When to paint?

General Discussion
1

Hi,

Second post so far in my quest to build my first surfboard. 

I had some questions on the next stage. Firstly, when to paint? I’m not doing anything special, just the top half of the board to be a different colour. 

I have read many different board building manuals from the internet and there are an array of different ideas. 

 

I  have read that using a water based paint is the only way to go (no problem). However, I have read you shouldn’t paint the blank but others have said to paint the blank. I understand this may be under different cirucmstances. I have shaped a PU board and looking at using a UV Cure expoxy resin. So, does this come into play? 

 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

2

95% of the time paint is applied to the foam.  There are some though that paint on the sanded hotcoat and them gloss or spray finish over that. Make sure your blank is screened and finished nicely.  Imperfections in the foam are sometimes more noticeable when painted.  You are correct in using water-based acrylic flat paint.  Allow at least 24 hrs. dry time.  Tempra or artist paints are commonly used.  But you can use flat interior house paint.  Have used it myself many, many times.  Spray with a cup gun is the preferred method. Thin with water or acrylic and strain.   Apply multiple coats allowing each coat to dry before recoating.  Two or three coats usually does it. 

3

I painted my eps blank. I used acrylic that was diluted with water, in order to stain the foam more than make a solid layer of paint over it. The blank was allowed to dry for a day or two also. That way there will be no bonding issues. I’ve ridden the board like 4 times and it hasn’t exploded, so it seems to have went well. I don’t know if it would be different for pu blanks. 

4

did the same with just watered down acrylic and it worked well. takes forever to dry though. i used regular poly resin but i dont think that makes much difference. 

5

Thanks guys for your valuable information!!

 

Dallas