A friend of mine bought a board around to me for a restoration the other day. It turns out that I have an identical board in my collection awaiting a restoration. They are Barry Bennett (Australia) pintail Trackers. Shaped by Geoff McCoy while he was at Bennetts. Serial no’s 5231 and 5058. 5085 has a Wave Set fin and box 5231 has a glassed on Greenough stage III. I’m thinking that I might restore them together. 5231 is on the left.platty.
Platty,
if the restorations go anything like your others, your friend and those two boards are stoked!!!
Please keep us all posted,
G
what size are they , Dave ?
I too look forward to seeing these restored !
ben
platty: lots of photos & step-by-steps please. looking forward to it.
5085 had an area on the deck, on the nose and another area on the bottom, in the middle where it may have been mounted on something. These two areas have since been filled with resin, leaving the glass proud of the deck and bottom. Today I removed the glass and exposed the resin. These areas will be ground down and the original glass will be rebonded to the board.
5085 7’9 1/2" X 22’ X n 16 3/4" X t 12 1/2" X 3 3/8" thick
5231 7’10 1/2" X 21 5/8" X n 16 1/2" X t 12 7/8" X 3 3/16" thick
So the dimentions are close. The rails on 5231 are a little more pinched. There are 146 boards between them. I wonder what this equates to in time?
Hey Oldy, I may have a Gary Birdstall old mal to restore. I’m hopefully having a look at it this weekend. If it is a goer, it maybe good for your latest project. platty.
Quote:
Hey Oldy, I may have a Gary Birdstall old mal to restore. I’m hopefully having a look at it this weekend. If it is a goer, it maybe good for your latest project. platty.
platty: sounds good. keep me posted. i’m still keen.
I always liked watching those medical/surgery shows on TV. This is REAL plastic surgery in slo-mo…
Wow Platty! Those boards look just like my Mobley! Looks like a very similar planshape. Do they have convex bottoms as well?
I’ll post pics tomorrow.
Ok. Today I ground out the dings on both boards. All those black spots on the bottom 5231 (see photos) are car bog. I ground all that away. They will be filled with a resin and chopped fibre mix. The two areas on 5081 where I removed the glass yesterday have been prepped also. This is a bit of a suck it and see process with this area. A little bit of creative air brushing may have to be employed here to hide the holes that somebody drilled in the glass to pump all that resin in.
SrPato. Yes, both the boards do have cambered bottoms. platty.
enjoying the process. keep the photos & descriptions coming mate.
Today I filled all the low spots on the bottom of 5231. This is with chopped up fin rovings and lam resin. Then filler coated (hotcoat).
The other photos show one of the pieces of glass that were removed being rebonded. Two layers of 10 under then clamped.
Hey Oldy. I’m having a look at the Gary Birdstall log on Sunday. Fingers crossed. platty.
At some point the fin on 5231 has been modified. A new piece fin panel was fitted and tacked to the fin. Using a template from another tracker I marked and shaped the added piece. Then three layers of 10oz and one layer of 4oz were layed over the whole fin. The 4oz is there to protect the 10oz from sand throughs when sanding the filler coat.platty.
how many layers did you lay up in the panel , Dave ?
it looks good !
Just wondering …would it have been a bit hard to get a good colour match for the previous / existing fin colour , as well ?
cheers
ben
These next two photos show the fin on 5231 has been cleaned up and the foil restored. The deck glossed and the bottom filler coated. Work on the other board has slowed a little. It is now, a take your time job.
Chip. Could’nt tell you how many layers the panel is. It was a scrap piece I had laying around.platty.
i love watching your workmanship platty. thanks for sharing.
Both boards are now finished. 5231 has been finished for sometime now. 5085 was finished today. I had some “Barry Bennett” logos left over from a previous restoration. So I used them to cover part of the area on the bottom, that had those holes in it. The rest of the area was covered with a yellow pigment, with a black pinline top and bottom. There was a large area of delam on the nose of 5085 which was injected with resin a clamped. The boards were glossed and lightly sanded with 240 dry to break the surface, then sanded with 600, 1200 and 1500 wet and dry and then polished.platty.
http://www.davidplattsurfboardrestorations.com.au
Love your work platty, so sweet. Must feel bloody good to get a dinged up board that’s ready for the dump, and breathe new life into it. I think it’s great to see old boards bought back to life. Surfboards dont get arthritis, so why should they get old and thrown out when they could still give someone the stoke?
Cheers and keep it up
Platty,
I hooked into your site through realsurf.com forum – love yr work.
question: On a clear board, once the foam is super-yellow and water stained i guess there is nothing really you can do to bring it to white again?
I’ve got a late 70s single fin - - pigmented bottom/rails and clear deck. really yellow and stained. was thinking perhaps white pigment on the clear deck?
thx,
jason
Hey jason. Thanks. You are right about the stained foam. Short of removing the glass and carefully sanding out the stained foam and reglassing the deck. Not that I recommend that be done. You could do a pigment job on the deck. But it will add some weight to a board that is probablly heavy for its size, being a board from the 70’s. Another option would be to do a spray job. This would be my prefered option if I were doing the job. If it were a 60’s board, pigment would be the way to go. But, it is a 70’s board and spray jobs rather than pigment jobs were the go back then. And very little weight would be added.platty.
beautiful work once again dave. your website’s inspiring too. well worth a look for those who haven’t already had one yet. amazing restorations.