Hello,
Looking for some advice. Looking to turn my old longboard into a board I’ll use. Thinkin a 7’ hog or 6’ mini-sims. Either way, my main question is what is the best way to take the existing glass job off down to the foam? Its PU foam and standard glassing (not epoxy).
My thought was to use exacto blade to cut panels, then “carefullly” peel the panels of glass off and hopefully not pull chunks of foam.
After i pull the glass, then i was going to cut outline and shape per usual.
I’d spend $60 on a virgin blank and give the longboard away to a kid. Or cut the longboard into 3 pieces, leave the glass on and keep them onhand for the foam to be used on repairs. I don’t do resin fills on any repair larger than a dime (at most).
Or, you could dremel the apex of the rail down enough to cut it with a razor, use a hair dryer to warm up the skin and peel of off from the outside in.
the only part of the board that will chunk off are the rails. The middle of the board should pull fairly clean. Theres no easy way just a lot of effort. When I was in highschool and broke this was the way I built my first board. Sometimes the 60 bucks for the blank and dremmel tool is more than your whole budget. Only thing you should remember is… Polyurethane foam gets softer and softer the more you dig into the middle. Usually a shaped board already has been shaved down quite a bit. There is a point where it will be soft and pressure dent no matter how much glass you put on.
Good luck on your attempt. Buy the blank next time for sure, you wont want to peel another board after how much effort this will be
If you don’t have a dremel you could use a belt sander or a sanding block with 36 grit or even a file to bring the glass on the rails down thin enough to cut is with a razor. It will be the fin plugs and boxes that will be your bigger challenge.
Thanks for the advice. Sounds like starting at the rails is the place to start. The thickness in the middle wont change much. But i will have to sand the nose and tail. Ive only done epoxy boards for the last 8 years. Im actually doing this “for fun”…at least for now. Thouht a triple stringer hog would make a cool board.
Do you make relief cuts? Or once i get into the rail, just start peeling everyhing from there?
Depending on how wide the original is and how wide you want the new board, you can cut the rails off or sand them down till the glass is really thin. I’ve done several where I’ll take a 10’ x 24" x 3+" board and strip it to make another board. I’ve been lucky to have enough width to cut the rails at the apex, then strip off the glass. You can use a wide putty knife and carefully work it under the glass if it doesn’t want to pull off easily. I’ve used a circular saw with the blade barely sticking out and cut lines up and down the board to be able to pull narrower strips. Sanding the glass till you hit weave will make the glass more flexible , but it becomes an itchy mess. I’d do the rail that way if there isn’t enough width. The rails are where you will see chunks pull off the most. Another problem is if the board has had dings repaired. Those spots are going to be a problem.
Long boards make great low rocker boards.
I agree, buy a blank. But, I striped a board recently and reshaped it just to do it. I cut the fins off then used my router to zip open the apex of the rails. Then made shallow routes in strips across the deck. Used a putty knife to separate and get my fingers under the glass and started ripping it off. Mike
spackle can be your best friend to fill some minor chunks missing
surprised no ones mentioned this
The few I did many years ago was by sanding the rails til the glass was paper thin, then peeling the top and bottom off.
If the board has a finbox, sand that area thin before peeling. Glassed on fins? Cut them off as close as you can, then sand those areas.
In not sure how easy it is to search for them but my last three build treads have been reshapes. Check them out, I’ll try to suss out the links. You may be able to pic up some ideas. If not got to my instagram @skatement_surfboards there a heaps of step by step posts in there of each board.
Edit
Latest one
https://www.swaylocks.com/forums/ive-been-given-chance-to-do-something-super-cool-finished-one-post-build-thread?page=1#comment-546631
https://www.swaylocks.com/forums/evolution-fish-76-mini-mal-build-thread
https://www.swaylocks.com/forums/foam-colour-fun-one-way-to-make-crap-blank-look-pretty?page=2
Not much here on the asym reshape. I can’t remember if I put much on here about it.
Thanks for the links, i will definitely check those out.
I was going to start the plan shape above the fin boxes to avoid them entirely. Once I pull the glass off above, i was going to hand saw straight across and avoid the fin box area entirely.
The hog shaoe gives me a little breathing room along the rails so i think i will definitttry the method to sand in on the rail to begin delaminating. Even if chunks on the rail come out, i should have an inch of play. The image below shows the mini simmons in green outline (hard to see) and the hog in red.
That looks like a nice board. Why destroy it?
Really Whale?
so your saying you are going to cut up a board which arguably you could sell for $200. Then you are going slice a baby out of it with a surfboard obortion. What you are going to end up with is no surfboard, or a board that is not up to your expectations…oh you think it will be fine… but deep done you will know… When you are home alone at night, you will know what you did.
Dude sell it as is, buy a blank and make yourself a nice little surfboard. Then you can thank uncle Resinhead. This has been a PSA for all the surfboardin the world that can’t speak for themselves.
thank you for the concern. I havent fully committed to the project yet. I really am interested in learning what methods people have used for removing glass of a board.
They already told you the best methods, sand down the rails as much as possible and start peeling them off. DON’T use a flathead screwdriver to pry the glass off, it’ll dig into the foam. Invest in spackle, you will need to fill in some holes. Also, I agree with the others, I wouldn’t destroy that board. I’d fix the dings as best as possible and sell it.
Visions of my 1966 Gary Propper Hobie going under the knife in 1969. Arghhhhh!
Surfboards should only be stripped and re shaped if they are too far gone to repair IMO. And a surfboard has to be pretty dang bad for that to the the case. Destroying that perfectly good board would be a shame. But its yours to do what you want with. I have made that mistake in the past.
Its not quite as nice as the picture shows. The deck has some delam issues that need to be addressed which is how this idea came to mind. Its been sitting in my basement for a decade. Either way i need to peel off some glass and reglass.
Doing a deckpatch is easy.
One other concern you should be taking into consideration is what the resulting rocker is going to look like, and whether it will work with the template you’re using. You’re basically using the flattest part of the rocker out of a longboard and expecting that to work for the foundation of a new funboard? I don’t think so.
The minisimm might work, but even if you move your template up a few more inches you’ll still have to cut a fair bit of nose rocker into the blank.
Think about where the apex of the rocker is on that existing board and take that into consideration with any reshape. If you’re going to put that apex ahead of center (which is what you’re doing with the placement on the simm) and then do a wide point back template (the orig simm is several inches behind center) that combo isn’t going to work as intended. You’re not going to get that same rear foot bias and pivot that those designs are designed to do.
You can fix deck delams without stripping glass. I finally saw the pic of your board and I agree with those who say it can be saved. I have seen boards rehabbed that were much worse. As another said, if you truly want to build a new, smaller board, sell this one for $100 and have enough for a blank and the cloth to build a shortboard.
