Hi, im working on this beautiful Frye and trying to fix the delam as least invasively as possible. You can see im dealing with 3 sections of delamination, around 20-27" long between the stringers. That triple stringer shaved the deck btw, the glass is still stuck on the wood. if not for the triple stringer it would have delmainated across the entire board. The surfer who owned the board prior was very heavy footed and has smashed the foam down deep under the glass. You can see how high the stringer sits above the foam in this one section (pic). Here are my options as i see it, just wondering what the community would suggest for best results;
Cut the dead glass off, backfill flush with qcell, heavy on the powder to keep it light as possbile, reglass. Probably my best option. The foam is so white that i think the qcell will blend in well like on this eagle (see pic). Normally i would avoid this when the board has a patina to the foam like on the model k which later got a pendo deck. (see pic)
2) Make an incision at the stringer, inject a ton of resin, put a weight on it. In my experience though this adds a lot of weight and the resin leaves a dark spot under the glass. See the pic of the frye gun for reference. Probably a better option if this one had a sun tan.
Has anyone out there seen good results of injecting qcell under the glass and weighting it? My thinking is the resulting dark patch like on the frye gun wouldnt be there, but if the qcell is too think it wont spread out and reach all the crevices… therefore i would have to resin it down more which results in extra weight.
Any other suggestions? is there a new way of doing these that i havent thought of? thanks
The best repairs that I have sone on delams like that is by injecting lam resin (or epoxy, to be honest even on PU construction like that, epoxy will give a better bond) and using a vac set up to force the glass back into shape and adhere to the deck. Then fill from above if desired.
The white filler will still stand out in a few years, and is often brittle compared to the foam around it. Roper used to tell me to route out the foam and lay in a new foam insert on boards that I really liked, rather than using filler.
Just my thoughts, there are as many schools of thought as there are repair guys.
Thanks I’ve done a few delams with epoxy in the past actually. I like how the epoxy is flexible and won’t crack under the feet there over time. The stuff does leave a dark spot though under the glass however . I also think the lam resin overall is a better bond since it will dry tacky… decisions decisions… I’ve seen the foam block trick too, seems like more work that it’s worth and you still see the outline of the block.
I’ve been thinking it over and I think I can grind down the delaminated areas on the deck down to the weave which would make it thinner and easier to persuade back down into the foam. Then just weight it down with the lam resin and reglass the deck in that area
What’s up with that SUP in one of your pics? Is that a giant ding or a design feature? My vote is for adding new foam (especially if I’m going to keep the board and ride it). Whatever you do, show us the process.
Sand area to very thin as mentioned, inject with a thin layer of epoxy (epoxy will give you a better work time, and it adheres to everything) put in a vac bag…weights will leave air bubbles. A vac bag will suck the whole thing down. and give you a strong tight bond. Now put a new layer or two of 6 oz glass over the entire area, hot coat sand, gloss.
if you really want to be slick, you sand the entire board down to very thin layer of glass…patch, repair, vac bag paint to match etc. Then glass over the entire board with 4 oz.
As others have said, a vac bag is the best way to get the glass down tight and eliminate the chance of bubbles/gaps.
If you’re going to use weights I suggest sandbags and weights on top. The bags will conform to the curve/shape of the depression and create a more uniform pressure on the area.
