I’m having problems grassing fins on I’ll post pics later I’m in school but I cut it too far and part of the actual fin isn’t covered by cloth. What should I do and the fin rope got all bunched up and dried. Help please I will fix grammar at home sorry
That happened my first time doing them. It happend on the leading edge where it’s a bit thicker, so I just made sure that the fin had a layer or resin over it and it was fine. They’re wood, I haven’t noticed and water intrusion and I’ve surfed the board plenty of times.
Pictures would help with the fin rope thing, and others will probably know better. But what my limited expierence would tell me to do is clean up the area and reinforce with additional rope or small rectangles of glass. I don’t know if it’s “proper” technique, but I found creating a nice base with 6oz glass in combination with some rope worked well. Basically mostly glass and a small amount of rope. And the fins are stil attached so it worked.
So I should cut out the messed up rope and add another patch around each fin with cloth or just resin??
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If you used lam resin, hotcoat it first. Grind out the old rope using the edge of your sander, but don’t cut into the fin. Then sand the fin 75% of its height both sides. Rope is only cosmetic, it doesn’t do anything to hold the fin on. Alternately, you can make fillets using a thick filler mix and sculpt in the radius with a spoon. Sand the fillet with paper wrapped around a dowel/pipe/whatever. Use 2-3 layers of cloth on each side of the fin, enough to go at least 2" out at the base and up to where you sanded on the fin. Cover the fin with 1/2" overhang on the first layer of cloth and make the outer ones smaller. If this is a huge single fin on a LB, use heavy cloth and more layers + go out from the base almost to the rail. Tips: (1) Sand the fins horizontally with the board standing on the rail, (2) Let the filler mix sit in uncatalyzed resin for 30 mins to completely saturate the filler and minimize pin holes, (3) Use a 4" sanding disk on multi-fin setups, (4) Tack the fins down with UV resin filler (toothpaste consistency), align, hold with tape, and then UV it, (5) If the fin spacing is tight, use UV for everything and only do one fin at a time so you can get the sander between them, (6) Trim the overhanging cloth on the fins with a sanding barrel in a dremel tool.
Read PeteC's comments. Read them several times. Go to FoamEZ or Greenlight and order a book called "The Ding Repair Scriptures". Read the book...look at the diagrams...go back and read Pete's comments....one little Funky Hippy Book has so much information....might set you back $25 with shipping...I see this book as a great baseline...a starting point.....a pot of gold........
Stingray