Hi all,
I have a 9’6" Balsa Flite that has a bunch of fairly minor dings. My plan was to sand it down to clean,fill a couple deeper dings with qcell or balsa dust and glue filler and reglass with 4oz top and bottom. Its pretty much sanded and ready to go, but its too pretty for me to screw up with my crappy glassing technique.
Anyone with skills in the Watsonville/Santa Cruz area willing to help out with this project? Will of course pay all materials and $ for time.
Mahalo - Tortuga
Mahalo - Tortuga, That’s really cool that you have a Balsa Flite. I have three Balsa Flites right now, a 6’-1" fish, 6’-6" swallow tail twin fin and a 6’-6" single fin fun board. I have been buying and shaping balsa blanks for the last year. I get my blanks directly from Skip in Ecuador his website is www.balsaflite.com. I would try and fill the dings with balsa as much as possible, cut the damaged area away and make clean square cuts and replace with new balsa. Try to avoid filler because it will show up really bad after glassing. If you have to use filler, mix up some balsa dust with varnish or polyurethane and fill. Sand the board with 100grt and make sure that you sand with the wood grain at all times, because cross sanding marks will show up after the board is glassed. After the 100grt finish up with 220grt, remember sand with the grain. Then I use polyurethane varnish to prime the board, two coats and lightly sand with 220grt in between coats. Then I am ready to glass. Make sure that your lam resin is warm, it flows better when warm. Glass the top first then the bottom and use a free lap on the rails. Do not use tape or razor blades on the blank. When you glass the board, do not walk away from it, watch for air bubbles, the balsa loves to release air. Oh yea! the boards are hollow so be really careful when you repair those dings. I live in Tahoe so I can help if you need more.
hhrboy - aka Hey! Hey! Ralphi boy - Poe Rava surfboards
Hey Tortuga, Maybe I miss read your message. You want to reglass over the existing glass. Is that right? If so why?
Hiya Poe,
Thanks for the good info. The freelapping would have solved some uglyness I created on another balsa.
I felt, perhaps mistakingly so, that if the glass was adhering well to the wood and largely undamaged Id be better off fixing the dings, sanding off the whole board and then laying a single layer of 4oz over the whole enchilada. Per your advice, I would also want to seal the couple areas I have bare balsa prior to glassing.
Skip builds some pretty light and high displacement boards and Im #150 so the addtional weight isnt really a factor. Just want it to be watertight and purty.
-Tortuga
Hey Tortuga,
I know a couple of pros real well. If you want to get in touch with someone who has their own surfboard glassing business just let me know.
Good Surfin’, Rich
Hey Rich,
I’m attempting to do the impossible. Sit in on a glassing session. I’m in Santa Cruz. I’ve done 5 boards to date, but I really need to sit and watch someone who is a pro. I’ve read the books and watched the 101 videos, but it doesn’t help me with longboards that much.
Any advice would be very welcome,
Thanks for your time
Jeff
Marc Brown of Paradise in Wastonville has been very good to me. I recommend him. He also laminated a couple of Douglas Fir wall hangers for another friend. Beautiful work. pm me if you would like his number. mike
When you seal up small patches here and there on a balsa board it will still show up as minor discolorations, usually somewhat darker than the rest of the board, because of the way the wood soaks up the resin and/or the resin has a different composition than the original resin mixture.
Also, if you are sanding bare naked balsa you must sand with the grain, but if you are sanding a glass job and/or sealed balsa it really does not matter which way you sand, as you are obviously not sanding the wood itself. In other words, sand as you would a glass job on a foam blank. (Be careful, however, not to leave any scratches as these will show when you put on the next layer of resin.)
George Green glasses at Bob Miller’s shop in Burlingame. He glasses John Schultze’s (SF SS) boards as well as Bob’s. He’s a true pro, does inlays, tints, swirls, epoxy…everything. He’s also totally casual about letting people watch as long as you save your questions for when he’s done and stay out of the way. Whatching him is how I learned…
Hi all,I have a 9’6" Balsa Flite that has a bunch of fairly minor dings.
Was that the board that was listed on craigslist? I emailed about it fairly quickly but it was already gone. Glad it’s in good hands and is making a comeback!
tortuga,
call Mark Brown at Paradise Fiberglass in Watsonville.
722-7111
kirk
Jeff,
Since you are in Santa Cruz, contact Fiberglass Hawaii on 17th Ave. They have held a couple of board glassing demos in the last year. Maybe they will do it again. I wasn’t able to attend, so I’m not sure exactly what techniques were demonstrated.
George Green glasses at Bob Miller's shop in Burlingame. He glasses John Schultze's (SF SS) boards as well as Bob's. He's a true pro, does inlays, tints, swirls, epoxy...everything. He's also totally casual about letting people watch as long as you save your questions for when he's done and stay out of the way. Whatching him is how I learned...
Dude, where ya been?
The Burlingame factory is closed, and George glasses at M10 for Rasche now (using RR epoxy), and he no longer does any of Schultze’s boards. Schultze spreads between a few glassers and does some himself.
I think Bob is shaping for a shop in Santa Cruz, and his brother still runs the retail shop.
The old one is closed, but there’s a new one farther out Coyote Point. George & Bob still work out of there. Beyond that, you’re completely right that George also glasses for Geoff and Bob sells boards at Palm St (which used to be his shop)…didn’t know John went elsewhere, thanks.