I would like you to give me a hand in the process to laminate the side fin boxes. In my case I will laminate a 7’2 board, I have already installed the side boxes and I’m ready to start laminating the bottom of the board. The bottom will be 6oz and have a mixture of pigments, which if run well will be opaque.
Before installing the boxes I thought to put only football patches whit clear resin, but then I came across the mixture of pigments, and I’m afraid that could give problems. I thought it is good idea a tail patch, but like to hear your opinion before.
I´m only a hobby backyarder, so take this with a grain of salt…
With an opaque lam, it will make no difference visually, if you put your additional footbal patches under the bottom lam or above.
(a tinted lam would saturate in a different shade, if you put clear pachtes under the lam)
But: In my opionion it will make a potential structural difference. I like to put my patches on top of the bottom lam. Because when you sand lateron, you just feather the edges of the patches.
If you put the patches under the lam and your sanding is not spot on, you might damage the bottomlam around the edge of the patch underneath. Which will make you loose all structural integrity.
So, I would do the bottomlam and put some additional football patches on top of the wet lam. (with an opaque lam, you can do clear or coloured patches,but I´d do clear patches most likely)
Some might just go with just the bottomlam over the plugs, without patches. But I like to keep it safe and those little patches won´t weigh to much to worry about for me.
I would only consider doing football patches if I was installing boxes through an existing lamination layer (in which case it would be a clear patch); or in a lightweight shortboard layup that I’m glassing in clear. I would never do a football under a colored lamination. I’ve seen other people do it and (TO ME) it always looks horrible.
I think that the whole visual aesthetic of resin opaques and tints includes the depth and texture of the color and the weave and the subtle imperfections. They’re not intended to have the machine-perfect look of an airbrush or an automotive paint job. So I embrace those elements and I don’t try to hide them. I usually don’t even bother trying to cover my lap lines with a pinline unless I screwed the lamination up so badly that it looks like crap (which hasn’t happened to me in years). I really like the look of an exposed cutlap if it’s clean.
I would never, never do a patch under any type of color lam. Half of what you see in a color lam is the resin soaking into the foam and creating a density of color. Also, this is a 7’2" board, not a potato chip thruster. There are lots of tail patches that give a cool look to boards in this size range. Remember that nothing on top of a lam is colorless. Everything has a tint, even though it may be slight. I would not do footballs but instead do a tasteful full tail patch. Use 4 oz. to keep the weight down. You didn’t say if you were doing cut laps or pin lines.
Clear footballs or a clear tail patch. The possibility of error and visibility is greater with multiple patches(ie 1 or 2 layers of cloth over each individual finbox). You will also need to sand or grind the edge of each individual fin patch before your “ filler or hotcoat” which leaves more room for error. At worst you will have a slightly visible line at the front of the fin box area of the tail if you do a single tail patch.
In my case I did the patches after lamination, and before the hotcoat, it went well. I had some bumps in fin area, so I had so sand a little more there. But then, as I gave the hotcoat / sand hotcoat and gloss coat, that covered everything. Here’s the final result.
I agree whit you, about seeing the texture in a color lamination and don’t hide the imperfections. In my case I did the patch after lamination and went well.
In my case I did the patches after lamination. Next time I’ll think about a full tail patch, looks good on the board and is strong. I did a cutlap on bottom and then pinline. show you in the pics.
Both of you guys are doing great work and asking all the right questions. You’re both being critical of your own work and developing an “Eye” that will guarantee a 99.5% perfect board sometime in the future. My compliments to you both. Lowel
