So I’ve managed to pick up an old beater longboard that was going to get tossed out.
And decided to try a reshape.
It will be the first board I’ve “shaped”, I figured since sourcing a blank where I am is quite difficult or really expensive I thought I could practice with a reshape.
I’ve recently heard about a way to remove the fiberglass using an air compressor.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience using this method and would be willing to give me some advice?
From what I know they drill a hole in the nose and use the air compressor and it lifts the fiberglass from the foam cleanly.
Use a heat gun, it works great. I guess you could use a hair dryer, but they tend to shut off when they get too hot.
I have been able to get boards stripped cleanly with the heat gun. I cut the rails off then use the heat gun and slowly pull the lamination up. I usually get the whole side off without it breaking up. Then I use the old skin as a template. They are flexible and never worry about water damage. My masonite templates tend to get damaged over time due to humidity.
I’ll give it a go with the compressor and report back here for anyone else looking to do the same thing.
I guess I’m just wondering if I’m missing out on any steps to do before. I just saw a short video and made it look so easy. Got me wondering “it can’t be that easy can it”
Hello i saw that video too.
A guy hunting for clark foam blanks.
And i also seriously doubt it wil work but i really benn looking to give it a try for a while now.
Please let me know how it went.
I guess there can’t Be any holes on the board or delams.
The thing must be airtight.
Cheers and good waves.
So this is the board I’m reshaping, a performance longboard 9’0 x 22 1/4 x 2 7/8
I’m not sure if the photos are clear or not but there’s a pretty deep nose channel.
Makes me worried about what I can do to reshape it because I feel if I foil down the sides to how deep the nose channel is it will be too thin.
I’m thinking about just chopping off at the fin boxes so I don’t need to worry about that.
It would bring the reshape to about 7’4 with the fin boxes and tail taken off.
My tentative plan is a 7’4 x 21 3/4 x 2 3/4 WP forward egg with a twingle setup. (thank you Thrailkill for the design, excited to try it out)
Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on the reshape plan?
Mostly concerned about the nose channel.
I’ll post some photos when I attempt the air compressor method that way anybody in the future might have their questions answered and be able to get some info.
What sort of nose are you planning to make? If there’s any concave planned, well some of it is already there for you. Plus, most noses are fairly thinned out, so if you save the concave section for your new nose, it might work fine.
Plus, you didn’t mention nose dimensions on your egg shape, but those channels (which are awesome) might be rails or cut off for rails on your new shape.
It’s good you’re doing the air compressor method. I hope it works. I’ve always found that once the glass is removed, my shape options are forced to change.
I’ve done more than one twingle and they’re the real deal. My biggest hangup is there’s a noticeable weight difference with two boxes and two fins. Try to get light fins (or make them). Ultimate lightening with glass ons.
Thanks Sk8ment I hadn’t found that thread yet!
Always happy to find another thread I can go through, love this site!
Marc, originally I was just planning on a completely flat bottom. Easiest bottom contour for my first time shaping and I figured the speed from a flat bottom would be nice.
But what you said makes sense since the board already has that nose channel to just turn it into a concave.
But part of my shaping goals is experimental so starting with a flat bottom to get a baseline for how it surfs and then in future projects play around with other bottom contours that way I can compare and experience how bottom contours feel in the waves at my local. See which ones I prefer based on experience not just theory.
I hadn’t gotten around to planning out the other measurements for the board yet, ie nose width etc. I figured once I stripped the glass I’d probably be reevaluating the shape and dimensions since the original shape and that nose channel would probably influence what I do with the reshape.
I didn’t even think of how the added fin box would add weight, good to know! I’ll probably still stick with the fin boxes vs glassing on since I’ll probably want the flexibility of moving the fins around to find how far up or down fits best.
I just read through that build thread. So much great information in there! What a great project, really inspirational. Got me thinking about beaten up boards I’ve seen that were destined for the dump and how fin plugs etc can be salvaged. I guess you could even glue up polyurethane foam like eps to make bigger boards???
I wish I’d seen that thread earlier. I spent a couple of weeks on the Sunshine Coast with the family earlier this year, would have loved to have met up for a coffee, or beer! You live in absolute paradise!
After reading this thread and making my reply I worked on another reshape and tried the air compressor method. I didn’t get as clean a stripping of the glass as I was hoping for. There must have been a couple of dings I didn’t see so only half of the deck glass popped up and then it had places where I lost a pretty good chunk of foam.
My goal was to make a 4-6 from a 6-4 board so I managed to make it work.
I think a combination of using a heat gun and heating up the whole side a little before using the air compressor might have left a cleaner blank. Also, you can’t have any holes in the glass or it will stop wherever the hole is. I was impressed at first when it popped up, but then not too happy when I saw chunks of foam stuck to the glass.
You beat me to it, I’ve been searching for an air compressor I could borrow to try! But from your experience I’m quite thankful maybe saved me from ruining the board I have.
If I can find a heat gun I’ll definitely give your method a go but i think the other option if a heat gun isn’t available is to use a sander to sand down the rails and cut strips of the fiberglass.
I think the heat gun softens the resin enough to change the bond and that makes it easier to pull off the foam.
One possibility for why the foam tore could be that the foam was from the days right after Clarke Foam shut down and it was one of the early Chinese blanks that were hitting the market. I got them cheap from a guy who had them made there, but they had issues, so he was dumping them. I remember when I shaped them, there was paper stuck in some of them and I had to work around the bad spots. Other boards I stripped were really old Clarke blanks. But the heat gun method worked good on EPS blanks too.
and I figured the speed from a flat bottom would be nice.