Ouch, so glad that is not mine…
Plenty of suggestions here. I guess the cleanest results will be from replacing the entire bottom skin. However I wonder if you could cut a square section around the crack rail to rail, maybe 4" wide. Fill the crack and vacuum bag in a 4" wide piece of balsa with glass underneath, then blend it in, then glass on top, kind of how the board lady does her repairs. If it looks crap, you could cover with a band of fabric like Neira showed in his broken board repairs. Definetly replace the rail section, you don’t want to go through the trouble of repairing the skin only to have it break at the same point again…
Thanks Karl,
Trip out on a guy from NZ helping a guy in the US to fix a similar homemade board, learned on Sways. Fantastic!
Thanks for the pics, really made a difference. Killer board! Looks very simialr to my Quasimodo. How does that board go? What bottom did you do?
I have every intention of repairing the 1/2" balsa stringers.
I was just thinking out loud, could I add a scab (shim, brace, whatever) to the inboard side of each rail?
If I left the existing rail, created a channel 1/2" wide along side the existing rail, and glue up a stack of balsa wood to equal 1/2" but at least 18" long. That would give me 9" on either side of the break. I could stagger the joints to match the existing pattern. When I built the rails, I used 3" wide x 1/8" thick x 36" long. So I should have joints within 18" of the break, with a max of 36" if it is on a joint. I need to check that. I’ll let you guys know.
It just sounds like a pain to remove the existing rail material, but I know that’s what I’ll end up doing. Thanks to CJ and Dan also. I would really like to hear Speedneedle’s take on this. Speed?
Had the 40th birthday dinner last night, so no progress here.
Thanks,
WM
Sorry it’s taken sooooo long to get back to you WM, I’m in Kansas (!) at Animal Chiropractic Schooling. Trouble getting internet service here.
Can’t find the thread on my board repair but the info you’ve been getting here is just about the way I’ve been doing it.
Cherrywood… I cut strips 3/8"x3/8" and the length of the board. Lay them down side by side on the eps rail (deck and bottom have been vec-bagged) and GG to rail and each other. Then tape them all down conforming to the outline and rocker of the board (that has been established by deck and bottom). Then shape rail and do top layer of glass.
Here’s a few pics of taping rails, one pic shows black straps, that’s car inner tube rubber that I cut in 2" widths and how ever long I need, usually 7-10 yards.
Hope that helps!
Les
Yep Sways is pretty neat.
I kept the bottom dead flat. It goes awesome. I went from a 5’10" poly twin keel fish that weighed 8.8 pounds to a 5’8" quad weighing 5.5 pounds, is 1/2" thinner, 1" narrower all round, that catches the waves just as easily but is so much more responsive and goes rail to rail much quicker. The light weight loses a bit of momentum when firing down the line, but it accelerates much quicker so it evens out.
Going to make a 5’6" twin with proboxes to experiment with cant next.
Next time on such a repair I’d probably take the whole skin off (cut some squares around the fin plugs), peel the inner glass off, and reglass and vacuum the skin on. I think that would be better cosmetically and be more durable.
Karl