WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO TAKE THE GLASS OFF A BOARD? I AM THINKING OF RESTORUNG A OLD BOARD.
Hi I can’t do it without losing 1/8th" of foam, and chunks as deep as 3/4th". So I lose lots of foam. If your starting point is thick enough, you can maybe salvage something out of it. Sand the rails off, first, then peel up the top and bottom.
i tried stripping 1 of my old boards, it basically ruined it ,it was a short board with alot of ding repair so the ammount uf foam i lost made it to thin,narrow, and everything else…but what did work fo me was sanding down till the cloth was thin , then using a hand planer to peel off the remainder. but i lost big chunks off the rails , the foam sees to like to stick to the glassed cloth in that area.
The best way to restore a board most definitely does not involve taking off the old glass.
Scott, Take it off in 1 inch increments the length of the board. First sand the board down to the weave, then take a dremel tool with the cutting disc around the rails. Some times the entire deck and bottom come off after going this, it’s like a popping a car hood if your lucky. If not just start peeling the 1 inch long strips off the board. But be warned you will have to either fill the tearout voids or re-skin the deck and bottom. If you don’t mind me asking, why not just make a new board? -Jay
Thank you for your suggestion by the sounds of it it is a lot of hastle. I just had back surgery so I need something to pass the time. I just might shape my own board.
Well what would be the best way. The other thing I was thinking of doing was sanding it down a little bit, painting it with some sort of paint and putting a gloss coat on it. Making it a wall hanger, it is not one but maybey just for practice while my back is healing from my surgery
Hi Scott, Yeah, if you’re going to make a wall hanger out of it, then sanding the really cobby bits and painting is one way to go. The thing is, I really don’t know what you’re up against. But first, how about this. I’ve seen a lot of restoration or repair attempts started and somebody tried doing major surgery, like sawing out pieces or ripping off the glass…and that sort of drastic measures turned out to be way, way overkill and making what could have been a simple repair into a long, difficult and lousy job. Most of the time something less drastic would have worked fine. I remember one guy - he must have gotten a router for christmas or something. He routed hell out of a board that had a crunched fin box, making a simple repair into a major project. Another guy, banged up nose on his board, he cut it off and wanted to try to make another one. Hooboy… So, what I’ll suggest is this: take some pictures of the thing and post 'em here. Then, we can mebbe give you some ideas that’d work easier and better. hope that’s of use. Sorry about your back, man, I kinda tweaked mine last week and I can kinda feel for you. doc…
Cool thank you very much. I will try to post them sometime tomorrow. Like I said it is just a beater. But I figuerd it would be good practice and something to pass the time. The reason I said practice is because a friend of mine is giving me a old G&S longboard and was going to try to make it a wall hanger depending on the condition of it. Tahnks Doc
You know it’s funny that Doc mentioned the router. I used a router to strip the glass off a board and for the most part it worked really well. I have a DeWalt Plunge/Vacuum router that performs REALLY precise “flycuts”. You can literally set the depth of cut for one, or two, layers of cloth (about .007" per layer). Domed decks and rails are done similarly, row by row, nose to tail direction along lines of similar convexity(?). Use tweezers to lift out pressure dings. Depending upon how “beat” the board is, this stripping method can be very revealing (no pun intended). I found with a little luck, I was able to keep logos intact. On the down side, it takes a little while to do the job. Delam areas also get a bit ugly. You’ll have to be the judge on a board restoration’s worthwhileness…
De nada- the good news is that the G&Ss were all relatively well made boards, so if it’s not completely toast it may well be worth fixing up as a ‘user’. I was afraid you were going to say you had an old Dextra or something - and I have seen attempts to restore those to what some might call their former glory. hope that’s of some use doc…
Ah, is that similar to this critter ( link below )? I have a similar ( no vaccum, does have plunge and micro-adjust) Porter-Cable 693 and like it - works nice for old fin box removal among other things. Though lately I find myself reaching first for a laminate trimmer (P-C # 7310- http://www.porter-cable.com/index.asp?e=547&p=2832 ) - quite nice, light, one-hand operation and it’s surprising what guts it has, swinging some pretty good sized bits. Or plain laminate trimmer stuff, which seems like it might have a number of useful applications in surfboard repair work. The madman-with-a-router whose handiwork I had to deal with, he never heard of adjusting the thing fine. Nope, more like ‘Set it as deep as it’ll go and have at it’. doc… http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=5585
I broke the nose off of a longboard which led to a section of glass pulling off all the way to the tail. Needless to say the rest came off pretty easily, except the rails, it sounds like there always a b#$%h. I had a good experience with this method. I didn’t ruin a good blank for my first board and had some good lines to work with. I must say though trying to use the existing fins plugs was nightmare! Between that and the hug chunks pulled off the rail…My board has some nice “hips” and a very straight (if not slightly inverted) rail from the middle of the board to about where the side bites are. The board will surf. I’m confident in that and the experience was priceless. I basically had to pay for a surform, sand paper and some dragon skin. People talk negatively about doing this but just haveing some foam you don’t care about to mow is fun.
Scott, If you want to make a wall hanger out of it, thats a diiferent story: Just sand the board down flat just too the weave, don’t go after the presure dings, just fix the real dings. Now apply a heavy hot coat,and sand that down flat with a heavy grit so your presure dings come flat. Go to Michaels or some craft store and buy water based acrylic flat paint. Spray the entire board or tape off a design whatever. Now hot coat the board again, pull the tape and polish out. I just posted a couple of boards, a Jacobs and a Dave Sweet that were in way worse shape thae your G&S, check them out. I used resin tints, but paint done right looks exactly like resin tints. anything’s possible. -Jay
The best board I’ve made to date was a salvage job. The main piece of advice it to take it really slow so that you don’t pull off chunks of foam as you’re stripping the glass. I started by takign a grinder and cutting into the rail… just a little cut so that I could make a start on pulling the glass off. Use a pliars or some other kinda grip to pull the glass. I also used the grinder to cut some strips into the glass on the deck and bottom. It’s alot easier to pull a few small sections of glass rather than 1 large section of glass. Just be really carefull with the grinder not to dig into the foam. Hope it works out for you and remember take it nice and slow…
That is killer advice, sounds like that is what I am going to try to do. On the paints are they spray paints or paints for airbrish. I think I will try to do that on my old board before the G&S. Thank you again for all the advice. This is a sweet website.
There water based acrylics, Delta, Apple Barrel, Liquitex etc. you can mix them with acrylic thinner, Future floor wax, or Water…water sucks because if you thin it more than about 15% the paint will do all sorts of weird s$%t. And yes it goes into a sprayer, I use a 1/4 hp Badger compressor with a double action gravity feed cup…But you can go to Harbor Freight and buy a small hobby compressor and a single action sprayer for about $50, It will work fine, its all in the thinning and straining of the paint. you’ll end up using it for all sorts of stuff. Now get to work. -Jay
Doc, yeah pretty close; I have the DW621 actually. Capable of VERY fine cuts; I saw it take off a sticker without marring the table surface…
Future floor wax, ah the trix of the trade. ur the man thank you. I think by next week I can get up and get started.