Gorilla Glue is a terrific glue for use in surfboard manufacturing - wooden boards, polyurethane/wood hybrids, whatever, it has many uses - and it’s waterproof which is great.
My question is just hypothetical: Let’s say I were on a remote island and I dinged my surfboard - a large 10" x 3" ding, about a 1/2" deep or something. Let’s say
I then meet a gorilla, I give him some coconuts, and he gives me a bottle of glue. Is there any reason why I could not just pour a little in the ding hole, let
it expand and dry and begin curing, surform/sand it to shape, and then glass over this to repair the surfboard? I know Gorilla Glue is waterproof but can I put polyester resin on it? I know
people use it for their redwood strips for wooden boards but they mostly use it under the strips. I just want to ask so I can have a substitue for cabosil or
Q-cell which are how I usually fix dings. Gorilla Glue is very light and I’m confident that I can shape it to what I want pretty much so it might be a nice lightweight alternative
There are different types of urethanes and GG is a type of urethane. Now without going into too much detail, which I will leave for the “experts,” as you surmize it can be done, but what I suggest put a bit of glue in dixie cup, and add a bit of water, stir vigorously and then fill the ding with the slurry; water makes the stuff not just harden (if you didn’t know) but foam. It will never be a rigid polyurethane foam, but it will do for certain applications. Now just think of the possibilities.
Gorilla glue mixed with water on a platten foams after filling gashes and deep damages, then sand it down below grade to fill with a smear of nice white micro mix, proceed from there. Makes about the lightest fastest repair possible.
Gorilla glue is UV sensetive and heat sensetive. Even covered to protect it from heat it will brake down. Lotta guys swear by it for strip planking but will be swearing at it in 6 to 10 years. So go ahead and do with it whatever you want !
I guess I should use some sort of UV paint on the fiberglass perhaps? So I need to be wary of the sun anyway. Maybe I can pigment the UV out somehow. Some
pigments are naturally UV-protective. I have some white pigment I can add to the resin but I will probably go with orange in this case - I’ll have to buy some new pigment.
I also did not know that it was heat-sensitive. It’s funny - I just decided to use cabosil so I will NOT be using Gorilla Glue for this repair. Maybe next time. Thanks for the comments.
It seems that the Gorilla Glue I use sometimes to glue up blanks or whatever is actually quite hard - I don’t add water to it. But it’s incredibly light. I’ll probably
try to shape a rail sometime with some and see how many years it lasts. Some old junk board or whatever.
I have two different types of gorilla glue in my shop/bay. I wouldn’t take either on a trip. Too much stuff, and too touchy in trip conditions. In the last year I have been to different locales where the ambient temp is around 32 degrees F too 90 degrees F., and all I needed for major and minor repairs was a tube of solar type resin with fibers added, a bit of cloth, and a couple of different types of sandpaper around the size of a 3X5 card. Sanding blocks are where you find them. You can wrap sandpaper around a shell, a piece of driftwood or even a bar of wax. On a surf trip or a deserted island (as opposed to desserted, much tastier, lol) all you need to do is fill the void, and make the patch waterproof. The trouble with being a surfboard maker is that everyone looks to you to fix their problems! I’m sure Barry and others know what I mean. A broken board goes in the bag for the trip home. Speculation is fine, but the real world is where the lessons are learned. Just my 2 c…
sorry for the thread jack… but while we are on GG…how the heck do you get it off your hands (i know …im using gloves next time…) but i got a little on and tried EVERYTHING and its still there…plus im a massage therapist so brown smudges on my fingers freak clients out lol…
I’ll dig out a delam, shape a bit of PU from a broken board or offcut if possible then use the GG to foam and fill the gap (with tape holding the PU foam in place and a weight on top to prevent lifting) .
Sand to level then screed with resin and Q-cell mix then while wet begin the layup.
I have also had a badly depressed board deck (1/2 inch deep) where I removed the glass, and broken foam then poured GG straight on. Once hard sanded back. Again filled all larger holes with Qcell. then glassed over the top using filler resin. Once sanded I just used a good matching Acrylic paint (anchor brand, surfmist) to protect from UV.
The reports i’ve got back from the owners are really good. Boards are holding up well.
Quick question for Bertie since I’ve only repaired about 10 boards and only shaped 2 so far. When I paint my boards, should I use the Acrylic paint right onto the foam
and then laminate or should I paint the lamination after resining? I don’t really want the paint to compromise strength or should I just not worry about this?
A little acetone is good for you once in a while. If the Gorilla Glue is still wet, you can just rub your hands with rubbing alcohol - then put your hands on your clients
and give their backs a nice two-month shine! But God almighty is Gorilla Glue ever not going to come off of your hands if it dries without something drastic like acetone.
It is living hell - so best to wear gloves as you mentioned!
I just used an acrylic spray can to seal the job after I sanded the repair and feathered it in. I never considered painting the foam.
You could paint the foam but I used a q cell slury to fair the damage under the glass. I like the resin to bite more into the foam especially since the foam is softer that regular board foam. This is to reduce compression and the qcell will help with the skin under compression.
In oz its hard to get “gorilla glue”, but have similar pu foaming glue.
I use this for all my ding repairs on EPS boards been doing it for the last 5 years.
The great thing is you squirt it in and and if the board still has water in the foam it reacts and foams out all the water so makes it waterproof as well as light again!I Sands pretty easy so its a winner on trips! I did a trip and dinged my board squirted in after that session sanded it a few hours later and surfed that arvo without no glass or resin in the repair. Rode it like this for the next 2 weeks until I got home to fix it up.
The colour is sh#t, but all good for me as I paint all my boards
Foam Hack, you can buy it at Bunnings now. I bought the Sika brand stuff since it was cheaper.
It wont foam “OUT” the water. The foam gasses more when exposed to moisture, thus reducing the density of the end product. Much of that water will be trapped within the foam matrix unfortunately.
I’m also slightly doubtful that it forms a waterproof barrier to your EPS. It might slow water ingress significantly but it is not waterproof. No open cell foam is.
Dont touch sika! had 3-4 boards delam from this stuff (heat issues)… use" sellys" heaps better before putting the glue in last board, it was 500 grams heavier than after the glue had dried… So something happened there… (have done this experiment a few times now) and 2 weeks riding it was still 500 grams lighter than before glue
There are a couple kinds of Gorilla Glue. In my experience, the white kind is more rubbery and does not sand very well and the brown kind is harder and sands well…
I’ve been using the brown Gorilla Glue and it foams up into a nice, hardened, sandable surface - harder than polyurethane foam. I will need more experience though - like, is
it uniform in density? I may be able to answer this after doing a longboard void.