To repair or not to repair

Pics....

Question, how many repairs have you done?

 

tough one. For me, I wouldn't repair it...guess I'd just donate the pieces to groms, so they can get a custom.

 

Mini Simmons that thing man!

 

So f*ck it, you can do it man. But it's gonna cost ya- as far as repair goes, anything remotely extensive, you need two things: shaping stand and sander. I use a cheap orbital palm sander from Harbor Freight, it was 20/30 bucks, it does the job once you get used to handling it. You can return it within 90 days too, haha.

I don't really see a way to do this right without spending at least 50/100 bucks and two or three days, depending on what you have on hand.

 

I've fixed a few snapped longboards like that for friends or myself. It IS fixable for sure. I wouldn't spend the money to have it professionally done. I dont know what the going rate is for that kind of a repair, but I cant imagine anyone being willing to do it for under $150-$175 considering how much work is involved.

If you're up for a big messy headache you could do it yourself if your know your way around board repairs. There are plenty of step-by-step broken board repair tutorials online. If you know your way around resin and glassing, you can do it and the board will be a bit heavier and less flexible that it used to be.

If the front half of the snapped board is more than 4 feet long you could make a little 4' (or whatever) x 22" x 3" mini simmons type board that might be fun for someone in small waves, but again...messy time consuming project. You would have to strip most of the glass off the board to refoil it, reglass it.

All lousy options IMO.

 

Haha, I feel like you have shown us this exact same board a couple months ago... Just off the dome here, it doesn't look like enough real estate on the back end of that board to do much of anything.

I believe it was Mitchell who gave some solid advice on this post the first time, otherwise it was an almost identical situation/board, but he advised using some kind of braces/stringers to insert into each side for some added stability and mend the thing back together as a long board.

I dunno. Sounds like a super fun project, but I don't see how you are going to get anything out of that. What is it snapped at, like the 4" mark from the tail?

I just don't see any real application for any kind of hybrid out of that. Then again, wasting time repairing and making it all pretty again, then the thing snaps on your first chest high day, that would be a bummer too.

Might be time to turn it into a bench or something.

 

Well, there you have it. Solid advice comes through from Mitchell while I was typing.

Mitchell: You think he can make a simmons out of that end piece? Rounded off that thing looks like it would be all of about 3.5 ft long.

 

That repair done professionally should be around the $100-$125 mark. Anything more than that is too much. You could do it yourself but it'll def. be noticeable if your not experienced. So do you want to invest hours of sweat and elbow grease and end up with a novice fix, but gain the experience points and knowledge for future fixes? Or drop some $ and make sure its done right and pass on the chance to learn something? Not really a right or wrong answer.

 

It is fixable but that looks like a real pain.

That thing is in bad shape if it was just popped in half it would be a do able fix but all the glass that is gone is a pain.

I think you either have a project to put it back together and reglass it. PROJECT. Lots of cloth and resin is needed.

Professional guy is going to charge you a lot, I have no doubt it would come back a rideable useable board.



Sorry to see that.

Up to you, you can chip away at it and put it back together when you feel motivated and have another board to ride at the end. I think if you try to mini simmons it you will be disappointing and it will be a lot of labor.

Personally I would consider putting that in a garbage can or donating it for art or putting it back together.

 

You're probably right....I just don't see how the board repair guys are willing to do it for that kind of money.

The way I see it there are at least 6-7 major steps to putting it back together, probably more like 8. they all have to be done separately while the resin sets up.

- trim out all of the foam / glass debris to get the break point cleaned up.
- reattach the halves and wait for that resin to set up.
- router in a re-inforcement of the connection (could be stringer material, fin rope) wait for the resin to set up.
- reglass the repaired section of the board. wait.
- hotcoat the repaired section of the board. wait.
- sand out the hot coat
- professionally done, there is a paint step in there.
- lots of clean up/touch up/sanding at various stages.

If each of these step takes one hour, were talking about an 8+ hour messy, toxic job, that after you factor in materials means you might be clearing $10/hour. Pretty cheap labor for skilled work involving hazardous materials.

Zach - only the front half could make the mini simmons if its long enough which it probably isn't - the back half doesn't have enough rocker or width in the tail.

 

These guys in Rhodie charge $180 and up for a snapped longboard.
http://dingshack.com/surfboard-repair/surfboard-repair-price-sheet/

Mitchell, when you fixed the snapped boards, you never put the dowels into the foam in order to join and add strength? I always figured that method, along with the anti-twist scaffolding, was the best route. But fortunately, I haven't had to make this repair yet.

 

Yeah I have put dowels resined into the foam across the snapped section to add strength to snapped boards. But I question how much strength they actually provide considering they are anchored into nothing but foam. I mean if that board is stressed enough right where the dowels are, I would think before the dowel breaks, the foam would just deform internally around the dowel like crazy.

I would still put something structural across the break, but would concentrate on wrapping several layers of 6 oz cloth around the rails across the break for a strength component that is more bonded to a large area of the board to distribute the stress over a larger area.