Ive got an old G&S SurfScene LaJolla board, which to many here is the replica of the Surfboards Hawaii model A except with offset stringers. The board was in excellent shape until a few months ago while surfing the bottom glass buckled to the rail. At that point the cut on the lap on the bottom also tore. Good thing is the blank did not break or did the top glass delam or show stress. I brought this up to Dave Gardner of Bud Gardner Surfboards and he mentioned just to inject resin or epoxy under the buckle and clamp it down until it sets, then work on repairing the buckle. After some thoughts on this repair and the possibilty of the board still being used regularly, I thought that it may be best to just rip the old glass off and just reglass it and add some tail and nose blocks in the process. Thoughts??? If why would I go through the trouble comes to mind, the board is a gem and is a true work horse of a board. Been in my quiver for at least 20 years, it’s family now.
Hi Herb, You have something where it tore on the lap edge, to the rail, lets say, along the lap and has buckled/bowed away from the foam, right? Don’t start ripping off cloth. Trust me on this. It’s a lot more work, appearance wise it will look like hell. First thing I’d do is look down the rails on both sides, see if there’s any tweakage to the rocker from the buckle, flat spots or bending the wrong way. If there is, use blocks of wood and weights to bring the rocker back to what it should be. If not, proceed to fixing it and skip the blocks, etc… Get some 8 oz cloth, some resin, a little acetone or styrene and go to work. To begin with, the plastic surgery. Inject thinned ( use acetone or styrene for better penetration - thin to the consistency of light cream) resin into the buckled and delammed area. Massage it a bit as you go so there’s no air bubbles under there. Weight ( a brick or such) on top of the delam to keep the pressure on. Note- if you have a tear already, I’d skip the injecting/syringe and just pour it in where it’s torn open, or mebbe enlarge the tear some with a sharp utility knife. Often, those little holes look like leprosy when you’re done. Let it harden, then sand it flat, including sanding away the glass over the resin where it’s buckled. Don’t sand down to foam anywhere. Change discs so that you’re cutting, not heating up the cloth/resin. Take frequent pauses to let it cool down. Ok, now sand a strip, 8" to a foot wide or 3-4 inches wider than the delam on the bottom on either side ( 6-8" wider in total) , all the way across the bottom, just sanding enough to roughen it up some. Wash with acetone to get all the dust off. Put a band of new cloth across the bottom of the board, around the rails and up to the old cut line on the deck side. Laminate, sand the edges lightly, hotcoat, sand the edges lightly and over all lightly, gloss and polish. Now, this will strengthen the board through the buckled area, it’ll also make it a skosh heavier and a skosh stiffer through there too. Well, as you say, it’s like family, and you notice all the family members seem to get a little heavier and stiffer and such over time. You kinda have to live with it. Alternatively, say if you can’t find 8 oz cloth, use a band of 6 oz as described above or a little narrower, sand the edges, then go over it with another, wider band of 6 oz and then follow through as described. This may have a couple advantages: 6 oz is typically not Volan treated so you won’t have that green band there, and the stiffness will be a bit less pronounced.Weight might be a bit more, but it’s something you can live with if your squeegeeing technique ( see the Glassing Nightmare thread for some superb advice there) isn’t that hot. Hope that’s of use doc…