I want to fix the resin cracked on my surfboard. It’s a small crack along the rail. It looks water tight to bare eyes but I can feel the edge when I slided my hand over it, so it’s probably need to be fixed. I have a guy told me that " use a small amount of styrene which will fill the spider cracks, then immediately hit it with laminating resin and the cracks will just about dissappear "
I'm not so sure about the process. Should I apply the pure styrene onto the crack and then brush with laminating resin immediately or I need to thin the resin with styrene before put it on the crack and then hit it with regular resin agin?
the guy you talked to told you a good way of doing it and i would listen to him
use pure styrene and force it into the crack then immediately apply lam resin
if this doesn’t work then carefully grind down through the crack ( be carefull not to hit the foam) then add one or two layers of cloth then sand and hot coat
Is it possible to use thinned Solarez UV resin instead? I’ve read form the Solarez website. don’t know if it’ll work the same way.
" You may thin Solarez very simply by heating it in a paper cup for a few seconds in a microwave oven. (microwave ovens vary widely in strength so check your resin every 5 seconds to see that it doesn’t’t get too hot --hotter than drinkable coffee 130°F). This Solarez cannot have any MEKP catalyst in it!!! At this temperature, Solarez will be as thin as water and can instantly wet out fiberglass cloth. As soon as you pour out your resin onto a cool substrate, it will return to normal viscosity. If on the other hand, you want to add a thinning agent, you can add a little styrene monomer. It is not advised to add any more than 3% because adding styrene will soften the surface and cause premature yellowing. The adding of acetone or alcohol should be entirely avoided because these are not reactive diluents i.e. they do not become incorporated into the resin like styrene, they just boil out and cause pinholes."
Lam resin? Would you then hit it again with sanding resin or does the lam resin look finished with styrene? Or, perhaps by styrene we mean the styrene and wax mixture normaly mixed with lam resing to make sanding resin. Regardles, this sounds like a very useful trick for fixing hairline cracks.