I have a new epoxy/eps board and hit a rock or something. I got some cracks on the rail. One seems to be deep, and the other one looks like a crack in the glue.
I did build an epoxy board myself in the past, so I have all the material to fix the dings. However, do I need to put some glass on or just sand, fill with epoxy and fine tune? As epoxy seems to be very hard by itself I’m not sure if I really need to glass or not.
On the pictures you can see the cracks. (1-3 the deep crack, the last image is the fine crack)
Those dings on the rail can be fiddly to fix and to have everything blended in perfect with the hard edge if needed, but you can lose a lot of strength in the board by not repairing those dings properly.
cut out the damaged glass down to the foam if necessary, sand it so that the damaged area is tapered out, cut some oval patches of glass equal in number to the layers you are replacing, each patch a little larger than the first (first will be inside layer), then with the last oversized oval layer tape it down and pull it tight over the area. this last layer compacts the stack of ovals. drizzel a little resin on to the area and work it in lightly so that it saturates the full depth. then fill coat the area. if the patched area restores the outline then just sand and gloss. if not, then make a resin dam out of tape and fill it with a little resin, then sand and gloss. good luck
Not a trivial repair. I agree with everyone’s general thinking. Tape off a generous area like you’re a brain surgeon; well, at least a brain surgeon that uses masking tape. Sand to the foam in excess of the damaged area until you’re in healthy tissue/fibergalss/foam. Since it’s a rail, you’ll probably want to lay in two layers of glass matching the sanded region and then lay one on top the overlaps the area. Lam (+ additive F) the glass and pull the ecess resin. Sand and blend the top layer of glass into the surrounding, existing area. Then hotcoat/gloss as usual.
When I have time on my hands, I like doing these kind of repairs. It helps to have a decent quiver so you can keep surfing.
If you can’t vac/bag the water out, cut away the damaged glass and let it sit a few days to dry out. Best to keep indoors in a low humidity environment so it will dry. Follow Greg Tate’s instructions for repair. Yes, you need fiberglass.
looks like it was a thin rail lam and been taking on water for some time…It’s already brown. Or you dinged it and kept on surfing for a few days? Cut the cancer out, let it dry out. EPS foam sucks up and unimaginable ammount of water. After dryed out fill the ding with Sherwin Williams light weight spackle, and glass it with 2 layers of 6 oz. covering the entire area in question…that means the rail cracks approximately 2-4 inches from the ulcerated would you got there , then hot coat and sand. If a rookie ding guy, dont try to feather the patch in too good, guys sand too much and dont feather in correctly…and then you cause another thin spot on your rail…and subsequent snappage. Just leave the patch a bit proud and strong. Let the ding remind you of how you F’ed up and smashed your board.
