I took a long break from this project and now I am back to trying to fix it again. This time I am starting from scratch. I watched the video that was suggested by crazyeddy but I don’t own a compresor so a vacuum seal is out of the question. I am hoping some of you can guide me through this project. Is it even worth it? The one time I took this board out I really liked how it surfed, fell in love with it immediately . please help.
First the so called puncture method described by the “Expert” does not allow for any water to drain or foam to dry. Secondly; fiberglass cloth and resin lammed to a sanding resin/q-cell mix would most likely not adhere. As someone previously stated the styrene wax solution of sanding resin does not adhere well to lam resin. You did the repair essentially correct otherwise. Cutting out the old cloth, drying the foam and reglueing the old cloth to the board, then adding a new layer of cloth usually works best. I’ve heard the merits of syringeing foam under glass before. It’s a half ass fix.
This is one of those train crash topics.
I’ve done my share of basket case repairs…been there done that,
Brand new fresh blank $65 to $145…
Stop now… use your time, money , effort and resin on a fresh one,…
Stingray
Ray is right, more than 40% of the board is gone (way too much foam missing) and even if repaired in the best possible way it will be heavy, unbalanced, and will probably delam again somewhere else. If you’re not a builder and are just trying to salvage this for financial reasons, get an estimate from a real repair person and you’ll see it makes more sense to get another board maybe used.
Other methods exist but are uncommon. I’ve patched decks with planks of balsa wood if you can find them in 1/4" or 1/2" thickness, but it’s labor intensive (like doing hardwood flooring by hand and then glassing over the whole thing). It’s a pretty outcome though, if done with symmetry (right and left of stringer) especially with pinlines around it. Adds some weight to the board but not as much as a massive bucket of resin and filler like you tried the first time. You can shape and sand the balsa planks to match the deck profile too.
Go to your local shaper and see if you can get some scraps of PU foam. Get enough to cut up into pieces that will fill the hole.
Clean off the wax around the patch good before you do any further work.
Cut the hole some to make the edge on the nose and tail sides angled. Don’t leave it straight across the board.
Cut the foam so it’s just a little higher than the hole and glue the foam in with Gorilla glue (I’ve been using the Elmer’s version of PU glue). Make sure you put weights to hold down the foam. You can use a thick mix of resin and cabosil to fill the edges where the foam may not perfectly fit in the hole, then sand it down with a long sanding block. Feather the edges of the glass when you sand the foam down.
Then just do a 2 layer glass patch, but don’t leave a horizontal line across the board.
It should hold up for a while, but no promises. It will not feel the same as before.
I’d make a template from the board, both outline and rockers. Then you can make a new one made if this one breaks.
Watch this video to see how to feather the edges and do the lams.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrrM4iVPVX4
Good luck.
for those that need a cheap fix on a delam job here is what I used: 4 cans of locktite foam and general purpose epoxy resin(one to one) . I have taken my board out for a week and so far so good, only issue is that the heel marks are pretty evident. We’ll see how long the glass holds. It’s an ugly repair but I am just so pleased that I can ride the board.
As I’m reading through the original question and responses from the first and second pages, I don’t see where new cloth was added after the first lesion was removed and before the PE was added…I know it’s moot now, but may have been part of the problem in the original fix.