Hi everybody, I recently decided to make my own surfboard and it all went great until glassing. It was full of air bubbles and would have broken in the water. I took it into a glassing shop and they said that it was because I put the paint on too thick so it lost its bond and unstuck. He recommended that I take off the fiberglass and reshape it. I did this, and after I took off the fiberglass, there was still some paint left. I got a random orbital sander from Amazon and I started to sand the board to get the paint layer off. It wasn’t coming off when I sanded from the top, so I used the sides to dig in a little bit into the foam so that I could get under the paint and take it off that way. That all went well until one spot near the tail, where I dug into it too much. I tried to thin the rest out near the tail, and I’m worried that it will be too thin and crack in the water. It is literally bending a little bit when I put pressure on it right now. I am going to get it professionally glassed, and I know that the fiberglass will add strength too it, but I am still worried that it won’t work. I want to keep going, but if it’s going to break when I take it out, I’d rather not waste my time. I was also wondering if I should thin out the rest of the board to make it even. It measures a tiny bit more than half an inch at the thinnest point near the tail and it measures around 2 inches at it’s thickest point. I attached some images for reference. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hey Bud, thanks so much for the response. I thinned the rest of the board out a little so that it flowed more and it looks pretty good! Can’t wait to finish it up and take it out into the water!
Given the break in the rail curve (and probably the rocker curve, too), I sincerely think that you’re going to spend a lot of time and efforts for something that won’t be worth it.
My advice: make a paipo from the front of the board, buy another blank if you want to make a shortboard. Don’t ask me how I know, I have most probably f…ed off many more boards than you will ever do.
…hello; you are asking for advice; the first one is do not sand spot anything you should make long passes or working on something specific like cutting a “V”.
Orbital sanders are not good to shaping; if you do not have an electric planer, use a heavy handmade block with 24 grit for the rough part.
You need to have contrast of shadows and SIDE lights; so better if you put a roof there.
–in this case, measure the tail thickness at 12" from tail tip and onto the stringer; if you have at least 2" you are good to try to clean the sides. Do not touch the bad part until final stage.
re shape the areas forward the dent and to the tail tip.
If you do not have that thickness (or more) cut 3 inches from the tail and 1 from the nose; do another outline. This time a 4 inches smaller board you ll have so adjust other stuff.
You cannot cut 4 inches; too small…well at least cut 1 inch from tail and adjust the widest point of the outline.
Try to develop an eye for the curves.
-Man, your house looks modern and new; can you post more angles? Thanks
