I’m working on repairing the tail on one of my longboards. When I bought it, one of the corners on the tail was crushed, so I dug it out, poured some q-cell and reshaped the corner. Now it’s time to glass, and I’m a bit puzzled by how to glass the corner. I’ve had plenty of experiece with rail repair, etc, where angles don’t matter as much, but I don’t know how to approach this one. I’m assuming I’ll be slitting the fiberglass patch or something to help it lay flat, but looking for advice. Attached are a couple pictures of the corner I’m fixing. It’s also a pretty sharp point of a corner.
…so if you have experience you should know that the most important factors are: not fill with resin but do with the core material and % of fibers involved.
Think for a moment: you shaped that corner without any margin for the fiberglass so when you do the lamination, hot coat etc you will have a bump or sand it out flat again you will have a low % of fibers.
Then you did not sanded the area to blend everything flat and have a strong bond and nice repair.
Sand the area (the gloss coat, the hot coat, and the first layer of fiber in the bottom, in the rails sand 2 layers of fibers or more depends on the case)
Soft the edges.
Laminate only one layer of fiberglass and lay down flat with aid of masking tape; after kick laminate more layers in the rails as needed; then Hot coat, sand, then gloss, polish and rub out.
As you see, tints are the most useless type of lamination.
Yeah your gonna want to sand in down a little and scuff up the area around it. Lam on your patch (I might do one on the deck and bottom), feather that in. tape and hot coat, feather that in. Tape and gloss, feather then polish. Should be looking good after that, especially if you color match
Sorry, I guess my question wasn’t as clear as I was hoping. The pictures were only added for reference, I realize I have more to sand off before I actually add the patch.
My question isn’t how to do the glassing (in terms of procedure), but rather how does one glass around a corner like that…seems like the glass will be all bunched up and not sit tight on the board unless I slit the glass beforehand or cut out a wedge or something. That’s what my question is: how do I get the glass to sit does flush on the board around a corner like that. Hopefully that makes sense.
Thanks for the input. I do understand the proper procedures for glassing a repair - the pics weren’t supposed to depict the completeted prep work, but to show the corner I’m working on.
My question isn’t how to do the glassing (in terms of procedure), but rather how does one glass around a corner like that…seems like the glass will be all bunched up and not sit tight on the board unless I slit the glass beforehand or cut out a wedge or something. That’s what my question is: how do I get the glass to sit does flush on the board around a corner like that. Hopefully that makes more sense.
If it were mine to fix, I’d color up the Q-cell to match the board and use two smallish pieces of 2oz (thin) cloth with the fibers at a 45 degree angle to the stringer to allow it to follow the corner better. One starting on the top wrapping down and around, one starting on the bottom. I’d do one, let the clear resin set up a bit and then do the other, overlapping each other and on to the green cloth. You could even tape it off like a cut lap if you want if you want to keep it ‘neat’. Hand sand and hotcoat and all that other jazz.
Try dry-fitting the cloth to see what it will do on that corner. You may decide a slit is in order. I would still plan on two overlapping pieces of cloth with two applications of resin so the second piece does not mess with the first.
Then I might change my mind and go for a tail block…
I would cut a strip of 4 oz about 1/2" wider than the circumfrence of the rail area to be repaired and about 1" longer than you need. So looking at that repair, about 3"x5". lay the glass over the rail lengthwise and wrap it around. where the glass bunches up at the corner, cut a slit up the middle ans then cut one of the corners left over off. This will leave you a flap that will lay flat. make a secont layer of glass 1/2" longer in each direction, this time when you trim the corner cut the opposite flap off. Then finish as normal. Sometimes I will use a very light spray of 3m adhesieve to hold the cloth in place…
I do have resin tint, so planning on coloring the resin during glassing, try to match that green as close as I can. This board is glassed with volan, and I do have 7.5oz volan sitting around (as well as 4 and 6oz regular weave). I mostly hear folks saying stick with a couple layers of lighter weight glass though, so should I avoid trying to use the volan glass for this repair?
I would avoid thick pieces of fiberglass with tinted resin if you are not sure how to do this. You’ll end up with 6 different tints and too much to sand.
I would have tried to match the color with the filler you put in the corner, instead of leaving it white. Trying to get even color on that corner will be tricky because you will wind up sanding some of it off. Plus, the parts of the glass that stack on top of each other from relief cuts will cause uneven color as well.
I would not bother trying to use 7.5 for this. Heavier weight glass is always harder to wrap on corners. I’d go with multiple layers of 4 oz, or even 2 oz, as someone else suggested.
Some good advice on here from some talented fellows so i won’t add but one thing. If you’re having issues keeping the fiber down since it’s at a corner and small patches, try using two pieces of 2 or 4 mil plastic rapped over resined cloth pulling tight then taped. If you use two, one on tail pulled towards nose on deck and bottom, then one on rail pulled towards stringer, you could get the cloth nice and tight keeping the bunch up minimal. Two pieces helps you pull at two different angles at a corner.
I usually just make the patches oversized, tape them in place before applying the resin, and cut away the excess with a sharp blade once it gels sufficiently. Bigger patches are much easier to wrap on a corner, anyway.
