So i picked up this what appears to be authentic plastic fantastic off a guy for 85 bucks because it was old and ugly and I drove over an hour to pick it up so he knocked off twenty bucks off his asking price. First thing I noticed was the finbox was filled it with resin and an fcs which clearly doesn’t belong there. Also I’ve never seen a PF with glassed on side fins but they too have been spray painted. Where the fins are glassed to the board it appearsaa hint of yellow through the glass giving me the impression that board has been painted after production but then the logo would prove otherwise. The guy claimed it was shaped in 72. I know there are guys on here that shaped and glassed under this label in that time frame. I’m looking for those guys to help me out here.
Close up shots of the side fins would help to determine if they are original to the board. The placement tells me they are not.
The overall color looks original.
I’ll get some up as soon as I can. I did get ahold of Robert Highsmith on another social media platform and itsi his belief that it was indeed a twin fin that they were producing at the time and the center fin slot may have been added later on which I find baffling myself. Still lots of work to do on this board.
That board looks awesome. I’d be stoked to have that. Fix it up and show some pics of the process.
Ok so here is the yellow underneath the fins. I plan on riding it as is tomorrow morning then begin the restoration process. The board is water tight but I plan on sanding off the excess resin and paint off the fins then giving it a new color underneath. I’ll leave the top untouched and ride it proudly in the lineup.
I doubt that that board was ever a twin fin. Fins are horendously wrong. That diamond tail shape is characteristic of the boards shaped at Plastic on Main Street HB back in the day. Maybe even a Williams glass job. He went by the tag of Kokua on Sways. Everyone who glasses should read all his posts. He’s no longer with us, but surfin’ that great wave in the sky. Board likely was a single fin with a box. I had a 6’ Harbour just like it around 69-70 when I was shaping dogs between classes at college. Twins of that era on the West Coast had wide square tails and were based on what Rolf Arness was surfing at the time (maybe G & S?) Anyway, Sammy is the historian around here and knows his stuff so he might have more to say allthough he’s on the wrong coast… no offense meant… The yellow is the foam. If the board was made here and shipped to the Gulf, it’s Clark foam. The glass job is a red lam with cutlaps and pin lines as was standard for the time. Clear boards weren’t popular here at the time. If I had that I would grind off the side fins, drill out the glass in the box and chisel out the rest until I could put in a 7" single fin in that box, and surf it. I would also fix that cancer in the tail but that’s just me. The history of the label is quite a read in and of itself, but I try to just remember the great times in HB with Plastic, Dent, the Golden Bear, et. al… Oh, and I forgot, David Nuuhiwa crusin’ past in his white Rolls… Just my 2c…
Surfteach is correct. That board was a single fin when it was built. Given the outline, it was made at PF long before Highsmith was the owner. He has been all over Facebook lately posing as the man behind the label. He was the third owner and his boards have no connection to the original crew who founded the brand.
The board was likely made around 1971, when that outline style was common.
Kokua has posted a good timeline of the history of PF. Search in this forum and you will find it in old posts about Plastic Fantastic.
You guys are absolutely correct. The fins are after market but for the sake of my personal preference they will be staying. That horrendous center fin is no longer with us and I’ll see what I can do about that tail cancer. I’m no magician but i can get hopefully match some resin up and get it popping again. I’ll most likely be giving the under side a new paint job. I’m thinking bright yellow to contrast the red topside. Then we’ll add something a little more time appropriate for the center fin.
I’ll be refoiling this old thing to see if I can get something good out of it and using it in place of the original finbox. I’ll continue on later this weekend as it is currently too hot to do any outdoors work in my area so that limited me to early mornings or later on in the evenings. With my wife working weeknights I have to watch the kids. Still any progress is progress for someone who is in no hurry at all.
I would be true to the original and lose the side-bites.
Yep. They are too far forward.
So after getting on the sander she started taking to me and letting me know how her last boyfriend mistreated her and how she wants to be respected so I gave her what she wants! I ran out of daylight last night and I’ll try to get it as far as I can today and tomorrow.
Starting to look smoother than a shwinn! Were almost down to the original glass in most places. I’ll have to grab some q-cell to fill in that space from the tail I’ll be cutting out but hopefully by tomorrow I’ll be glassing that fin in and getting it prepped for paint.
So you’re going to glass a fin in or replace the box? If you glass it in, what measurement from the tail are you going to set it at?
Hopefully you will see this before you start glassing that fin in!
That’s the right fin to use, but what’s up with the drywall screws? If it needs a front pin, that’s an easy fix, drive the old one out with a punch and buy a new one at one of the box stores as almost everyone carries these in stainless. I know your’e excited but it wouldn’t hurt to slow down a bit and think it through a bit more. If the box is jacked, I would rout it out and replace it and cap the area. Same with the side gouges, you can get pretty close with red pigment and q cell if you take your time and do a couple of tests. Otherwise, just do your thing and surf it. We rode these slightly forward of the fin with a kind of a squat & pump stance. Watch some of the old youtubes from the mid-late 60’s. Remember that these boards don’t cut back well. The link is Galvestion Island. Just my 2c…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GlyH5VwfIE
As close to the front as possible to get groovy!
What you’re looking at is three holes I drilled through the base of the fin to insure the resin sets up in between and gives it some real bite. Kind of locking it in place along with some cloth footballs to build it up. I only used the drywall screws to hold it to an old tree stump to kinda hold it in place while I grinded and refoiled the fin a bit on each side. The pin is fairly new as it was a repop created for my first shape about 2 years ago.
Your going to glass the fin INTO the box???..
Get this man his chicken dinner!!!
Why would you want to do that?
A very good question!