Hi folks,
I have a stupid project - my favorite kind.
I found an old greg noll bug, completely beyond repair. Filled with bondo. Lots of it. Duct tape and rolled up unsaturated glass under the existing glass.
Once I peeled the glass, I discovered that it had no stringer. Never seen that before. I want to clean it up and reglass it, but first I’d like to add a stringer.
Can anyone give me any pointers?
Thanks,
Brian
Hone, I hope this post is a joke? There is no such thing as beyond repair. There are just limits to ones imagination, or skills.
You didn’t peal off all the glass did you? if you did…AAAAAGHAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Do you ever see the antique road show? A little love goes a long way. Did you save the laminate logo? did it have a fin system? Are you planning on cutting through the fin system to put you stringer in?
If it’s a Noll Board, even if it’s trashed, it’s worth more than a new board (in most instances). And surfs worse than a new board (in almost every instance)
If it doesn’t have a stringer, don’t put one in because you thinks it needs one? Some of the old transition boards either had no stringers, or they had a glue line for a stringer. a lot of those boards broke, so stringerless boards from the late, late sixtys are fairly rare.
Clean out the bondo, sand off the crappy glass. fill the dings and color patch with correct material, glass smooth & clear. Don’t try to hide every ding in order to get the board cosmetically perfect. Just do what look appropriate.
Anyways what were you planning on doing, cutting it in half and gluing a peice of wood in the middle? The only time you can add a stringer to a board is when it is in the blank stage. Blank stage meaning before it’s shaped. Once its shaped and glassed…it’s a done deal.
Listen, go buy a new blank and hack at that if your chubbied to shape you first blank…Don’t hack up the Noll Bug. Or if you want, you can put it on an Amtrack train, and send it to me.
Just to be clear folks, I’ve restored a bunch of boards. I’ve never seen a board which was in worse condition than this one. I would never ever destroy a classic if there was a chance to save it. ever. You’d have to see it to believe it.
you’re right - this board has a glueline. There’s no fin system - glass on single-fin. My thought was to carefully cut it down the glueline and glue in a stringer. won’t work?
Sorry, i didn’t answer you question:
You cut your blank in half. Then you take a piece of wood, anywhere from 1/8 in to 2 in wide x the length of your board. Now you take 1/2 of the blank and lay it down on the perpendicular to the wood stringer. Now you can scribe / transpose with pencil or writting instrument of choice the rocker of the blank onto the wood. Set two halfs of foam aside. Now cut out wood with rocker profile, sand semi smooth. Now you have 3 pieces of surfboard. Glue it all up with laminating resin and a bit of white pigment, or elmers glue, or gorilla glue, or whatever sticks. Now either use about 6-8 3/4 in Pony bar clamps, or if cheepo broke, go steal the bike inner tubes from all the kids in the neighborhood, and use them as big ass rubberbands to hold the blank mess together. Make sure that when gluing up the blank you lay it downon a flat surface. The tricky part is not getting a twist bump in you glue up. The glue up is where the money shot is.
Just to be clear folks, I’ve restored a bunch of boards. I’ve never seen a board which was in worse condition than this one. I would never ever destroy a classic if there was a chance to save it. ever. You’d have to see it to believe it.
you’re right - this board has a glueline. There’s no fin system - glass on single-fin. My thought was to carefully cut it down the glueline and glue in a stringer. won’t work?
Sorry about the rookie insinuation, but the initial post question “How do I make a stringer” indicates a need of education proficiency that most that post here are fluent in.
How are you going to smooth the stringer & glean up all the glue ooze once it’s in place? Once you take a planner to it, you open up a different can of woop ass, and you now have a completely reshaped classic, you have different rails, different rocker, etc…Even if you could only take off 1/8 to 1/4 in that once again begs the question…why?
Personally I would leave the glue line stringer, fill the dings in the blank with Dap Fast n final, then I would spray the repaired the dings in the foam blank to match the old foam color. Reglass the board clear, and reattach glass on fin…or remake correct glass on fin.
Personal over the top way: Take blank, fill blank dings as above, spray blank light almond leaving glue line showing. reglass with volan glass in a bitch’n free handed taped cut lap in Blue, Red, or Yellow. Take old laminate, scan it in, photo shop it, clean it up, reprint, and add it to the board. Now glass on a new retro fin. Over the top, but now you have something really cool.
But it all hinges on do you feel lucky with that stringer and planner trick.
Maybe you could route a slot along the glue line on one side of the board and glue a strip of wood into the slot, then flip the board and do the same on the other side. This way, you wouldn´t have to deal with adjusting and clamping the two halves, the rocker would remain unchanged and it would be less likely to twist the blank while gluing the stringer in. Would be just for asthetics, though, as this “two piece stringer” doesn´t have too much strength…
Laddies and lassies, READ THE ORIGINAL QUESTION.
To make a stringer you need wood, and a saw. A thickness planer helps too.
Generally wood is available in 3/4 inch thickness, length is something like 6 feet plus 2 feet increments.
Cut the wood to thickness with a “resaw” (band saw with a particular blade). Your garden variety band saw may not be strong enough to do this. The resaw blade has only about 3 teeth per inch. It’s likely slow work. Cut a little thicker than you want in the end.
Then smooth off the cut-to-thickness using a belt sander (if by hand) or a thickness planer (if well-equipped mechanically).
The surfboard may have more rocker than the wood you cut. Glue some more on, edge to edge, where you need it.
Resinhead addressed putting a new stringer into the board or blank, I’ll leave it at that.
My buddy and I made a few redwood stringers from a left over redwood beam and his beam saw. A bitchen tool for which I don’t have, but he does. Sure looks nice between that nice white foam. Mike