So how do you guys paint boards?

Im using epoxy as a laminate, then im glassing with vinyl ester.

What would be the best way to get some color into the mix?

I’ve already laminated the foam with epoxy

You could hot coat than paint on that and seal coat it. I have heard of people tinting the hoatcoat. But I have ne’er tried it

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Im using epoxy as a laminate, then im glassing with vinyl ester.

What would be the best way to get some color into the mix?

I've already laminated the foam with epoxy

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This was an old board.  I patched and sanded it, then painted it with acrylic, and glassed over it with epoxy.

On another thread people talked about good old rattle cans… 

I like it, and as was pointed out, good and easy to touch up ding repairs…  Paint may cover a multitude of sins…

I couldn’t find my other pics, but the blue and red on the rails is spray paint.

Hmm, Well I was planning on using a rattle can and coating it with the Solarez UV cure epoxy.

Then I was considering using house paint, because I can’t use cans without having it run but I couldn’t find many colors that came in the quart sized cans.

Do you guys know of rattle can clearcoat that’s durable enough for a skimboard?

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Im using epoxy as a laminate, then im glassing with vinyl ester.

What would be the best way to get some color into the mix?

I've already laminated the foam with epoxy

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nope...you already missed the boat....,,,, you are standing at the dock and the ferry left 10 min ago......

not sure where you're going.......hey...might be a fun trip..........

seems like a little confusion with some terms like.....Epoxy ,  laminated , vinyl ester........laminate....Lam and hot coat.

Epoxy resin is a Gift from God to some people and all Hell to others..........step back...go slow......we can paint some boards but we need to understand the basics before we go Big!...Got it?

I love to paint surfboards.....My best work is  done on the raw foam....yeah... ......Raw Foam....

Vinyl Ester.....hmmmmmm...you got me there....I do not use Vinyl Ester.....Why vinyl ester?????

 

Go to the craft department in the local wally-mart and buy a couple of bottles of the cheap acrylic paints and a rattlecan of clear acrylic spray matte finish.  Paint the blank right on the foam using air brush, foam follers or whatever else.  Let dry.  Spray with a coat or two of acrylic spray.  Then glass the board.

Well it’s XPS, from what I read only the water based spraypaints would coat it without melting the foam. Guess there’s just too much faulty info out there… I couldn’t find any water based spray in town though.

As for the vinyl ester, this is a skimboard. I’m not sure if it’s unheard of for use on surfboards but I’ve seen a bunch of victoria skimboards made out of vinylester.

I figured it would make a better bond because it’s an epoxy-polyester hybrid resin. So I’m guessing there might be some kind of chemical bond between the epoxy laminate and the vinylester glass.

Is acrylic spraypaint still feasible for use externally?

I’m 17 so yeah, I have a lot to learn about how to use most of these materials. I just didn’t have the cash for a name brand board and I’m a DIY guy so what the heck.

if you want some thing durable then i would say your best bet is to use pigment in you hot coat and be careful when sanding, you may need to do two hot coats though

Well, I used the foamular brand XPS that has the logo and print all over the nasty pink foam. I don’t want it to show through :frowning:

 

Hey do you guys by any chance have expamples of S-glass vs E-glass? I can’t find any side by side comparisons.

Do they even look different?

SKArface You said you allready did the board with epoxy (meaning glass cloth and epoxy resin ? )  You can use vynle ester over the epoxy make sure you clean the epoxy so you don't have any blush then use the vynle ester as your fill coats.Sand the fill coats to 150 grit. Then you can spray with your rattle cans ,Krylon is good Probably any acrylic will be OK. You can top coat it with a clear same brand that you use for color but you don't need to top coat is you don't want. .The secret to doing a good paint job is to spray 5 or 6 light coats rather than one or two heavey coats. I have some paddle handles spray painted with Krylon that are several years old with over 2,000 miles on them and the krylon has held up well.

At first I just put two layers of epoxy resin with no glass, and just now I put down a layer of vinylester glass on the top of the board.,

 

I kind of gave up on painting it with the information I’ve gotten. The vinylester resin stated on the side of the can that you should not put it directly over paint. 

So I guess im going to have to improvise after it’s all glassed up.

OK  What you have done so far will work. Useing the vynel ester with your glass cloth will be OK. You will need at least 2 fill coats of vynel ester over the top of your glass cloth lamintation. I would recomend 3 coats cause your a firt timer. These fill coats are what you will sand to make everything nice and smooth, Try not to sand into the glass cloth except were you have laps. Sand by hand starting with 80 grit to get it smooth , then go to 100 or 120 to get rid of the 80 grit scratches. Then to 150  and you will be ready to do your rattle cans. All kinds of stuff you can do with that ,Any kind of artwork depending on your skills.

Why are fill coats really needed? Wouldn’t it be the same if I just put another layer of cloth on it?

Like I’ll brush on some resin, then lay down the cloth, then soak it. Wouldn’t that be just as effective?

You put the glass cloth down dry then brush on the resin. If you are useing 2 layers of cloth you put them down together and then brush on the resin.The first coat of resin is to saturate the cloth and basicly glue the cloth on You want to use the least amount of resin as you can for this and not try to build it up because the cloth will float on top of the resin and not lay flat. When the glass cloth has soaked up the resin so there are no white (dry spots) you need to take a sqeege and pull out all the extra resin so there is only enough to glue down the cloth. If you dont do this you will have high spots where the cloth floated on the resin and low spots where there is less resin. You have to think of this as glueing down the cloth.The fill coats , fill the weave and build a thickness so you can sand everything  smooth without  sanding into the cloth.

Here are a couple pictures of what the glass looks like after the excess resin is pulled off with a squeege. You can see and feel the weave of the cloth and there are no white spots (not wet out ) and no shiney spots (to much resin )

[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r195/Wood_Ogre/Koholo%2014%20Kookbox/markspictures169.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r195/Wood_Ogre/Koholo%2014%20Kookbox/markspictures172.jpg[/IMG]

There’s a few small shiny spots but overall I think I did a good job on this layer.

Ill post some pics as soon as the camera comes home

I do the base color with pigment as I am laying up the board ie 1st two bottom layers with yellow pigment with rail lines masked off, top bare foam (white) with logo laminated between layers. Once I have the board laps and lamination sanded up I can do fine airbrush work using autoair paints and maskant when the art is complete I do a hot coat over everthing and carefully polish it out. I used to paint the raw foam but I could never get the detail I was after for true art on a surf board. Atached is the Nemesis Goddess pin-up art I did on a kite race board.

Can I use my PU pigments for epoxy?