My ten foot noserider has a shattered glass job on the bottom. There are approximately 50-100 stress fractures that are perpendicular to the stringer. they start near the nose and are present two/thirds of the way down. It looks like crap. But I have ridden the board at least thirty times since then and don’t see any water dammage. Now I’m starting to think I should fix it because it’s a really good board, the best longboard I ever had. So, how would I go about fixing it. Keep in mind, the cracks run rail to rail over most of the board, on the bottom. The glass is 8oz volan and has a yellow tint. I want the board to be fixed and ride the same, but don’t care how it looks.
Fairmont, I’ve had the same problem on a couple of my boards. As far as I can figure out, the main problem is over-flexing compounded by a brittle hotcoat. (Too much catalyst). My solution was to sand the bottom right down to the cloth. Use good lighting so you can see the fabric when you get there. Then I laminated a 4oz. piece of cloth on the area that had the cracks. Then hot coat and gloss. It added some weight, but I never had any more problems with stress cracks. Doug
Hey Fairmont, You’re going to have to be very patient using something around 100 grit on your rotorary sander. It’ll take you an hour and a half of very careful work to get rid of the stress cracks. Do a little experimenting with real small batches to get a match for your yellow tint. It’s hard to say how deep the cracks are until you get into the sanding process. If they’re real deep you may have to go with 6oz. Wetting the surface out with styrene will help tremendously to get the cracks to disappear. You’ll have to hot coat sand, gloss and polish. It’ll take a long time but if the board is a valuable to you as you say I can understand why you would want to bring it back to first class condition. I have a yellow resin tint 9’10" Hap Jacobs that I feel very much the same way about that still in primo condition. Do take you time and you’ll end up with a repair you’ll be very proud of. Mahalo, Rich
I have just sanded and reglossed boards with this problem and so far so good.You could still see the fractures but the gloss polished out and it seemed like it was sealed up.Not to say that this is best,just that its worked for me over the years. R. Brucker
Doug, I think you are right on. Your call will do the job. I have been told on Volan that when you do your lap a lot of people run a bead of resin around the lap joint to make it sand out easier and not cut into the Volan. If your board is thin, and flexes the resin bead (which has no stringth) will crack. This will go right into the hot coat and gloss. Laying a 4 oz. non volan over the whole bottom of the board, making sure to cover the lap all the way to the rail useing hot coat resin. This will not give the board more stringth, and will not help stop the flexing. What is will do is not give the cracks a place to start. Remember you can sand down the 4 oz. until it is gone except in the area of the lap. It will not show since it is not volan, just be carefull not to go into the volan, as this will show.
Thanks. I was afraid it would be a big job, and it sounds like it is. I plan to have it done professionally. I don’t mind paying for it, but I don’t want to mess up on this one. This is, like I said, an incredible board. My biggest fear, of course, is that it won’t catch waves the same or ride the same. I would rather get a year of it being the same than ten years of it riding differently. So I guess my next questions is, what will happen if I just leave it alone. I really think the cracks are in the hot coat only and, therefore, I don’t think water will make it to the foam. What do you guys think about simply ignoring the problem (it isn’t cancer, afterall…is it?)
Well, if it was me, I’d first try simply sanding down the gloss and hotcoat, though I’d definitely be conservative about how much I didn’t sand away, taking great care not to touch the cloth. These cracks are caused by failure of the gloss and hotcoat in tension, so anything that weakens the cloth is only going to make the problem repeat, worse. Thinning the resin with styrene or acetone will also help a lot, also use slow batches, as little catalyst as possible for a less brittle, stronger coat. Unless you are a professional grade sander, good enough to work in a glass shop, I’d suggest that you use a random orbit sander or orbital ( woodworker’s finishing sander ) with something like 100 or 120 grit so you won’t sand through the glass suddenly. Guess why I suggest that…ah huh, experience, and it wasn’t pretty. If the cracks come back, then sand it down again and add 4 or possibly 6 oz cloth as mentioned, a good big patch squeegeed well with slow resin and squeegee towards the edges which wil let you do a nice job of feathering it with the sander. Will it ride different with extra glass? Maybe. Will you notice it? On a board that’s already big and glassed wih 8 oz volan, probably not. And if you do notice it you might like it better - who knows. Can you just let it go? Yeah, you can. It may never take on water, itr may outlast you…and then again, it could get worse tomorrow. But if you change your mind after a while, when it’s started to leak, it’ll be too late. Brown foam, weakened glass-foam bond and an invitation to breaking the thing along one of those brown lines. I’d get it fixed or fix it yourself.Why let it go all to hell if it’s a board you’re fond of? doc…
mike, i quick coverup is not the way to go on a board that you plan to have a while. sand it down almost to the weave and the cracks will almost disappear. glass with 4oz after taping off at the rail bead. light hotcoat. zip at the rail with a razor. sand till you see 4oz. weave everywhere. light gloss. polish. do the whole bottom or at least back to the fin patch otherwise it will crack again where you stopped. with proper sanding and light applications of sanding and gloss coats you shouldn’t add any weight. your just replacing crappy cracked resin with a thin reinforcement layer. wollybear ding repair in ventura does a good job on these. (805) 340-1135 all my new boards(since 6/02) get a layer of 4oz.on the whole bottom over the volan to keep this cracking from occuring. this is done after both volan laminations(top and bottom) are completed. a fair amount of extra work but worth it down the line.