Gday all - a down under swayer here.
To bring you up to speed. I am currently re-shaping and re-glassing a longboard. The board was a replica of the T&C K-star Longboard (a 9’0 progressive 3 FSC thruster) bought on ebay for a dirt cheap price, the catch cry being a dirt cheap price. The Board arrived and asthetically looked great unitl a close inspection revealed super bulky rails and a deck thickness of over 3 inches as oppossed to 2 1/2. Tail thickness and nose / tail thickeness must have still been close to 2 inches…
But for 250 who is to complain…too much. Rode it a few times and surprisingly given the tail was so narrow once you got the hang of it the board was super loose and rode well. Biggest problem was the rail thickness and you inevitably were always catching them on turns, a lthough on the nose the board went great even with the FCS fin set up. After a fair few surfs the board cracked along the stringer and given I had an abundance of other boards to ride I set out a reshape and reglass project to trim this puppy like oprah on crack…
So started out with the angle grinder and basically cut the deck in haf and pulled the glass up on the dech and set about re-shaping the deck and rails. Has turned out not to bad in shape, what an eye opener - cheap china ebay special. Foam blank stuck together ( two piece butted together in tail - will somehow glass super strong here with some raps), warped stringer and joined stringer…no wonder this board had a 5mm paint job on it…Once the deck was re-shaped I sealed in a q-cell epoxy later to give it more strength and to fill the Polystyrene holes left from pealing glass and shaping. So have grinded the paint of the rails and the bottom as well to allow good bonds of the cloth.
Now the board looks half usual i want to ask some questions on finishing - i am planning to make the board into a quad and will glass two more fins into the bottom, im doing this because the fins are set to far back to far and you notice it on your turns and i have ridden a few quad longboards and there not to bad. So my questions are, following the obvious, yes this was a painful project but fun at the same time…
I will use epoxy resin - although might do my hotcoating in PU i find it easier to work with.
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What strength glassing? Im thinking 2 x 6oz deck and 1 x 6oz to gover bottom glass which is still intact but sanded back smooth.
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Is there a need for a deck patch?
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Where is the perfect spot to laydown some graphics and paint the deck to hide the eyesore core?
Will load some pics as the board has come along well and im looking forward to running it.
Cheers