re shaping glassed board

ive got a 9’6 noserider that i want to reshape… the board just has way to much “belly” and way to big a "bird bath " so i want to "thin the thing out…

how should i do this ?

router? than peel the bottom off? angle grinder?

i dont think i want to take any strenth away from the rails by cutting into them…plus i still want the bottom to have a good flow…is it even possible?

thanks for the imput …i thought i had better pictures the contours are just way to extrem

Don’t throw good money and time after bad money. Sell it and start over, your wasting you time. Get a new blank, and this time don’t mess with huge concaves.

About 4 years ago I did Dale Dobson a styro that he said rode unreal, but he needed it to nose ride better.

It had a nice long blended concave and he got out my biggest dish concave template to mark out the bottom.

I gave him my dremel and diamond bit and away he goes. After stripping the glass off the new concave area, I shaped in what he wanted, a Nu’uhiwa style deep dish concave.

He was back the next day, “I hate it, it feels like I’m paddling uphill all the time”.

Sometimes it’s best to leave some things alone

Hi,

I guess you could improve your knowledge making some experiences with this board and checking the results. For instance, you could start stripping just the concave area, and trying to fill it with foam again.

Another observation: next time you try to make a concave, imagine a stingray swimming. Think the rocker is like the line from the head to the tail tip of this animal. When the wings are up or down, you can see something like a concave (tip to tip of the wings, or rail to rail as in the boards case) and how the rocker stays straight without any bump. Concaves can’t stop the waterflow, just redirect it.

I’ve reshaped a board before, (used a planer to get the glass off). If I had the choice again, I’d buy a blank and start over. Reshaping is just too much hassle.

sell it

make a new one or two?

case closed.

…ambrose…

if you do reshape it

you will have the same opinion when you are done

been that done there

I recently stripped all the glass off of an old 60’s beater board. Used a 1/2" straight router bit and set the depth at about 1/20th of an inch and then adjusted it until the bit just barely touched the foam under the glass. Then routed out approx 4" strips from nose to tail. There were approx 5 or so lines on the deck and bottom. Then route from nose to tail along the center of each rail. Grab a pair of pliers and peel each strip off. Then reshape and reglass. Worked like a dream and didn’t take long at all.

Granted, you have a much newer glass job to deal with and it might pull some foam up with the glass, but I guess you won’t know until you try it.

Good luck.

thanks SrPato

thats exactly what ill do… i was thinking that but how many router bits did ya burn up?

i think i will make a makeshift guide for the route around the rails…this will be a shitty job i need a vacume guy…

ita a clark blank and i really like the deck…the fin needs to be replaced to …

thanks to all that incouraged the ability to do this …for those that said don’t …that just gives me more incentives to do it anyhow…

tjd, Fear not. It can be done with good results. I’ve done it with 3 of my boards that I wanted to improve. But I’m not a guy who makes a living at shaping. If I was, I’d probably leave it and go on to the next. But I ended up with 3 good boards from 3 not-so-good ones.

Here’s what worked for me:

  1. With the board laying bottom up: Cut through the rails at the point where they start to curve down using a diamond blade on a 4" grinder. Try to cut the glass only, and not the foam.

  2. Peel the glass off the bottom.

  3. Sand the remaining glass of the rails down to the fabric for the future lap.

  4. Reshape the bottom.

  5. Reglass the bottom, lapping around the rails again.

  6. Hotcoat and gloss.

After you’ve made several boards, you probably won’t need to improve them like this, but go for it. I’ll bet you’ll end up happier with the results. Doug

TJD-

No problem with the bit. I used a cheap one from Harbor Freight and didn’t have any trouble with it. BTW, I’ll be stripping down my old fish this week. There’s a funky knuckle in the nose rocker and the rails are just a little too thick. Plus I have a set of twinzer glass on fins that I’ve been dying to try out. It all turns out to be a perfectly good excuse for a new board.

I love that feeling I get right before starting a new board. It’s the same one you get when your a kid and you know you’re going to Disneyland the next day. Anxious, excited, day-dreamy…MMmmmmmmm…

Anyway, 'll take some pics for you.