I’ve recently acquired a Eddie James longboard, 9’ x 21 3/4" x 2 3/4" (width and thickness are approximate, there are no measurements included on the board). I don’t know anything about this shaper/make.
The top of the board appears OK, but the bottom shows quite a bit of damage and shoddy repair. Gloppy suncure, so-so fiberglass patches, and plenty of dings, holes, fracture marks and pressure indentations. The rails are sun-cured, and the glass on both the nose and tail have worn out. It’s missing one of the side fins. There are a few smallish delamination spots on the deck, better than I’d expect for a board that seems to have been left outside for the past couple years or more. I think the punctures and holes have let out most of the pressure.
I can think of three ways to approach this board:
Ride it until it soaks full of water and completely craps out. Even one session is cheaper than a rental board would have cost me.
Repair the damaged spots (and maybe some of the crappier previous repairs), and ride it as-is
Totally restore it by stripping the fiberglass and re-glassing it. I’ve been other people’s experiences doing just this same thing here on Swaylocks and it seems like a major undertaking that will likely result in a somewhat different board when finished.
I’m attaching preliminary photos so the board can be assessed. Your insight is very much appreciated.
Thanks NJ and Huck. That’s good advice. Might as well see what I can do with this board before tearing it apart.
Now to decide on how extensive the repairs should be. I’m contemplating cutting and reglassing the suncure spots and delamination, of course. But the fractures, not sure if I should just roll with them for a bit…
Strip the wax. Remove the fins. A ding slightly larger than a quarter wil cost about $20 to fix. Use a magic marker or masking tape to mark all the $20 dings. Mark all the 50 dollar dings too.The center fin box and the tail repair will go past $100 no problem....Right now the fins are worth more than the board....What's your time worth?
Have some friends over...buy some cheep beer..order a Pizza.
Strip the glass....make a backyard board.....Restore?.....NO....
Cut out the cancer and fix it on one or two batches the sand … it’s be good practice or a friend of mine got a broken board recycled into a table for his camper.
Got a local shaper to cut the end off, clean it up and glass the ends… Glass in square of marine ply to fix a tabel socket like this
Looks like you have at lest two tables, for home, van or garden?
How does one surfboard get so f'd up? Do you drag it behind a car to the beach, or maybe your little brother uses it as a soccer goal.
I think number #1, 2 ,#3 are all the same. The board is one big ding. I don't see an 8" x8" p atch of clean glass on the whole thing. So if your looking to fix it, I'd sand it down with 80 or 60 grit...not to the foam, just to get most of the old glass off. Fill the dings with that grey home repair bondo (a 3M product) , and sand flush. Then wrap the toxic brown vehicle in 4 or 6 oz glass.
You could get it done in an afternoon work if you kick the bondo off, and use lot's of clean sand paper...yeah use lot, and lot's of sand paper....3M sand paper
Or better yet...take it back to where it came.....send it back. Send it back to the shaper and tell him you want a refund....tell him the board is falling apart.
For a board in this condition, I start at $1100 for a restoration + 6 months. Any wood or fin work is extra. Pretty steep maybe, but there’s no shortage of this traffic going through my son’s repair business. Sentimental boards, old-school wannabes, you name it. Strip all the glass off (salvage the logo), repair the blank, yellow the new foam to match, reglass (boat resin if you want that old patina), sand, polish, gloss. It’s expensive and a lot of hours; much cheaper and easier to make a new board. This will become apparent after you do one (or pay for it).
