Okay, blame it on bad lighting, laziness, delusion or whatever, but the first mistake was when I airbrushed one board in the same room where another was waiting to be glassed (I only have half a garage to work in). The mist of (red) paint settled on the bottom of the unglassed board. I tried to sand it down to clean foam and thought I had it taken care of (lighting?) but when I glassed it, there were faint but still evident splotches and streaks of pinkish stains (it was supposed to be just plain clear white foam). No problem (I thought), I’d read the saga of Sylvia Sanders botched paint job and Herb’s advice that you could paint the sanded hot coat (which I did, blue to match the graphics on the deck, which came out great by the way) and gloss over it. The next mistake was I used a paint pen to draw a pinline to outline the blue (I’ve used them on foam with no problems). Looked great until I glossed it and the pinline started bleeding all over the place! So I sanded the blue lightly and heavier around the edges to remove the pinline figuring I could paint a new pinline with my airbrush and regloss the whole board (it’s a big fat old longboard so I’m not worried about weight). Pulled the tape afterwards though, to find the paint had seeped under the damn tape! (I thought it was a quality tape!) Not only that but when I was pulling the tape at the nose a two inch square of gloss flaked right off back down to the blue paint!! (Which makes me suspect the bond of gloss to the painted bottom) Now the whole mess looks worse than before. I’m considering my options: 1. Sand it all back down to the clean hotcoat (removing all paint) and glossing it for the last frigging time, and living with a faintly pink blotchy tinted bottom. 2. Same as #1. but adding white pigment to another coat of resin to hide the pink (then probably having to add yet another gloss coat on top of that!) 3. Strip the damn bottom of the board of the glass (taking the damn pink blotchy stains with it!)and relam, hotcoat and gloss it without telling my buddy (whose I’m making it for)that any of this ever happened! 4. Give my buddy his money back and set fire to the board, my garage, and all my tools, vowing never to try and build surfboards with my own two hands, and riding Bics or Surftechs for the rest of my life!!!
make another one sell or keep the R&D model… sound good? you deserve a new uglysaurus for yourself when you are bored with it strip and reshape it in the spirit of our predeforeshapers of the FABLED balsa koa wili wili redwood… I like the pink somebody’s first board will be that board and they will try to duplicate the color overspray and drip an run for the smittensonian or the googinhymen andy warhol would give perhaps a lifted eyebrow a silkscreen and a price tagfor the front window in soho good Job lad, kudos you are an alpha organism this is what will set this board apart from all the rest of those perfect(gufaw) ones…come surfin in my neighborhood an leave oit for me to sell I’ll get you a fair price or just let 100 people rent it and split the money with you they will be so happy …you can be happy too,please be happy,heck you just made another cool board…the next one will be hot,I just know it,especially now that you are warmed up…ride the son of a " JORO "(using the name with respect) call it a Paddleac some body might get it did I spell it right? Somebody ask Guptill or Dickie they might remember…yep the more I think about it …You deserve to make another one just for Fun wont it be fun?I I dream of finishing all this other stuff so I can make another one for fun for me …you can ride it too it wont have a leash plug…aloha
I have had all of these things happen. But never at the same time! One thing you want to avoid is a thick layer of paint over the sanded hot coat - especially if it covers a large area or even the whole board. People need to realize that polyester resin is not an “adhesive” – its adhesion qualities are very poor. The more paint – the less it wants to stick. If I were you – I would get some 80 grit stick-its and start grinding off the gloss, paint and into the original hotcoat. Then, I would give that sucker a light spray of red paint - fading off from the rails to the center where the center is almost completely white (not painted) The red “over spray” should be barley noticeable. To paint a large area – you need a large commercial, pneumatic sprayer like those used in automotive. A siphon feed is a good choice – it operates at lower air pressures and is less likely to overspray – plus you can move a little slower. One thing to remember when glossing over paint – don’t mash down to hard with the brush or it will lift your paint. No mater what – love this board – surf it and when you look at it remember: nothing is without purpose, it can always serve as a bad example.
Lobster, Re: the pinline bleeding - thanks to Kokua I found Zig pen pigment ink pens do not bleed as the Posca does (if that’s what you used). I too had to sand a gloss coat down to get rid of the bleed then used the Zig with no problems. I did double tape with a cheater 1/8" run in the middle to lay it down with no bleeding under the outer runs. I owe Kokua big-time for the tip. Also check the archives for blow drying Posca as you lay the pin. Pete - P.S. Just keep telling yourself that sanding keeps your paddling muscles tuned!
