Hi Sam,
Let's see if we can get you squared away here
[quote="$1"]
I am working on a friend's super expensive 10'6 Stewart Clydesdale that fell off of his rack on onto the hood of his Desoto - Needless to say it's a mess. I am wondering which way to go to repair the damage on the rail. Both dings are soft - the one on the deck and the one on the rail. Do I grind out 6" of glass from between the 2 dings and repair it that way? Or do I repair each ding individually and try not to get into the color on the deck delam?
Which way would you guys go on this one?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Sam
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Ahmmmm- first off, I think Buddy there needs better racks over said DeSoto. And, Stewarts were never known for particularly good glassing. In any event....
A few ding repair rules to live by:
Never grind or cut or rout out anything that you don't absolutely have to. You wind up inadvertently grinding into the foam most of the time, which needs filler, which turns into a freakin' nightmare. When cutting out glass willy-nilly, a typical newbie error, you have a spot you gotta fix and fill to get to the original level, which is damned tricky to get right and a lot of extra work. I won't even start on the use of routers in ding repair - suffice it to say that you don't want to. Overall, look, you're not a heart surgeon, don't slice and dice and puree- 90% of the time you don't have to.
Next, never mess with color if you don't absolutely have to. With a very few rare exceptions, which were boards made way back using plain single stock pigment for a color, you never match it right.
Always try to salvage as much of the original stuff as possible. It's easier, it doesn't need blending in, it looks better.
Now, getting down to cases here-
Sand gently with coarse (~80 grit) sandpaper, by hand, until you have the cracked and loose resin off it. Brush on some thinned sanding resin, thinned with acetone or (prefereably) styrene so it'll penetrate the cloth weave you see. Catalyse lightly, so you have a good pot life/working time and can work it in well - I have been known to cut down the bristles of a chip brush with scissors so the brush is stiffer and better able to work the resin into the existing cloth.
Note that I say 'sanding by hand' - if you're asking these questions, I'm betting you're not, say, a professional surfboard sander, which is the skill level you'd need to have to attack this with a full on grinder. If you are really good with a 5 or 6 inch random orbital sander with a soft pad , you could give it a shot, but that's also kinda dangerous if you don't concetrate - hand sanding is safer with far less chance of screwing it up, and DON'T USE A SANDING BLOCK!! Using a sanding block, well, look, the rail is round and the block is flat - saw an idiot using a sanding block on rail repairs. Said idiot sanded through his repairs and all the way to foam several times - refused to listen or learn.
Anyways - you have your resin saturating the old cloth such that the weave look has gone away and the damaged area is now nice and clear, the crunch went away. Good, hand sand lightly, say with 220 grit. Lay a patch of 4 or 6 oz cloth over, wet it out with a brush and sanding resin, use the minimum of resin, just enough to wet it out.
Sand again, by hand. Get it smooth, then go at it with a clean, new white rag and some acetone, to get the dust off it. Follow that with a gloss coat of sanding resin, thinned a little so it flows better, just flow on enough so it's smooth, without excessive brushing. Before doing that, go at your brush with a comb, get the loose bristles out of it - one of those will drive you slightly crazy. Tape around the area to be glossed , remove the tape when the resin just starts to go off, the edges can 'collapse' a little that way. Sometimes that's good enough so you don't need to do any more.
If you're lucky, it won't need sanding or polishing. If so, have a beer and pat yourself on the back. If it does, well, go at the edges of it with wet sandpaper and lots of water, start with 220, follow with 400, wash it down, give it some polish and a lot of elbow grease.
Then, have two beers and relax. You've earned it
It's kind of a long and involved process, yes. That's why ding guys get paid what they do, the good ones.
Or even the so-so guys, like...
doc....