Need some suggestions please. I have a 67 Hannon signature that had a Wonderbolt put in some 30 years ago, it came loose today and am looking for suggestions on how to fix. I would like to keep the same fin in and not replace it with something else. I think my problem is trying to glass in the plastic fin.
thanks Dave
Why not replace the bolt? I know it’s an obvious question but I had to ask. Glassing in the fin is not a good idea.
I like the characteristics of the board just the way it is. I figure it’s been in there the way it is for thirty odd years, if it last a fraction of that I would be happy.
Thanks Dave
Cool. Good to see that this log is still getting in the water after all these years.
Old logs, that’s pretty much all that’s in the quiver.
Dave
I can’t see the bolt in the photo. Something tells me it doesn’t have a “wonderbolt” because that was Dewey Weber’s proprietary fin system.
Hi Sammy, the bolt is just not visible in the pic,but its there.I don’t know what the board came with originally.
Dave
Hi Sammy, if you blow the pic up you can see the bolt at the back side of the fin.
Dave
Aloha,…pictured is a Yater fin design with the Weber Wonderbolt,…good luck trying to find one I’d try Juan at One Fin in Fla.
It in the day was an expansion bolt in the rear of the fin and box,…Weber made a few that were “gold plated”,…I too would advise not to glass in, the poly fins didn’t hold well.
Aloha, Randy
Close up, the bolt looks like this:
Sammy, maybe I stand corrected. Here is a pic of it out. The fin will be epoxied back in place and we will hope for another 30 years.
thanks Dave
Looks like one, to me. It would have a series of holes around the barrel, probably four. The holes allow a small metal rod, or even an allen wrench, nail, or drill bit to be inserted as a ‘handle’ of sorts, and that’s how you turn the bolt. The bolt threads into the back of the fin and there’d be a bump at the rear of the box for the bolt to seat upon. Maybe a notch at the front of the fin with a cross bar in the box? It’s been a good 40 years since I’ve seen one IRL, so the details are a bit fuzzy.
Hey Dave, where are you located?
If you are in the orange county area i can take a look at it and see about machining a new bolt for it. Or fixing the original one.
I believe Dave is in Worcester County, which is a damned long drive from the OC.
Aloha,…Your Lucky Day,…WEBER HACKET FIN WITH WONDER BOLT ON EBAY NOW!
Aloha, Randy
Gonesurfn, thanks for the heads up, there was nothing wrong with the fin itself. It had been glassed into this board years ago and became loose. It has been epoxied back in place and is good to go. I will watch that fin on eBay, it will be interesting to see what it fetches.
Thanks Dave
I was making a Weber hatchet fin out of Zebrawood and Sapele 12 years ago, for a classic Weber and made this bolt after searching Ace hardware for something.
The Fin was never installed. The person who I was making the fin for sold the board. I still have it.
I Sold my Weber that I used as a template. Still have one, but it has a glassed in FU hatchet in the original box
How are you creating the female thread in the fins?
That zebrawood looks really nice!
I never even drilled the hole as other projects took proirity after the intended client sold the Weber. I was planning on clamping it tight on both axis’, drilling it and using a tap, slowly and carefully backing off frequently and vaccumming out debris.
I had made that zebrawood panel 3/4 an inch thick, then ran it through my tablesaw leaving me the hatchet fin, and a thinner panel about 3/16 thick, which I just busted out and sandwiched between some waxed glass with 3 layers of 7.5 oz on each side, to flatten it out as it had warped. I foiled it afterward.
Unfortunately the glass obscured the grain and the wood blew bubbles below the fiberglass. I decided to make a carbon fiber Halo. Put a lot of effort into this particular fin. But then stopped short of doing a gloss coat. I just wiped some epoxy onto it and put it into service. It is lighter and more flexible than the all fiberglass fin it replaced. Backhand projection is always surprising on the singlefin board I made it for, and it has since cleaved miles and miles of Pacific.
