Surfbort medical advise (aka ding repair)

Two things....

1) i like your attitude. You got to go for it. My fiance's brother in law is like you mentioned you are. Can't figure out how to use a freaking screwdriver. He calls me over to his house all the time to fix the simplest things. Drives me crazy. Thing is it's not hard. If you take the time to understand somthing, it's really pretty easy to figure out. In this case, surfboard construction. Which LB laid out for you. If you understand that, the repair and future repairs are easy. You'll have to hone the craft a bit, but you'll get it with some effort. Like i originally said, don't cut corners. Measure twice, cut once. Take your time and you'll be golden.

2) LB answered all your questions but I'll throw a few more out there. A sqeegee changed the game for me with making repairs nicer looking. Got a set of 3 for cheap at a boat store. Use painter's tape for.... well tape. Another thing i do sometimes, I'll actually tape the area before sanding. That way if i go a bit crazy the tape keeps me from sanding where i don't want. Sanding block, Getty once cheap from home depo. Or build one yourself if you really want to up your "hands on" skills. When you tape, use a bunch. Outward. When i first started doing repairs i got a bit sloppy. Extra tape extending outwards from my repair helped keep resin and what not from going into areas of the board outside the repair area

 

Why did it delam in the first place,sometimes if they start to delam on the deck usually its just gonna spread like a virus and if its PU it might have the fungus in it if its been leaking awhile, then there is the stringer ,hate to bust a bubble with all this good advice on repairs but if its been gettin wet for a while then your stringer can be rotting as well ,cutting into a PU blank is not always a good idea cuz of the exterior has a crust or harder outer skin to shape past it into the softer foam will just be a place that delams even quicker.If it delamed cuz of the foam is squished the repair wont last.Best thing yu can do is decide if its worth it ,is it a vintage board or does it have sentimental value is one thing ,boards restore can be expensive as a new board build and take longer than it would take to just shape a new one yu can get a blank in either PU or eps xps and shape it yourself

 

Im sorry man but ive found over the years that they, delams i mean can lead to some of the worst damage a board can get ,PU foam it kinda gets infected for lack of a better term and sometimes rots and has fungus in it from seawater and neither polyester or epoxy resin will stick to it worth a damn anymore

 

Iv had three delams on PU boards that have been repaired. All have been repaired at least 3+ years ago. All three are still in good shape. With the exception of the visual aesthetics of the random white blob as if a board has color, i don't care about matching it. What i care about is a good repair.

Seen plenty of rotten foam on boards with dings but no delams too. Listen to LB, he knows his stuff. Go back and read what he said about the causes of a delam

Not saying your wrong about bad foam being a bad thing though.

 

[QUOTE="jaklsurfs, post: 493695, member: 45492"...a PU blank ... exterior has a crust or harder outer skin to shape past it into the softer foam will just be a place that delams even quicker[/QUOTE]

It is true that the outer foam on a PU blank is more dense, and there's softer, less dense foam in the blank's interior. But I think the OP is just trying to extend the life of his board... which a good reason to repair a deck delam. As I mentioned, I've done it many times with good results.

You also have to assume that the shaper conserved the deck foam's outer skin to begin with. There's a high likelihood that a mass produced board had that foam removed during the shaping process anyway, because the shaper is more concerned with dialing in and preserving the bottom rocker, and shapes the deck down to thickness instead of the bottom. Ever notice pressure dings on the deck after one surf on a brand new board? That's the number one reason why. Guys will usually blame the glass job... but it's the shaper's fault.

And yes... use a squeegee to work resin into the cloth, and pull excess resin out of a lamination. You don't want the cloth to "float"... you want it flat and tight.

 

I just rolled in had to read the comments so far the best tech advice you got from lb ,but a delam can be a bear to just fix not saying i wont do the repair but my idea is much more radical let me explain my reason , if it has been repaired a year ago and delamed in the same place again im thinkin a small repair on the area wont work cuz something is wrong with foam to resin bond like it has a lot of dark colors and the sun started the issue or a small ding allowed water in and sun did the rest,,but all is not lost, so if its worse than you realize and yu then ........RIP OFF all the glass ,let that foam DRY out check the foam for cracks and the stringer and reglass it .it will take yu a weekend but a new glass job can keep it in the water for years rather than months .get LB to tell yu how to do it start to finish would solve a lot of issues or just do the smallest repair and ride it

 

Damn there is a ton of experts on here that will give yu advice , which i wouldntt take from anyone on here except maybe lb and a few others simply because they have no practical experience save what they have read ,if i want to know something about surfboards i go to. Swaylocks. instead of somebody yu dont know could be in their pajamas in front of their computer giving yu all their knowledge that they just looked up or their shaper told them or whatever,on swaylocks guys like dick brewer,burt berger bill thrailkill have topics on a searchable achive and there are other websites for building and repairing ,to go with this swellinformer crowd is to invite disaster

 

Who gave any bad advice? And what was the bad advice that was given? And how do you know if they have any practical experience or not? I'm confused why you were the last person to post in this thread yesterday, then randomly come back with that today.

