Hey guys, i had a good time restoring an old kneeboard for a buddy, thanks to all who gave me good advice. Did a lot of things wrong on the kneeboard but it still came out good. Now i’ve got the bug and im onto a second restore project… an old Bing 7ft bonzer. This thing is already pretty heavy, so keeping it light is crucial. The orginal owner injected a bunch of delam spots with resin which i think added to the weight.
I dont like how guys rip off the glass on boards when they do restores, seems like reinventing the wheel and it causes extra damage to the foam. So here is what im thinking…Im going to sand off the hot coat, take it down to as close the the orginal lam as i can get to lighten it up. Mix up some q cell and get the board all flush and filled in. Once the foundation is solid here is where i’m a little confused. You see there is a ton on individual dings each needing cloth all over the board. When i did the knee board restore i just did a full new 4oz lam job / hoat coat on each side. It added weight im sure, but i think sanding off the old hotcoat will compensate for it. OR, do you guys think i can get away with not relaminating and just doing a thick hotcoat on each side? I’m going to be mixing in a dark opaque to hide all this damage as i did on the knee board. I’m dig those all black glass jobs Mccallum does, i’m thinking i’ve doing the same and seeing if Bing will sell me some new lams.
…my opinion on this board is that the “feel” is just dead due to that big buckle repair; having that in mind you can go with the repair.
Yes, you should sand all the board s hot coat AND almost “into” the weave of the cloth.; if not it would be too heavy.
Less heavy is to sand all and instead to do a fully cloth, do that spot repairs and then a hot coat.
In any case the board will be heavy, but the board just do not have the right flex so is better to surf it like a trimmer board.
-Also, Mccallum does not do any lamination, he has a crew doing it; he has guys like Villalobos doing his stuff; yes, I prefer to put credit to the people that actually do the work…
i dont think it was buckled, the stringer is in tact, that section is mostly delam. With the right flex fin the board could feel good. Well first things first, gonna sand the crap out of this board, see where the soft spots are and go from there. Yep re-laminating the entire thing would imply having to take those bonzer fins off as well, lots of extra work.
I do a lot of repairs. I can fix any surfboard…I’m not fast at shaping. Better to just make a new board…
The board is BUCKLED. That means the board is broken. The board is snapped , the stringer is gone…some small fibreglass is holding the board together for you…trust me I’ve been down this road…you have a very cool old board…copy it will take less hours than fixing it…make it a wall hanger…talk story
I must agree with stingray. Board was obviously buckled and poorly repaired.
I would not strip the glass or try a major restoration. At most, fix the bad dings, sand the bottom really well and do a hotcoat/sand thn a finish coat with opaque to hide the ugly. Might ride OK, but not likely.
Man you guys got me so pumped to do this restore, im well underway. I started with the deck, sanded all the hotcoat off, which turned brown due to age. Also cut the bubbled up glass off and am bringing it flush with the deck using qcell. I’m gonna go around and do some individual patches with cloth, but overall the board is very strong, no sense in re laminating the entire thing. I’ll cruise by the Bing shop here in encinitas to see if i can score a new logo. So a few questions about the hotcoat:
This board is 7ft long, do you think about a quart of resin on each side is enough?
I plan to mix opaque into the hotcoat for a coverup. Someone on my last restore thread said you need cobalt mixed into the resin when doing opaque so it drys cleaner. How much cobalt would i need for a quart of resin? Never used the stuff.
I assume i need to hotcoat it pretty thick or else when i sand its going to look like this mccallum board. Not sure if there is anyway to prevent that from happening actually… might look cool maybe i should just go with it…
Fix all the dings and do whatever patches are needed. Then, do a hotcoat with no pigment and sand that so you get a good even surface. Bumps, craters, wiggles and wobbles under an opaque sanding coat will result in poor coverage once you sand that. So you want to do a ‘cheater’ coat to even things out before doing an opaque layer. You will be wasting two batches of resin in the process, but if you’re intent on ‘restoring’ this poor thing that’s just about your only option. Or, you could just do a ghetto spray paint job and have it look all hipster-ish.