Sorry – I intended to say a “gravity feed” sprayer operates at lower pressures.
Thanks for the words, guys. I’m gonna sand down that sucker today to the hotcoat again, take another look at it and see if I can live with the pink. If it was my own board I wouldn’t care so much. It’s just that I’m making it for a friend who’s just starting and I want it to come out right. The deck looks so nice with a double blue stripe and flower print inlay and I also put a sweet looking balsa tailblock on the board. But pink…
remember these are just cosmetics… the performance is already locked in. If he/she is just starting it really won’t matter, and any beginner should be grateful to have a custom made board for their first, even if it is pink.
I once had the same happen… after weighing the options, my solution was to spray several thin coats of light yellow, carefully blending it into the pink overspray. I ended up with a soft, warm orange fade. Excellent results.
Maybe this is off the subject but the best board I ever made was twisted like friggin propellor.I wonder if twist is an overlooked design factor?Anyone know how to shape controlled twist into a board? R.B.
Sanded off the gloss coat and the paint to the hot coat again and there it was…the pink! Actually it doesn’t look too pink, just like dirty foam really. So, after reading everyone’s input here, my wife suggested I just call my buddy and let him know what happened to his board and see what he thinks. He doesn’t care, he said, he’s just a beginner and he’s stoked to have his first board made by his friend. “As long as it works!” he said. I assured him it would work. And so, he’s happy. I guess that’s why we call them “friends.” I guess it also pays to listen to your wife!
twisted boards, what a concept, you might be on to something here. How & where exactly was it twisted, and did it ride as well backside as frontside? Seems to me that a lucky twist might function just like a properly placed concave/vee??
The aformentioned twisted board went left really well…someone stole it on the northshore in 1971.Any way…as you looked down the deck the tail was twisted to the left and the nose forward of center twisted to the right.I shaped the board(stringerless) late one night and did a power glass job only to find the results the next day.It bottom turned like a dream and was good down the line.I had trouble going right (backside) but a friend rode it with no problem.Why dont some of you guys give it a shot. R.B.
I may just do that… but first I’m off to Makaha for some R&R… talk to you all in July.
Ive had a couple shapers tell me that the best board they ever shaped and rode was twisted somehow. Another told me that by far the best board he ever rode was buckled between the fins. Problem is how do you duplicate those boards?
velo(greenough’s spoon) had twist in it which after some serious r&r he deduced that’s what made that baby crank.he even built more spoons trying to duplicate that twist-never could, and though the boards all worked great, none came close to velo. I too have had a couple of boards with twist, one of which is my all-time favorite longboard.the other not so, and I believe that’s due to the twist going in the wrong direction…
Back in the 80’s I did some work on molded sailboard prototypes for Windsurfing Hawaii. When we got the original prototype we tested it and it was quite impressive. Fast, and easy to control because it was so smooth. We noticed before production that it had a 3/8 inch twist in it. Now this is the board that had, that year, out sailed every board in every magazine test. We felt that there was no way we could put out a flawed product such as this so we built a copy, as close as we could to the original. After the first board was completed we went out to test. The original with the twist would just glide over the chop while the copy was rattling our fillings loose. Side by side they were the same speed but the control the twisted board offered made it more fun and faster in chop. In the early 70’s all the boards built on the noth shore were built from either the 7’4" Brewer or the 8’1" Brewer blanks from Clark. Both were twisted. Everyone but Brewer took the twist out. The reputation for Brewer guns at the time was that they were smoother (especially at Sunset) than other shapers. So Dick, it’s time to come clean. When did you know and why didn’t you tell us? One thing seems obvious, twist can be a design attribute.
I guess I wasn’t crazy after all.
all hand shaped boards have some amount of twist to them.
There’s a very popular older Santa Cruz built sailboat called the Moore 24 that (rumor has it) has a little bit different shape on each side of the boat. It’s one of the most controllable sailboats there is in heavy air downwind. The sailboat version of twist, maybe?
I’ve heard of a boat with a similar type of askewed hull. It ran great, as long as you were doing circles. Just like my handshapes. he…