A bit of background first, this is an older Harbour Turbo Banana that a friend bought used last year. It’s been around the block a few times, but until I got my hands on it it was water tight and ridable. Unfortunately, he let me ride his “baby” and on the first wave I snapped the tailblock (long story see pics below). Here’s the bigger problem, this board cost 300.00 used, the repair estimates I’ve gotten have ranged from 200 - 250, that’s two thirds the cost of the board. I’d like to save this board and I’ve done ding repair in the past, but nothing this serious.
I’ve read through all of the forum posts on adding tailblocks or shaping tailblocks and I’d just like to run my strategy by you all before I cut into this board. Here’s what I was planning on doing. Cut off damaged area (back past the leash plug), resin glue a block of foam (do I need dowels in the foam?), reshape the tail to the best of my limited abilities, lam with two layers of 6 oz cloth (overkill?), then re-drill and set leash plug, hot coat and polish. I don’t care about getting the pinlines back on the board, or making it all that pretty, I just want it to be ridable.
Is my plan of attack reasonable? Any suggestions would be welcome. Here are some pics of the damages.
If I were you, I wouldn’t touch the leash-plug. Otherwise, your plan sounds good. Try and cut at an angle that will be easy to duplicate on your replacement piece of foam and maybe add a little bit of white pigment to the glueing resin (it will match better). Don’t forget to sand rather heavily on the edges of the repair, it will be easier to fit two layers of glass without too much of an overlap effect. Pinlines will be very easily touched up after sanding the hot-coat, using either a Posca style pen or just acrylic paint.
Anytime the foam is split horizontally (like this is), there are big structural problems. Sometimes, you can fill the split with lam resin and clamp, but you’ll still need to cut away the crushed parts. Filling of the crushed areas and shaping the hard filler is too extensive for this level of damage. You will have to splice in new foam all the way to where the original is no longer split. If you still see a split after cutting, then use the glue and clamp routine. Use a fine-tooth saw for cutting out the area using straight lines. You can glue the foam in place with thickened lam resin, and hold it in place with wide tape pulled to the adjacent rail. Use a surform tool to get it to 1/8" of the final shape, and then 100 grit on a wood block for the rest. Be careful when shaping at the glue line of the splice. Final finishing on the rail edges do with a small folded piece of 220 grit. Glass with 2 layers of 6 oz, with the outer layer about 1/2" beyond the inner for feathering. Glass 3-4" beyond where you cut (wrap it if you need to). Add the leash plug after hotcoat and before glossing. A lot of work, and you can see why the quoted repair cost is so high. Some non-technical advice: If you’ve never done this sort of thing before, don’t use your friend’s classic board as the learning curve. Either practice on a scrap board or leave it to an experienced person. Reading about it and doing it are two very different things.
Looks like you might need some nose repair too, or eye socket repair.
The bottom shots on the flickr page tell a good part of the story in a good way. In one of the above shots it almost looks like the whole tail is lifted like you’ve got a split across the bottom. Not so and that’s good. So you’ve got that corner. If your really don’t care about looks, seems straight forward to cut out a corner, glue in a piece of foam, reshape and reglass. Using the other side for a guide is good.
Based on the pics it doesn’t look like the plug is compromised except for the torn glass which can be sanded back and reinforced when doing the rest of the project.
No dowels. Just good flush glue surfaces. The glass will take care of the rest.
Not worried about looks? Okay but keep in mind that the new foam is going to be super white. A little old foam color and pinline will go a long way to minimze how the repair stands out. On this one, I mixed and sprayed a little “old foam” outside the yellow. Notice how much brighter the white in the break is. It was really bright before I painted it. The colors aren’t perfect but they really help reduce how it stands out.
“…this board cost 300.00 used, the repair estimates I’ve gotten have ranged from 200 - 250…”
I need to charge more for my repairs.
I’ll do it for $100 but you have to drive down to San Marcos. I’m sure Ken or Pete can give you a good deal…
Ray
I just did one the same on a board that came off the roof of a car on the motor way and I’d only charge £40.
All the above advice is sound, cut out and repace the damage foam, it helps to create straight edges for gluing in the new piece, make it larger than you need, hold it on place while the glue dries with masking tape. Then shape the foam to match the other side, add some filler round the edge, sand that back, add new glass, sand, fill coat, sand, pin line, then another sealer.
Thank you all so much, for all the help and advice. If I decide to tackle this on my own I’ll post pics of the repair process. You guys have treated a new member with respect and grace. I guess that’s why I keep coming back to this site to learn.
Dunno about Ryan, but I’ve used a little instant coffee in acetone rather than tea. The stuff I used dissolves okay. I suppose you could just use black coffee and let the water evaporate, I just had to get impatient and technical, idiot that I am. That might be a little safer with some foams
Actually got the idea when I had to do a couple of dings quickly, in a paper cup that’d had black coffee in it. That pale brown worked pretty well. So , took it further.
hope that’s of some help. Probably the best use of instant coffee
Nothing as creative tea bags here. I did a bunch of trial and error mixing with acrylic paints. I just have the primaries red, yellow, blue and black and white and go from there. It’s a struggle that doesn’t always work out. It’s tough because lighting can change things and when you put on foam it changes and when you wet it with resin it changes. Of the couple I’ve done I would suggest that you expect it to get darker than what you think you’ve got.
A big thanks to swaylocks kensurf for help with the repair on this board. I didn’t think I’d be able to do the repair myself, and kensurf stepped up to the plate a did a fantastic job. Here are a couple of bad cell phone pics of the repair. I’ll let him talk about the actual repair if he wants. Thanks to all who replied and especially to kensurf for going above and beyond. Maybe next time I’ll give it a go, but I’m always grateful for the skill of those who know what they are doing.
