Im working on a Bottom Restoration on a cool transition single fin. I have filled and Leveled all dents and dings. Next I did a opaque Olive sort of hotcoat, which wraps around onto the deck lap. The mostly opaque hotcoat did a pretty fair job of hiding the funk on the bottom, though I am having a heck of the time gettting the rails to even out- (Multiple coats using less resin will hopefully get me there) I plan on Polishing this Board when finished- I still need to add a bit more opacity to the board into the Glossing phase- Can I add pigment to the Gloss coat, and still get a nice Polished finish? I have been combing the resources and see very little discussion on this. Perhaps some of the guys who have been at this for quite some time could weigh in here. How were the color Pannels done on Boards Back in the 60s (what resins etc etc? Id like to keep my final coat thick enough to have a positive affect on the coloration- would a mix of Sanding and Glossing resin with opaque pigment- give me the thicker coat and still be a polishable deal? any need for a surfacing agent? If you have any tips- Love to hear them! Steve
Yes, you can add quite a bit of pigment to gloss resin. My advice is to pre-pigment a large batch of gloss and apply some to the bottom first, then the rails separately using the same raw batch. Is the deck going to be clear? Basically break up the board into a sequence. Heavily pigmented gloss is like a gel-coat on a boat, so you should be able to get a nice “hide value” by doing it on your board. I’ve polished panels directly but BEWARE if you burn-through during rubout/polishing. Common practice is to gloss clear over pinlines and panel work, so you must weigh (no pun intended) the advantages to this against the weight gains. I sometimes add some lam resin and SA to a batch of gloss (about 1:5)and it stabilizes the gloss from ‘orange peeling’ over painted artworks and also appears to keep the coat thicker. Good Luck.
Thanks for the tips with the pigmented Gloss- Yes the Deck will remain clear- It has a cool late 60s logo (Design 1) which I want to keep uncovered, and the Deck was in much better shape than the bottom of the Board. I have been working the Bottom and Rails in seperate steps- My problem was, my first coat on the rails wrinkled badly- The Board had been heavily sanded, and I assumed any harmfull residue was removed- Lesson 1- “Never assume anything”! I sanded the wrinkles even but left a somewhat uneven colored hotcoat on the Rail- Lesson 2- “Grind the mistakes completely off and start with a clean slate, so your not playing cover up from that point on-” Before the second coat I wiped the Rail line with acetone- Results- Much better. I still need to try and rid myself of some slight streaks- Maybe I can get em’ with a heavily pigmented Glass coat- So heres my question- Just how much pigment can I add to about 50 Ounces of Resin, and still get it to Kick properly? I Have a nice Base right now, with the color work I have allready done- Just looking to really cover the Last of the lightish spots. The Board was sanded to the weave prior to all this cover up work- But it is starting to gain wieight- (Kind of gos along with my aging curve actually!)- Finally- Is a fifth laminating resin a better additive to the Gloss, thann a 5th part of sanding resin- Isnt the laminating resin going to give me fits in sanding?- Steve
Those lessons you’ve learned are truly valuable- clean work is central to each step. Be sure the base is both consistent in shape (ie. smooth/level etc.) and has is even in color. Sounds like you are headed that way. After that, the hide capabilities of a pigmented gloss is just going to be a bonus. You should be able to mix about 1oz to 2oz of pigment to 50oz of gloss resin. The color(s) you use are key to getting a decent “hide” value. I know you are doing a green and I must assume it is opaque (vs. tint, or translucent). If it is possible, add some white opaque since this contains titanium dioxide and this has very good hide; kind of like primer. Here’s a good test I learned from a legend resin pinline guy: he would be mixing a batch prior to catalyst and dipping a stir stick and raising it, letting the resin run off the stick in a thin sheet. This thin membrane gave him a good indication of the final product. A bucket of “solid” colored liquid can be very deceptive. He also ran resin up the sides of his white paper bucket to judge the mix. My comment about making the gloss more robust refers to laminating resin and SA (surfacing agent), so indeed I am really pouring surfacing resin into the gloss (I like controlling the amount of wax and styrene myself). I find that the surfacing resin might/perhaps be kicking slightly quicker than the gloss within the even mixture. So build-ups on steep/vert surfaces stay put and remain slightly thicker during cross-linking; giving you better hide. Sanding is slightly easier than straight gloss. In our factory we rubout with 220, 320, 500, 600 all dry, then go to an aggressive compound. The 220 is used to remove the floated wax and tape line, and quicken the process. It also gives an optically perfect surface that is quite ripple-free. (you gotta know what you’re doing so don’t take this as gospel). Burnthrough=Bad. Are you glossing clear over the color? Sorry for all the words; what you’re doing warrants detail… Last tip: to get a smooth seam between the colored rails and the clear deck gloss, do the rails first and pull the tape on the uphill side IMMEDIATELY (keep the lower tape until gelled). The capillary action makes the rail color blend into the sanded deck nicely while still having a sharp edge. We use a 3M pad to scuff the glossed rails where the clear deck gloss might make contact knowing that the pad usually doesn’t burn through like some hand sanding might. Hope this helps. Good Luck.
Thank you for the thorough coverage of my questions- Its a real stoker to have someone share their knowledge, as is often seen on this site- It speeds up the learning curve incredibly! I am still waffeling on the idea of doing a clear gloss over the finished product- I think its really going to be a question of just how heavy it gets- The deck, will get a pin at the edge of the color seam- I actually used a pre-eisting pin as the boundry for my color lap onto the Rail. I was going to Place the pin on Before I did the final Gloss of my clear deck- (My first bit of work on the deck was to fill the many small Knee dents, and smooth the surface properly with clear hotcoat- Lots of careful had sanding here as I have tried to evenly sand an uneven surface, prior to filling. The boards original Resin work has toned/Yellowed to a degree- Just knocking the ridges off with a power sander, would leave lots of little yellowed depression rings. All right I realize I have rambled on too long here (and probably spent way to much time on this board period!). The end result should be nice and at the very least the education is really cool. Steve