foam, and gave it an opaque color job to hide the ugly.