In the latest TSJ, they discuss briefly Greg Liddle’s recommendation to periodically wet sand the glossed finish coat of a board to improve speed and connection to the wave. Anyone try this? Noticeable results? How much sanding do you need to do to give it the desired results?
I tried wet sanding the bottom of my board while riding it, but I kept falling off…
(PS there are lots of discussions of this in the archives…)
Howzit mjl, I used to get orders for boards with a sanded gloss finish, the best of both worlds. You get a board with a faster finish but still have the extra protection of the gloss, use 400 wet/dry sand paper.Aloha,Kokua
the speedcote stuff SurfCo used to sell worked the best.
Not only did it clean your board but left a slick that was highly water repellant until it washed off over item
I think Mr. “Cheater Five” originally developed it
Since I can’t find it anymore I use 303 in it’s place.
If they ever come up with an industrial formulation of RainX for fiberglass/wpoxy resin as a sealer/polish I’d give that a go too. It’s amazing how water just refuses to stick to a clean wndshield polished with RainX.
Same concept different technique.
Something with nano-particles is around the corner
it’s being used today as an anti-fouling coating for the bottoms of large container ships.
One day that’s make it to the bottom of surfboards
Do you thing rain x would damage epoxy as it is right now?
no
but I don’t think resin has as smooth finish as glass
so RainX isn’t made to fill all the pores in the resin to get the same hypersmooth effect it provides on glass.
They make a formulation for fiberglass but I don’t think it works as well as the SurfCo stuff which is oil based versus alcohol based.
I used a whole bar of soap once to wax my bottom and that was a nightmare
Almost as bad as the crushed alkaseltzer/resin coating that you sanded after paddling out into the lineup
or the 15 million tubes of silicon seal I used to layer the bottom of my board using ice cubes as squeegees
Got to blame Tom Morey’d advice and the 70’s for that diversion.
From Liddle website…
Finish Coat
My personal boards do not have a finish coat on top or bottom to keep the dead weight of finishing resin from retarding the feel of the design. A more practical approach to maximize longevity is to finish coat the bottom and leave the deck unfinished. The deck has the extra protection of the wax buildup and double layer of 6/6 or 6/4 oz favric one coat of dead weight finishing resin is eliminated.
Wet sanding
I will always suggest that the finish coated bottom be wet sanded with #320 or #400 wet /dry sandpaper. Use water and sand in same direction as the stringer from nose to tail, tail to nose, do the fins and rails too. You will notice that the water will stick to the wetsanded bottom and feel very different from the finish/polished bottom. The result feels faster to me, more under control and more conected to the wave. You can try it on any board you are used to. Ride it glossed first, wet sand the bottom and try it again to feel the difference. The board can be freshened periodically in this way if it becomes dead and sluggish.
Quote:
Howzit mjl, I used to get orders for boards with a sanded gloss finish, the best of both worlds. You get a board with a faster finish but still have the extra protection of the gloss, use 400 wet/dry sand paper.Aloha,Kokua
Almost all of my boards are sanded gloss, the lighter ones, just the rails . It’s noticeable when I periodically re-fine sand and tune up the edges.
Some of the gloss coats on pollished boards can weigh as much as 2 pounds.
A question from me guys.
Why is everyone recommending 300grade to 400grade wet & dry paper for wet sanded gloss finish?
I build solid body exotic timber electric guitars as well as bespoke exotic timber snare drums as well as surfboards (just listed my 3 main interests in life, sex used to be included but... lol) & I use down to 1200grade wet & dry on all (with tung oil or canauba & bees wax mix as the lubricant on the timber products & water with washing up liquid added as the lubricant on gloss resin) Just wondered is all?
I think that if you wetsand finer than 400 grit you looses some of the “cling” (maybe not proper term) of a wetsanded surface. A lot of research was done on boat hulls in the 1970’s and the board people followed suit. I actually use 500 grit which is an odd number but works great.
I like to sand and gloss the bottom and leave the deck with an unsanded hotcoat. It makes for a light strong board.I just wetsand the rails where the tape line is. Another old method for the deck is a “textured finish”…in other word you hotcoat the deck and squeege off some of the resin. The weave of the glass leaves a rougher surface that holds wax really well. I think Kokua used to do these also. I first saw textured decks on Hobie Lightweights vintage late 60’s.
Ok cleanl I can see the logic.
I'm about to (this weekend) shape a little retro fish which is going out to Oz & I'll only go down to 400g wet & dry & see what the feedback is from the boys downunder.
The Byrne Bros. in Wollongong, Australia in the 1980's were finishing all their boards with some sort of acrylic (I think) sprayed directly onto the filler/hotcoat/sanding coat instead of a gloss topcoat. I think it was either the same or similar to the acrylic topcoat used by the automotive industry. It can be left unpolished, which they did, so it looked like a wet sanded finish or highly polished as it is in the case of automobiles. Somewhere in the dim dark inner reaches of my mind I seem to remember it being called Tuffcote....maybe.
Has anyone heard of/used this or similar? I do remember it having 'cling' to it cleanl. Wax stuck to it like sh%t to a blanket.
Ok cleanl I can see the logic.
I'm about to (this weekend) shape a little retro fish which is going out to Oz & I'll only go down to 400g wet & dry & see what the feedback is from the boys downunder.
The Byrne Bros. in Wollongong, Australia in the 1980's were finishing all their boards with some sort of acrylic (I think) sprayed directly onto the filler/hotcoat/sanding coat instead of a gloss topcoat. I think it was either the same or similar to the acrylic topcoat used by the automotive industry. It can be left unpolished or highly polished as it is in the case of automobiles. Somewhere in the dim dark inner reaches of my mind I seem to remember it being called Tuffcote....maybe.
Has anyone heard of/used this or similar? I do remember it having 'cling' to it cleanl. Wax stuck to it like sh%t to a blanket.