New to swaylocks and really need some help on this one. I just bought a used shortboard which looked pretty clean, little did I know the small ding on the tail had been sucking water for quite some time and harboured a huge water pocket. I had no choice but to open it up and it is drying as we speak. I REALLY need some tips on reglassing this tail. It is opened up on either side of the tail with about 4 inches missing on the rail line.
I would really appreciate any input. Should I glass it with one piece of cloth? Will I have to do multiple layers? I want to get it water tight and solid so I don’t have to work on it again.
Make sure you get all the delam off, qcell putty, round the edges so you get a nice glass wrap @ 3-4 x 4oz, then, after you sand it smooth, you can put putty, add some cab-o-cil to the mix, or fine chopped glass, to make it hard, on the edge to get it sharp, sand, and finish coat. If you get it glassed nice and round, then a hard putty, hard edge, and yhou can put some putty all over the whole tail edge if you want, it’ll be stronger than ever, and way more ding resistant.
Do you mean glass wrap @ 3 - 4 layers of glass at 4oz? What would be the best way to mix a Q-cell puddy? Just add copious amounts of Q-cell and mold it on to create a new rail? Or would mixing it lighter and creating a painters tape cacoon around the glass wrap and then sanding to create the new rail work better?
After sanding away the delam, there’ll probably be plenty of deformation. So, my prefered method these days is like this: get some non-stick aluminium foil, cut out the shape needed to cover both sides. Have some of the extra sticky green tape, tape the foil on the deck side, mix up some resin, mix in lots-o-qcell, till it’s thick as can be without falling apart, put nice and thick on both sides, start on deck, then turn it over, then wrap the foil to get close, a tiny over is better than under, to the original shape. The you can sand it all nice and smooth, a bit lower than the glass, with rounded bottom edge, then, in this case, I’d probably use foil again to keep the 3 layers of 4oz in place. Sand nice and smooth,to shape, but it can be a bit rough for the finish putty. Add cab-o-cil/glass fibers, to the top putty for hardness/strength, sand the sharp edge and all nice and smooth, and finish coat of resin. The putty over glass is great for ding resistance/damage reduction. I’ve lost chunks of putty, and the glass was undamaged.
TaylorO’s method sounds about right. But, if it’s been sucking water as long as you think, I’d be concerned about black rot in the stringer. Once water gets into wood and stays there, it will begin to rot. You can do a nice repair, only to have delams later on because the wood is rotting. Check to see if the stringer is soft at the end. If “yes”, then you need to cut out the bad part and fill the gap before going any further.