If you wanted info on shaping, swaylocks does seem the way to go. But we are talking about fairly simple home ding repairs here. If this thread was about putting a snapped board back together, I'd see your point as that's not somthing the everyday surfer does. But surfboards get dinged, and delam. It happens. As surfers most do those repairs themselves. Is that not practical experience? Or do you have to be a big name shaper to fix a delam?

Also do you have trouble typing? Your posts consistently look like a drunk guy typed them. Serious question. Not trying to take a jab. I'm honestly curious what's up with that.

 

He seems to reject the concept of paragraphs, I don’t read long posts that do not have paragraphs. Even Cepriano figured out the importance of paragraph format.

 

I find the fact that he has a period on either side of swaylocks pretty humorous. Baby steps. Gotta figure out the coma, period, and spaces before taking on paragraph format

 

Ducky Quack Quack Tapeeee. End of story. Or just get a new bort. Once your borts gots the aids it’s jus gonna keep getting werser.

 

Support the board between two points (nose & tail) and push hard in the middle. Where the deck wrinkles is where the cancer is. If it's all mushy then trash the dang thing. Fix it and it will ride like an overweight tourd. Don't fix it or fix it half azzed and it will ride like an overcooked ramen noodle prone to snapping. They die just like everything else. Lots of used logs out there nowadays and if you are OK with asian cues they are very affordable and quite good if you pick the right one. Or find some wannabe shaper in a chicken coop and give him some love- he probably needs it. It's just a longboard, no need to get emotionally attached.

 

I’m a wanna be shaper in a chicken coop....

 

Take it easy on the man, he's using a typewriter. No backspace button on those

 

This is so good

 

Im not saying dont repair the delam but it can much different than a small puncture or a rail tear ,lot of times yu try to keep dings your repairing as small as possible because yu accumulate dings but all im sayin is that it can be rotten foam and may take more to repair it,he said its 15 years old and a PU blank and damaged before. So it could have extensive water intrusion all along the stringer for instance.the stringer can act like a wick for water and carry it the whole length of board interior.once the water has seeped into the foam its very hard to dry out with the glass still on it and it steams up on hot days which can often be the cause of further delam.so its just really knowing what your looking at but still yu dont always know until yu open it up and see what the extent is. And this a tinee tab and i have some old fingers so i guess if today im the bug and all you guys are the windshield and if you were in your pajamas im sorry

 

If it's 15 years old, then where's the harm in taking a stab at it? If it's bad foam it's bad foam. Taking a shot at it won't do any harm. You suggested tearing all the glass off.... yet you say listening to the guys on the forum is "inviting disaster". You got to see the irony in that

 

No just doin a little tinee repair on bad foam probably wont work is what im sayin and not to be surprised if it actually takes more resin and cloth to repair it than what you have suggested. The bottom deck has just one layer of cloth,any repair shows up more than the top deck.if you sand even a little on the rocker you can get flat spots or as lb said you take out a bigger section of cloth even then its hard to do right. To use the flap method repair and load it with weights to get flat is hard and can get lumpy i probably wouldnt use the weights. One or two did mention the sanding resin that yu get from the surf shop,sanding resin on a delamination is not a good choice when yu can order laminating resin on the internet and use that instead then use the surfacing waxes they sell to make your sanding resin.laminating resin is nice and sticky and really you cant sand it except for the laps of the cloth so you have to add the surfacing waxes to make it hard enough to sand it
The polyester resin repair kits at surf shops is a mix of resin with wax in it it goes bad after a while and they will still sell it to you . To do a bad repair is actually a learning experience in itself cuz next time you will know better.

 

No just doin a little tinee repair on bad foam probably wont work is what im sayin and not to be surprised if it actually takes more resin and cloth to repair it than what you have suggested. The bottom deck has just one layer of cloth,any repair shows up more than the top deck.if you sand even a little on the rocker you can get flat spots or as lb said you take out a bigger section of cloth even then its hard to do right. To use the flap method repair and load it with weights to get flat is hard and can get lumpy i probably wouldnt use the weights. One or two did mention the sanding resin that yu get from the surf shop,sanding resin on a delamination is not a good choice when yu can order laminating resin on the internet and use that instead then use the surfacing waxes they sell to make your sanding resin.laminating resin is nice and sticky and really you cant sand it except for the laps of the cloth so you have to add the surfacing waxes to make it hard enough to sand it on the fill or sanding coats and get a nice finish.
The polyester resin repair kits at surf shops is a mix and the sanding resin in it it goes bad or gets all gelled in the container after a while and they will still sell it to you . To do a bad repair is actually a learning experience in itself cuz next time you will know better.
The polyester resin stinks and you need a respirator if your doin it indoors , outdoors can be better you wont load up your garage with the smell and it will never go away,even a small unopened container of mek can stink up your garage .you do it outdoors ,do it on a not so windy day so shit wont stick to the resin while its curing.too much mek it can get really brittle ,too little and it wont set right so use graduated containers and try to measure carefully

 

Paragraphs dude!