I recently scored this waxy dirty looking 7’8" Liddle - possibly from the 80’s per the guy I got it from? - it is pretty light and sturdy, don’t know what kind of glass it is - and am planning on fixing up the tail and nose, some minor delam.
Here’s my question - I’ve read from the archives that I could fill it in with filler using the current busted glass to shape the it, and then take the old glass off and then re-glass it. Will q-cell bond close enough to the foam for it to stay connected with it as I take the remaining busted glass off or is it just going to fall off? At which time I can just re-glass it - or will that be too weak? The remaining glass on the tail and nose is pretty bad, not much left around the sharp edge of the tail- how can I keep the shape as close to the orginal as possible? So far my plan is to eye-ball it.
If the board is so damaged probably the foam sucked lot of water and is very weak.what about strip off alla the fiberglass and reshape the board, making something shorter and tighter?
as stated above, but plan to color the outside. it will otherwise look poor. the are some restoration youtubes to watch. and SDrepairman here has some great board restores in the archives.
any recommendation for pour foam? - home depot and OSH seem to have some spray can stuff - will that be sturdy enough for this thing to be structurally sound?
I have some foams scraps I was thinking of using to fill in the gouge, maybe just use q-cell to supplement the scraps? Most of the exposed foam in the tail is not completely trashed - just dirty, so some q-cell on the edges shouldnt add that much weight if I just use that and the scraps.
Not particularly attached to making this thing look pretty, just water tight and sturdy would do for me. Hopefully whatever I do will be clean enough to be not butt ugly. Took this board on mostly to practice doing repairs -I have another beater I’ve done a ton of practice work on - plus it should be fun to ride.
Here are some more pics of it, cleaned it up a tad, the tail crack view from the top.
Well, I think it’s obvious that someone didn’t use a rail saver!
There’s so much foam missing from the tail that I don’t know if I’d bother trying to fix it. It might be easier to just cut the tail off right behind the finbox and scarf a new tail on it.
Also, the foam in a can you get at a building supply place expands a lot and only works for small gaps where you can control the expansion. Left to expand with no limit,it sets up with huge bubbles in it and is quite weak.
consider taking it to a pro. Liddle has a strong following and that board is worth fixing for the right person. Not to be harsh but it is not a job for practice. You need a nice off-cut, probably get one off a bar of soap shaper who is pulling small boards from the middle of bigger blanks. The reality of doing that repair proper (which it deserves maybe) may be beyond where you are at. Is the fin box blasted?
Labor of love job. Maybe a Liddle fan will step up. I have seen that type of fix done right and the board went on to another decade of riding waves.
Enough damage to end up tail heavy from filler, not what you want with a flex fin and knifey foil i.m.h.o. I might have a piece of foam for you. If the box is solid: where is it 9" from tail?
Aaron - I recently did a similar project and it was a job. Best thing to do is repair it enough for display and then take the measurements off it and shape a new one.
Especially if you are trying to make it look really good, it starts to snowball into a time and money pit. By the time you get all the repairs done, your time and $ will about add up to a new one. BTDT :
If you really want to tackle it, I would get some scrap foam for the tail/nose, remove the old damaged stuff and then glue the new pieces to the stringer.
Matching color is tough (see my thoughts above).
And all the repairs add weight (did I mention just making it look good enough for a corner leaner and then building a new one?).
IamSAW - I definitely want to work up to building my own board some day in the not too distant future, unfortunately don’t have a good work space or skill or tools (or permission from the wife) to get into something like that. However I do have a fair amount of time and some patience to spend working on this.
Maka -At least for me, going to a pro would be prohibitively expensive - this board also has a 2" x 10" chunk of delam on the front third of the rail that also needs work and all the other dings + stress cracks. However I have a bunch of glass and laminating resin etc… and some scrap foam from the beater I was fixing up. I have put in a fin box (turned out ugly and unecessarily heavy unfortunately, hopefully that lesson is learned - buttressed a side of it with it with ill-fitting scrap and mixed my q-cell way too thin - at least it’s in there, still surfs okay!) and repaired a bunch of delam’s and other minor dings - which have mostly been clean.
The finbox is solid, the tail is 7" from the end of the box. I do have a chunk of scrap large enough so that I could cut out the left side up to the gouge, glue it to the stringer, and shape it down - I imagine it would be stronger/lighter to replace that whole section to the rail than filling in the gouge with scrap and use filler for the rail. Then I would glue in another chunk for the rail on the otherside, leaving most of what is there intact. Would it be stronger/lighter to cut off the entire tail and put a whole new block in and shape that down? - don’t have a large enough chunk for that, would graciously accept any offer of something that could improve this job.
The delams are a bummer. I try to cut them open and stick the original glass back down, lam over but also cut out and fill. The entire tail from the box back would be a great foam replacement job but with all the other stuff??? Maybe just go at piece by piece, tackling sections and working through it over time.
I am tired right now but did check my scraps and only have about a 5" tail piece. Sounds like you know enough to do the job. Those old nice thrashers just pull you in. Good satisfaction to ride some waves when complete. Been there and done. Worth it if you like the board.
