I tend to favor 2-part pour foam to fill voids, but this one has me thinking that since it’s such a high-stress area that will have to support a new box, that pour foam probably isn’t the best option for this extensive of a repair?
Just looking for some confirmation or alternative insight.
The right way should be cut out all then glue a new foam block then shape and glass over.
Alternative i use today is cut, separate, actual break part cleanly and glue it at right place with lightweight epoxy putty. Then fill gaps with same putty if needed, sand all then lam over. Here seems you probably can keep the same plug.
Lemat’s first sentence in his post is what you need to know.
Thanks yall. I was pretty certain this was the best approach. I appreciate the feedback
Nice munch. Broke it right out?
Now, I’m a bit of an iconoclast and I’ll say use a foaming glue, like the white Gorilla glue to stick that piece into place and align it right. It’s fast, it’s easy, it goes off white, it’s compatible with styrene foam. It’s not the long, drawn out job that cutting out foam and replacing it is, with so many ways to screw it up.
Then, glass the bejaysus out of it, do your patch in several layers stepping out/larger and larger. Lap it on to the board well.
Look, the strength isn’t in the foam. You can snap foam with your hands, like a breadstick. It’s there to give shape and volume to the board in an easy to shape material. Try it with a cheap styrofoam cooler, a child can break it apart. Urethane foams are not much different.
The glass isn’t there just to keep said foam from getting soggy. It’s the real strength of the board. When you laminate foam properly with glass or another reinforcing fiber (carbon fiber, kevlar, please don’t use hemp) and resin you get a tough, lightweight structure that lasts.
Hope that’s of use
doc…
“Glass the bejayus out of it” will just make it heavier on one side than the other. Which means it will never ride the same.
Umm, no offense, but seriously?
Average it to four 12" square layers (4 square feet) of 6 oz. (per square yard, 9 square feet) cloth plus what, 4 fluid ounces of resin tops and more likely less than half that? Which is what, no more than 12" from the centerline?
I’d be surprised if there’s any noticeable difference. If it was woven roving or thick glass matt or a combination with a lot of resin rolled on, yeah, maybe, but that would be more a difference in how the board flexed, not the weight .
And zero noticeable difference from the weight of a ‘cut out and replace the foam buttering the edges with cabosil mix’ or form and pour with pour foam job if there’s enough glass on the repair and beyond to tie it in properly.
Hell, the board itself prolly isn’t perfectly symmetrical. We live in an imperfect world.
doc…
If you look close at the pic, you will see that the front of the box has been knocked upward by the impact. No amount of super glue is going to make up for all that damaged foam that the fin box has to be pressed back down into. No offense intended. My experience of doing ding repair in So. California and Hawaii for way too long, tells me that most people prefer a clean, strong repair over a gooey looking mess.
I will say that I once owned a Canyon Thruster shaped by Rusty back when he shaped for them. It was a 6’8” Rounded Pin and the best shortboard I had ever owned up to that time. I did a similar ding getting into the water on a shallow reef at Saint Andrews. Knocked the glass on fin and the foam chunk at the tail rail and left it dangling. Attached only by the deck fiberglass. No I didn’t repair it with new foam or expanding glue. I $#!t canned it. Back to Central Coast in SLO and bought another. But couldn’t get a 6’8 off the rack. Had to drop to a 6’3. But within a couple of days I was up in SC at 1st Peak making late drops on overhead low tide waves. I knew that whatever I did to that 6’8 it was never gonna be the same.
