Hello, I bought an old triple stringer longboard that I want to restore. the center stringer is a T-band. I think the T-band is: Redwood, balsa, Red foam, balsa, Redwood. The balsa in the front half of the stringer was completely rotted. I didnt want to remove the whole T-Band because I think is is super cool. I removed the front half of the stringer and glued in a 3/4 piece of cedar in its place with Gorilla glue. There is obviosly a seem now between the original T-Band and the solid cedar stringer. The two outside redwood stringers are still totally intact. Will the seem between the old and new parts of the center stringer create a weak breaking point or will the two outside stringer prevent the board from flexing too much. I dont wanna restore the whole board if it will be extremely susceptable to breaking. Am thinking of putting a comp band to hide the seem and then resin panels to cover the sun-tanned foam an water stains. Stringers will still be showing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I think it will work, since most strength is in the glass, not in the wood. The wood is important for increasing the stiffness between the top and bottom lam.
However, it would have been better if you had added a new T-band stringer where the outer strips overlapped with the old t-band inner strips, so that the outer and inner wood are discontinuous at different points.
Hans is correct. Having a joint where the old stringer meets the new piece won’t matter. Was the board totally stripped and reglassed? The resistance to snapping will depend more on how you glass the board. It has been proven under test that stringers make almost no difference unless they’re massive.
