Ahoy swaylockians. I’m working on my Windansea special thanks to Bill Thrailkill! I started the white resin panels. I’ve never done full resin panels before and am having problems with the resin sheeting on the rails. I used my normal glossing technique and have never had this problem before. What may be the cause of this? More importantly is there any way to fix this without sanding off the whole panel and starting over? I did as much research as humanly possible on resin panels before starting this. Thanks for the help swaybros! Other than this issue I’m pumped on how the board is coming out. Many thanks to Bill Thrailkill, WideAwake, and Dave Town for all your help and inspiration!
Sorry that the photos are sideways. I will try to figure out how to fix that
Resin is thick (heavy) and taking too long to kick.
Rail wrap is tricky. Load it with pigment and kick it HOT. 10minute kick time would be ideal. I know some guys who drop in some cobalt but that can be another nightmare if not done correctly.
Sand the hotcoat so it’s dead flat smooth.
I find it best to use gloss resin for panels (some use hotcoat resin)
A spot fix on those would be tricky too. You’ll most likely see your different color mixes on white.
Someone else may have some better tricks or contradictory info and it works for them. I do what works for me.
Thanks for the advice. I had a feeling that was gonna be a hard thing to fix. Maybe I will sand the whole thing off and do some panels that don’t wrap the rail. I’m just surprised because I’ve never had this problem with gloss coats. Does adding pigment to resin make it a lot less stable or something?
Thanks for the help with the pics j randy
Adding pigment will slow the time it takes to kick hence your problem with draping on the rails and if you add a lot of pigment the surface will feel tacky for a looong time
Never had an issue with tacky panels.
What are you using for resin?
I only use reichholds gloss resin.
Surfer o - if these are your first panels it will be a lot easier to tape them off before the rail.
It will look good with solid white panels. Clean and subtle
If you pan pull a clean tape line - pull a line where the sag is and sand it back so the rail doesn’t have pigment, then clean the edge with a razor with sand paper wrapped around it.
You may be able to save it without having to redo it all.
I’d try that if it was my board. Atleast a small section to see if it would be easy enough.
So I’m using hotcoat resin. Silmar. The cured panels are not tacky. Even where it is separated on the rails has cured to a tack free finish thankfully. I didn’t have any gloss resin so went for it with Silmar. I have had good results with homemade Silmar "gloss Resin " in the past.
Awesome that is a great idea! I’m gonna give that a try. I don’t really have anything to lose by giving that a shot. Worse come to worse I’ll just sand them all off and start again without wrapping the rail. I wanted to do full panels initially because my deckside volan cutlaps came out pretty bad. Wanted to cover them up haha. But ill do the smaller panels and whatever shows through will get a good smear of wax!
Wide awake has the right idea. Personally I like to add cobalt and DMA to the resin. Done properly it will kick the resin in 5 maybe 10 minutes. I have had some bad experiences with just using cat only, and as wide awake said it can be a bigger headache than worth it. Good luck
cool cool. I am yet to ever try using cobalt or DMA. I’m gonna go with panels that dont wrap the rail because the issues were only on the rails. Next time I try to do full panels I will try to get my hands on some of those other fun chemicals and will give it a shot!
Going to be pretty tough to sand back hardened resin in a straight line. I’m surprised that no one suggested just sanding the sags. It could be that you may be able to sand flat the sags without ruining your pigment job. That would have been the first thing I would have attempted. If you can get rid of the sags without actually sanding the pigment off you will only need to lightly sand the rest of the panel and then Gloss the whole board. A lot of what was said in previous posts remains true. Pigmented resins goes off slower and so requires a hotter kick. More MEK. And yes a little Cobalt always helps pigmented resin. A little goes a long way with Cobalt. Resin or Paint. Panels should always be glossed over. Preferably with Reichold. You did nothing out of the ordinary by using Silmar, provided your intent was to gloss over it. Silmar laminating resin is not a finish Gloss. Yes thru the years the old timers would do a panel or rail and not gloss over it. That is true. But if you are actually going to Surf the board you will want a protective Gloss over it. Otherwise it wears and chips. You just didn’t kick your resin panel hot enough.
Sag has color separation. Looks transparent milky white. Can’t sand th color back into it, or can you??? Dun dun dun…
Hey guys I taped off a clean line on the deck and sanded back the saggy part of the panels. It came out pretty good IMO. Then I did panels on the bottom and then glossed the board with my ghetto gloss haha. I still have never splurged for reichold gloss. On my next board I surely will. I’m pretty happy with how the board is coming along so far. I’m still trying to decide if I’m going to polish it or just sand/polish the rails and ride it. I have never done a full polish before. Once again I would like to thank all those who helped me with this project, especially Bill Thrailkill for walking me through the build and sharing all his knowledge and templates with me! Here are some pics
Once again, sorry that the pics are sideways. Ride report will get posted here after the maiden voyage
Looks killer!
Sideways pics are only on your end. They all look fine to me.
That looks great. You did a good job fixing the problem.
Thanks guys I appreciate it! I’m pretty pumped with how I was able to sand away the sags in the rails. Cleaning up the resin line with a razor and sandpaper was essential.