repair question

General Discussion
1

Just prior to the first hurricane to come through my neighborhood last month (Frances), when everyone was in a panic and clearing their garages of unwanted stuff (making room for their cars I guess) I found an early 70’s era single fin board sitting with a bunch of junk at the curb in my friend’s neighborhood. Aside from being really yellow, the board is in pretty good shape - it needs some general ding repair but nothing too bad - with the exception of a hole that looks to have been drilled with what I’d say was a 1/2 inch diameter bit straight through from the top deck to the bottom. The hole is back near the tail so my guess is that it was used for some type of leash attachment.

Anyway, can I just cover one end of the hole with the thin sheet of plastic that came with the Ding All kit and fill the hole with a resin/q-cell mix and then glass?

Also, any suggestions for a new leash attachment? Maybe a fiberglass leash loop?

This is the first time I’ve tackled a repair like this so any advice is appreciated.

2

how thick is the board at the whole and where is the whole?

Might just be a good place to mount a leash plug which would fill most of the whole. As for filling the whole I’d but some glass strands or something else in with the resin. Thick resin is not strong. May also have expanding/contracting issues. The more glass you get in there the less of these issues you’ll have. Also don’t set you mix off too fast. If it is 1/2" diamiter whole you might even insert some wood dowelling as filler.

just some thoughts

3

Yeah, that’ll work, or just masking tape instead of the plastic to seal an end. Add as little catalyst as you can get away with, so it won’t go off too hot. And i’d make a wet batch so you won’t get any bubbles down in there, shoot for a mayonnaise-like consitency. Then, glass over it with a small patch top and bottom, just for the sake of continuity.

A glass leash loop sounds like the way to go too. I think you’re on the right track.

hope that’s of use

doc…

4

Thanks for the feedback guys. I just pulled the board off my ceiling rack for the first time and its actually a little worse than I remember it being.

A few more questions:

There are a few small puncture dings (quarter inch diameter) that have a really dark brown circle around the hole about 1 inch in diameter. Can I just shoot some resin/q-cell in there or should I make the hole a little bigger so I can clean it out real well?

The are several large areas where the cloth has come through the glass in areas where there aren’t any dings. The glass just seems to have worn off. Can I just resin over these?

The nose seems to have been patched at some point a long time ago and is in need of being repaired again. Should I cut out the old patch - it surrounds the area in need of repair - or should I just sand it down to the cloth and repair the nose in the usual manner?

Doc - I was looking through the archives for help on this subject and I came across a thread in which you were talking about Cape Cod. It sounded like you live in Eastham - is that right? I get to Eastham usually for a week each summer to freeload off my brother and spend some time surfing Coast Guard Beach with my nephews. I love it there.

Anyway, thanks again for the help.

Jeff

5

Hi Jeff,

The punctures and such - you gotta kinda play those by ear, y’know? Board probably was stored or tossed into an area that has 1/4 inch bolts sticking outor something. If it looks like there’s a clean hole, nothing that’ll cause bubbles in there, then I generally just fill it and glass over. Otherwise, clean it up with an X-Acto knife or something and then the cabosil and resin and glass.

The texture coming up? Yeah, those happen on older boards, I’d wash with a little acetone to clean 'em some and restore the surface, then kinda regloss 'em, wide brush and thinned resin and lots of catalyst, polish after if need be. You’ll notice that the resin has kinda gotten chalky/unglossy close by the places where the weave is showing - same sort of thing, though a polish will bring that back.

The nose ding - bet the cloth in the repair has gotten a little milky too. Best bet is to sand it away rather than cut it, mebbe 60-80 grit and a lot of patience, take a break if it starts to get warm to the touch and change paper often, then redo it. I get kinda nervous about cutting stuff off or out, it always seems to open up a whole can of worms. Just repair it as usual, filler and cloth and all, after that.

Eastham and Coast Guard - yeah, man! - that’s home and home break in that order. If you stand in the parking lot and look NW, you can see a big ol’ copper beech tree, right out in the front yard of where I used to live, look a little south of east and right around the cedar point there is what you might call the family compound and where I hope to be growing shellfish in the next year or two.

It’s home, this town, has been for fifty years now. “Have you lived here all your life?” " Not yet". But I hope to.

If your brother’s been in town for a while, I prolly know him. You’re always welcome at Happy Hour at the shop, Friday evenings in the summer.

Hope that’s of use, and best regards

doc…