I am trying get some opinions about the durability of boards that have painted EPS foam and then glassed. Have you seen more problems with delamination with painted foam boards than with boards glassed with the pigment or tint in the epoxy resin? I have never painted a board and I don’t want this one to fall apart. I was going to use Montana water based acrylic paint. My son did a board with this paint and everything seems fin. But he has only ridden it 3 times.
Thin coat of lightweight spackle. Sand it down to get rid of any high spots. Paint with acrylic, just don’t put it on too thick. Done lots of boards this way with zero delam issues. I’ll add this, I always put mine in a boardsock to avoid overheating from sunlight exposure. Don’t leave them in places like a hot car or anywhere in direct sunlight where they can get hot for any length of time.
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If you paint eps with Montana paint , the propellent will eat the eps unless you are very carefull ,
I believe it’s the styrene monomer in the paint that melts/solvates/whatevers the eps, rather than the propellant. Not completely sure though. Anyway that will happen with spray paint on bare eps foam.
I’ve done it several times with no issues. As said, thin the paint a bit and put it on thin. You just want the color to stain the foam, not to cake it on as a whole new layer. I glassed as normal and had no delam issues on either of the boards I have in mind. One even had black stripes painted on it and that was fine. I used acrylic thinned with a bit of purified water.
Thanks for the input. My son used Montana 300 waterbased. It didn’t damage the foam. It says on the can that it is safe for polystyrene (EPS). I just wanted make sure that I didn’t get any delames. I nguess I’ll go for it.
Wouldn’t it be pretty cheap to do a thin layer of no fibre flooring epoxy?
Jago,
I’ve used Zinsser paint primer with microballons as suggested a while back on Sways. Light white sandable undercoat. No delam issues on the one board I’ve done this way.
Red
On board #4 I painted an area with rather high quality acrylic paint (buddy works in a painters’ supply store, was the last pack, gave it to me for 10 bucks). I did some test panels, turned out nice, so I did it on my board as well.
Marko EPS blank, acrylic paint, 6oz glass, super sap epoxy. Built it in january, surfed in in morocco till late april, then a couple weeks more in europe. no delamination whatsoever. and i’ve been traveling in my van the whole time.
Pic is from the bottom, I have a larger panel on the deck.
As stated by others; I squeegee fill the blank with thinned out spackle, dry overnight, screen and paint with any kind of water base flat paint. House paint, Tempera whatever. I only do lighter pastels and add a little white to my paint color. Only an expert can tell that it is EPS and not Poly. Lowel