Re my 5/31/05 request for help, I tried the Q-cell, and ended up needing spackle to get a better feather on the edges of the repairs. I can see that Q-cell is the filler of choice for a fairly intact board. However, I was fixing large pock-marked areas on an old 1975-vintage 9’8" Ben Aipa longboard which I had completely stripped nude to the bare blank. It’s been re-shaped to a 9’1" high-performance longboard with a round-pin tail. The Q-cell did indeed fill the areas, but it’s resistance to sanding left a significant ridge at the Q-cell-foam interface. I took a Swaylockers advice and went to the Big Orange Home Improvement store to get DAP spackle. No generic spackle for me. It worked well and I hope to get some glass on this blank this weekend, sometime between the Surfrider Paddle For Clean Water and surfing with some friends.
Mahalo to all who responded to my question. “You take what you need, and you leave the rest.” Who said that, Dylan, The Band? I’ll report here if I get any d-lam on the spackled areas.
First time i’m seeing this thread. I always use spackle on old blanks, just like you found out, anything with resin mixed into it will be a lot harder to sand or plane than foam. Too bad you couldn’t have salvaged the AIPA and just did repairs & restoration. Your probably thinking the 70$ for a new blank would have been worth saving all the hassles.
Any how, next time you do a skin job spackle is the way to go. Sometimes after the spackle is just about set up and the board is completely sanded to a final grade I take a small chunkof foam and lightly press it into the spackle. This impression into the spackle gives it the slight texture of foam. When you color spray to match the blank it looks like a perfect blend in texture and color, and not a big smooth white patch.
You got that right, except blanks shipped to Maine are pricey. I like the tip about setting the foam texture, I’ll use it next time. By the time I got done patching this thing and sanding the Q-cell down, I’d sanded the damaged area smooth. I was trying to avoid that to keep from losing flotation, which comes in handy in 37F water.
Does anybody still surf down in Imperial Beach? I was stationed out there in '75-'76 and I used to surf IB, Sunset Cliffs, and Blacks.