hi guys i have just shaped a board out of green XPS and was planning to seal/paint the blank with white water based paint. But after reading up and talking to others about De-Lams and xps i am thinking this may be a bad idea as it may compromise the bond of the glass to the foam. i will be 60git sanding the blank before glassing. am i right in thinking that painting the blank is a bad idea?
If so do any of you guys know of a stain or paint that i could use to paint the blank that would not compromise the bond of the glass. I am not that keen on a green board if i do not have to have one. i was thinking of tinting the lam resin but i have some timber inlays that i want to be able to see so cant do that.
i guess i could airbrush color on the board after the filler coat before the gloss but i want to do the whole board
if anyone has any good ideas or methods please let me know. as always thanks for the imput
cheers antony
Not until you glass over a painted XPS core do you really gain a firm sense of what delamination is all about . . . In other words, unless you want a gauranteed waste of time and money, don't do it!
The first boards I shaped from XPS were pink. That was the only color available to me where I lived. The first one I painted the foam green with flat latex paint before glassing. It actually turned out looking great, but quickly began to delam after a few times out. The paint stuck to the foam (sanded to 60 grit) just fine. The epoxy does not stick to the paint well at all.
The next couple boards I glassed directly to the rough sanded XPS and had absolutely no delam problems. I painted those white on top of the sanded hotcoat with oil-based rustoleum and it stuck without any peeling and was not easy to scratch except for on the rocks. Rustoleum makes a paint now specifically for plastics. Maybe worth checking out . . .
The last few boards I shaped from pink XPS before moving to EPS and wood, I just glassed as is. SO - I've got a pink board! I know a lot of guys in the lineup thought I was a kook/fairy paddling out. However, after seeing that the color of a person's board in no way defines his/her abilities, some of the guys actually got up the nerve to ask me about those pink boards. I told them about how they were shaped from XPS foam from Home Depot and cost about $60 in material to make. . . also told them about why I left them pink . . . I know of at least a couple of them who finished or were working on a pink XPS board of their own.
There is no reason other than conformity to have a white surfboard (is there?). Embrace the material you've chosen to use, and let the results speak for themselves. Good Luck!
Paint over the glass - there is info about it here. If I am going to, I paint over the sanded finish - no finer than 100 grit - then clear coat that… Works good enough for me.
Heres my latest XPS board glassed in bamboo woven.
Always paint over the skin/glass with XPS then no delam! other option is bamboo fabrics are now coming coloured… testing a navy coloured fabric at the moment! looks good on the test patch… like a resin tint…
nice foamhack. I like the bamboo stencil/decor, too
