Hi.
Have snapped the nose of my board and need to know how to repair it. The stringer is snapped in two places and the foam has snapped through. It’s all being held on by a bit of epoxy. Probably better to show a photo:
I guess I need to strengthen the stringers and glue it then re-glass but because it’s not a clean break I need some tips. Thanks!
cut all of the broken or stripped glass away. sand broken area so it is clean, and fits together. Take two dowels, probably 6-8 in long and 1/4" thick. drill into both sides of the broken nose and board(so the dowels fit in),. you should have made 4 holes now, one on each side of the stringer(both pieces) about and inch or two off of the stringer. then paint the inside of the holes, outside of the dowels and each side of the broken piece of your board with resin and fiberglass powder mixture, then place the dowels in the holes and connect the pieces. They should be touching now. Glass over the broken pieces and the exposed foam as usual.
good luck
No dowel! Check out Bill Barnfields broken board repair guide. It’s the same deal with a snapped nose. I would recommend using two small spring clamps as well to make sure the rocker is flush. Just put some wax paper inside of each spring clamp to make sure they don’t stick to the resin.
Masking tape each rail as well to make sure it’s not out from left to right. Pull the masking tape before the resin has completely cured. Basically it’s just an oversized ding repair. Nothing too major about it.
That broken board guide is really good information, but the glassing of the repaired shape is not really covered.
Some one mentions butterfly and diamond shape glassing, but that part is pretty sparse.
Very nice technique for adjusting the board’s rocker or twist. I knew there was a good reason for keeping my wormdrive(skilsaw).
Can some one be a bit more specific on the glassing part of the repair?
Thanks.
Dowels are a waste of time and often cause mis-alignment. Don’t use them!
Hi.
Thanks for all your replies. Because it’s EPS not EPP or whatever the other one is called, will the little beads sand properly? I’ve not done a repair this big before! Are you all suggesting I cut the piece of fibre glass that’s holding it all together off completely and re-glass or just cut along the break and glue down? Like this:
And the general consensus is to not use anything to repair the stringer? Just to sand it so it matches and glue?
And lastly, what product should I use? I’m used to very small repairs using stuff like Solarez (http://www.solarez.com/productsnew/g_epoxy.htm).
Thanks again for all your help so far.
P.s. reading Bill’s guide now.
cut away all loose glass.
supporting the stringer is not needed.
If it is eps, use epoxy!
I would fill it with 2 component urethane foam and lam with epoxy resin. But that can get expensive for one repair.
For cheaper I would use casting&lamming epoxy resin ( I can buy it here). But most people like to use pure lamming very exothermic resin.
Use a scale and mix your epoxy by weight!
Three more questions if you’ll humour me further (!):
Is epoxy resin used for carbon fibre, the same stuff as used for fibreglass?
Will 6oz of resin (4oz part a, 2oz part b) be enough to mix the Q-cell and laminate the foam on this break (estimate a surface area of 20cm2 for the q-cell bond and 30-35cm2 for laminating)? I don’t know how far this stuff goes.
The layer of epoxy and fibreglass around the foam seems quite thick, 2mm probably. Will the re-lamination of these areas where there is no glass need to be as thick? This bit confuses me a little as a lot of the videos i’ve seen on the net, the foam is flush with the surrounding laminate and then glassed unlike mine where the foam is below the laminate. Does that make sense?
I learned a lot from this site: http://www.boardlady.com/repairmenu.htm
Take a look at it, it will help.
I’m certain others can give you more detailed advice. I’m just another backyarder.
Good luck with it!
Great! Thanks for the help. Does this mean I should put filler in (q-cell) then until it is flush with the good glass then glass over? As in this photo: http://www.boardlady.com/images/fiberglass101-1.jpg
Tried to give you props but keeps giving me an error. Thanks anyway!
No thats no filler, that is just the white primer paint used in tufflite surfboards.
you have to sand the edges of the “good” glass flush with the foam, but very careful because you’ll end up sanding the softer foam. It don’t has to be perfectly flush but as good as you can and don’t make the trasition to steep, sand 2inches of the “good” glass.
Always laminate without filler!
BTW: use gloves or you’ll get hands like her 
Ah I understand now. Had to get my board from the other room and pull bits of glass off! Haha.
Gloves, got it. And a dust mask! Does horrible things to your body. Just ordered all the ‘ingredients’ so I’ll post back when I’ve done it with my success! Ha.
Thanks all for the help.
Use clear Gorilla glue (urethane foaming, water activated), align and clamp it. When dry, cut off the delaminated glass and epoxy laminate several layers of cloth in the openings until it’s at the level of the surrounding original glass. Sand, then do an overall lamination both sides well beyond the break. This is a big job, and if you’ve never done any extensive glassing you may want to take it to a pro repair shop. Be careful, there’s a lot who don’t know what they’re doing on epoxy/EPS boards. Had one come into my son’s shop last week filled with wood putty, 5 min epoxy, a chunk of poly foam held in with a screw, and no cloth, which the owner said was done at a “pro” repair place.
Sounds like a photo of that would be perfect for one of those “you’re doing it wrong” pics.
Pete,
Bubble gum...check. Duct tape......check. Bondo.........check. Crayons.............check. Private Label safeway bandaids.....check.
ready for ding repair SIR!
And the final fix. Sorry it took so long to post back, it took me about 4 evenings to do the repair then another day of sanding. Had to cut away all and rebuild all the foam with new styrofoam and q0cell, sanded it all flush and re-stuck the nose on. Laminated it again.
I learned from this, laminating is REALLY, REALLY difficult. It’s not a pretty repair but it’s strong. If anyone wants to see some progress photos, I documented the whole process.
Thanks for all your help, I’ve learned a valuable skill and saved some money in the process.
I believe everybody is interested in your repair. Post it!
So here’s what I did:
Cut the nose off the board and removed ALL loose fibreglass (see first image in thread). Then I cut clean where all the foam had snapped off with a junior hacksaw and sanded it. Cut some small blocks of styrofoam and q-celled them im place (had to do this in two stages so took longer than intended). Sanded it all flat when dry. Q-celled the nose back on and held it in place with masking tape (being light it didn’t need clamping). I didn’t put dowels in. Once dry I sanded everything one more time and relaminated with 6oz fibreglass cloth. This was very difficult as the epoxy never stayed in one place. Took a few attempts to get this right too.
I’ve learned that masking tape is really useful when doing a repair like this. Also, MIX EPOXY BY WEIGHT! I made a few epoxy screw ups which ended up cutting more glass away to repair.
Any questions or tips, let me know! Thanks again for everyone’s help.
We warned you 
Well done! One tip: put some color over the repair (simple automitve spray paint). Don’t know wich epoxy you used but many epoxies yellow quite hard and get brittle when exposed to the sun. Also it will hide the repair, I’m sure you can make something nice of it!
I thought about trying painting it to match (the new epoxy is really clear and the old stuff has yellowed over time) but I decided to just leave it. The match isn’t too bad and it’ll surely fade to match after a while. Otherwise I’ll just stick a sticker over it!
Which epoxy do you recommend? I found it difficult to get clear hardening epoxy in the UK without paying a lot of money so I bought a kit which included epoxy, fibreglass and q-cell filler type stuff. It wasn’t great value for money but cost less than a pro repair would have by at least half so was good for my first repair like this.
