I recently “acquired” some pretty serious stress cracks on my 9’0. They stretch from rail to rail. They look bad and I am not sure if they go all the way through the glass (I would assume so). I went to the archives and only found one posting where Dale wrote “Carefully injecting or lightly washing pressure dented areas (minor damage) with styrene monomer” Does this seal the cracks? Does it prevent them from spreading further? Are there other techniques that I could use? Thank you tons, GF
I recently “acquired” some pretty serious stress cracks on my > 9’0. They stretch from rail to rail. They look bad and I am not sure if > they go all the way through the glass (I would assume so). I went to the > archives and only found one posting where Dale wrote “Carefully > injecting or lightly washing pressure dented areas (minor damage) with > styrene monomer” Does this seal the cracks? Does it prevent them from > spreading further? Are there other techniques that I could use?>>> Thank you tons,>>> GF Yes, you can use a dremel style tool with a carbide small rounded tip and grind a shallow trench in the existing length of crack, hopefully down to the glass but not through it(gloss and hotcoat is what cracked). Then reapply hotcoat resin bead back in trench a nailhead with resin works. Now sand flush then wetsand/polish. I hate those stress cracks, if the boards a keeper it’s with this effort cause it reseals and posssibly hides the damage about 80%.
Another way to fix stress cracks. You can make a groove with the corner of a razor blade then lay some wet out(use sanding resin) fiberglass rope in the groove,sand when dry. This adds some strength.
Remove the leash plug, and install it on an epoxy board with plenty of glass.
If the cracks are not affecting the stringer and don’t have a salty crust once the board is dry I wouldn’t worry about it. I had a 9’6" with single 6oz cloth that had a stress crack that I rode for a year and a half, almost daily, without any problems. It just looks a bit weird.
How about sanding the gloss/hot coat down and re-hotcoat/glossing? It might actually be less work than trying to expose, fill and feather out a bunch of edge to edge cracks.