I still have to put some cloth over that qcell spot. This board is going to be black, so i figure when i do the cloth patches i’ll mix some black resin into it. Maybe the cheater coat should have the opaque in it as well… what about the cobalt?
#1 Cobalt NO! (That stuff is not for mortals). IMHO no need…
“The purpose of cobalt-based promoters is to speed up the curing reaction of polyester and vinyl ester resins and allow them to cure at room temperature. The cobalt-based promoter helps the catalyst to start the chemical reaction between the resin and styrene monomer and form a cured solid.”
As SammyA sez
“do a hotcoat with no pigment and sand that so you get a good even surface. Bumps, craters, wiggles and wobbles.”
As far as my lame ass knows, a “standard hot coat” is something like 2.5 oz. /FT bottom, 3.0 oz. deck. /FT.
#2 Use sanding resin (or Lam with surfacing agent) with pigment add 2% MEKP (more bad).
Typical clear hot coats go off quick at these #’s
Applying, cross stokes and final pull out, dab dips.
Quick clean up and I watch to pull my tape. Adjust to skill and study up…
Here is where i’m at. Whether you think the board is a pos or a diamond in the rough, restoring boards is a good way to learn how to glass id say, without screwing up a bunch of expensive blanks.
I did a qcell fill on all the damage on the bottom, sanded it flush and back down to shape. That suspected buckle looks more like just a delam to me. There was no damage to the stringer or foam under the lifted up glass. The bottom is smooth as butter now.
Next i cut out some 4oz patches and put them over the qcell repairs. I mixed some black into the resin which will come in handy when i sand the final hotcoat later on in case i burn though. Burning through is easiest on the edges, like around the nose and tail especailly so those are well reinforced. I then painted some clear sanding resin over the black cloth patches. Next step is to sand it all back down clean again.
One thing that is tricky with opaque is that it seems to make the resin dry a lot slower when its mixed in. Some of my patches after sitting all night were still a bit tacky. I mixed a dixie cup full of that black resin with 20 drops of catalyst to do the patches. Then with the clear resin mix i stepped it up to 30 drops and it kicked nice and fast. It is cold here in socal, like in the mid 50’s. So hopefully when i go to sand tomorrow, that hotter resin mixed in with the slower curing black resin and i have a sturdy repair. I did the same botch on the catalyst mix on the knee board and doing this was a good recovery.
Thanks for the specs on the hotcoat mattwho! This is a 7ft board so i will need 38.5 oz of resin total.
Bottom: 17.5 ounces x .02 = .35 ounces of catalyst, which is equivalent to 10.35 cc of catalyst.
Top: 21 ounches x .02=.42 ounces = 12.42 cc of catalyst
That look right to you gents? I’m mixing that black opquae into this batch, no extra catalyst needed? thanks!!
This board is done! the hotcoat kicked perfectly with those amounts in my last post, the opaque didnt seem to impact the drying time. However sanding the rails was a bit of a nightmare, i kept burning through the hotcoat and exposing the orange. Other spots the orange kinda had this hue sneaking through the black where it was thin. So ultimatley i just decided to spraypaint it black. I took it out on a pretty solid head high day here and had a good time. Holding out for a break in the swell to ride it again, it has a bit of weight to it so its not that responsive in bigger waves, but i think it would ride better in smaller stuff. Seems to plane really nice and it turns smooth. Fun little project! thanks for the advice guys!
Cool! - all’s well that ends well, I do kinda like that planshape, looks like a fun board. Surprised weight was an issue in larger waves, usually that’s where I like a little more weight. How heavy is it? Did you weigh it before, to see how much it gained?
Hey Huck, didnt weigh it at all, but but i dont think there was much difference in weight before and after the restore. Works the best in shoulder waist high stuff, planes through chop really well. I ride it with a 5" bonzer fin. No regrets on this project, this board is fun as hell. Here’s a few of me bashing the lip on it. Fix these old boards up you guys, its worth it!
