Board Repair

It is doable, but it's only worth it if you want to learn. You will spend DAYS on this board if you want to get it right. But after that your friends will be asking you to fix dings. I know because I have done this with 3 boards already.

If you spend enough time milling around Swaylocks, or look up Doc's ding repair files, you will find most of the info you need. Read all of that stuff, then watch YouTube vids, then read that stuff again. If you have any questions feel free to ask, but the basics are all there. I learned from those sources and I still get compliments on my repairs.

Now, for that first mondo ding- I would remove ALL the squishy stuff. The cancer will return if you do not remove it all. Now, you have two options.

Option one: Remove the squishy glass & brown foam by sanding. You are then left with an irregular negative space. Get Q-cell, mix up a filler paste, fill the missing stuff, then sand to shape, and glass/hotcoat. However; the larger the area, the more the repair will weigh the board down. If you remove a massive (4x1"+) amount of foam, you want to consider replacing it with foam. Hence, option 2...

Option two: Replacing foam with foam. Square off the missing area with a long extendable razor. Take some scrap foam, cut a piece that fits into the square negative space. Mix resin and Q-cell, or foam dust, as glue, and glue a big piece of foam in there. (Be careful not to have big blobs of glue protruding- in fact, go minimal with the glue. Reason being that, when you are reshaping the foam, it will sand away more easily than the hardened glue, leaving you with a raised ridge, upon which you will sand through your glassjob). Anyway, reshape, glass/hotcoat.

As far as your delammed area goes, you can open the glass, fold it back, sand away brown foam, fill with Q-cell paste, lay back down, and re glass in a variety of ways.

Keys to ding repair:
-when you prepare the ding, sand enough to expose the previous layer of cloth, so that you bond cloth on cloth.
-when filling, overfill, and remove before true hardening (gel or semi-hard stage). Nothing sucks like filling multiple times.
-look up how to avoid air bubbles. They are your enemy.
-look up plastic cover sheets. They are your friend.

That nose... damn dude you are probably in for some work. We'll talk about that tomorrow. Suffice it to say I cringe whenever I see people riding boards with open dings...

 

Slashdog, great stuff. I really like that idea of filling the space with an equivalent foam block. Good creative stuff.

As for that nose, chop it off and seal it up. We've established a while ago that the pointed nose is for aesthetics only. Personally, I like the novelty of a flat chopped nose on an otherwise pointed board. Done this to an HP before in the same situation. Looks cool if you're only going down an inch. Makes for a quick, easy repair and saves the time on a sophisticated one that will likely come out subpar.

 

Thanks Emass, I put in my ding repair time. I'm sure LBcrew or Mitchell & Co. have some tips that I haven't mentioned ...

JustK, you still interested in this repair, or did I scare you off?

After a night of sleep, I have reconsidered. F*ck the extra foam, just get Q-cell, make a tape dam, and fill that thing up. Don't forget, sand all around the vacuous impression with some 50/80 grit before filling. Prep is key, so that when you sand the filler down to shape, just below surface, you can glass it and be done with it.

I now realize your 'possible delam' area is the one pictured. It may not be delammed yet but it is leaking and it is damaged. You need to cut that crap out and fill it and glass, just like you are doing on the previously repaired parts.

Emass has a good point about the nose. The quickest and most sensical fix will be to chop the damaged part entirely off, sand it, and glass it. However, if you are stubborn perfectionist like me, you would cut away all loose glass and brown foam, leaving the stringer intact, and reshape it with the Q-cell paste.

 

Man that board is in rough shape...but anything is fixable- Idk if it's worth too much time, unless you got a lot of time cause it's going to need time lol!

Take your time and pay attention to detail.

Tape off your ding repair areas with masking tape to make it neat.

Sand sand and sand some more. Use 80/120 for rough sanding and when finished/final use wet sanding 200 to 400 to 600 to rubbing compound to shine it up. Invest in a disk sander- harbor fright has them cheap-
http://m.harborfreight.com/7-in-variable-speed-polishersander-60626.html but only use it for rough sanding and buffing.


Oh yea- about the DELAM- it's a pain. 1st best way to fix it is not to fix it. 2nd is to vaccum bag it and inject. 3rd is to cut it open- qcell and refiberglass. 4th is to inject alone - probably the worst results.

Might as well use it as time to learn - it's all practice. And use regular poly resin or epoxy. Forget suncure- save that for surf trips.

 

H20, what is the 'vacuum bag and inject' method? I'm guessing you use the vac-bag to hold shape, then inject through the bag?

What kind of a setup do you have? I've always been interested in vac-bagging to 'auto-mold' ding filler.

I'm surprised you know about Harbor Freight as I didn't think they had a Belmar location.

 

a dremel is a great tool for ding repair. I am getting a new one this month. Every man should have one.

 

buy a tube of Solarease or Sun cure and slop it over your holes. before it cures, use a ice cube to smooth it out. Don't spend too much $ until you know you want a life style change.

 

What brand...is it an old Nectar?

 

If you're axing me, the Sun Cure kit cost 9.95 (last century). I used it in CR. it doesn't take long to cure down there. I was camping at Playa Carmen in CR in 01, and a couple young ticos rode up on motorcyles. One had broken his mirror off the stem. I had him hold it where he need it, slopped some sploob on it in the shade, then smoothed it with the stick. he put it in the sun, and it was good to go ater 2 minutes.

 

I like the ice cube idea. I learn something new everyday.

 

Hey bro- they actually just opened up a HF in Belmar... Belmar had everything brah!

As for the vacuum bag- had posted a step by step instructions on here a while back- only method that I have found to work and to keep the board looking good. I don't have much time now to explain... I will later

Dudeski ding repair dude- if the foam is wet just let it air out naturally or put it in front of an air conditioner/ dehumidifier!

 

You need sheets of acetate - like the overhead projector pages from eons ago. Art stores like Michaels has it. These work great on the rails after you Q-cell, while it's setting up, tape the acetate to the deck, then pull it over the rail and tape it tight to smooth it all out. Saves an s-load of sanding

Also watch "lord of the dings" on you tube - BEST video for learning.

Last - Greenlight posted they have scrap foam outside the Manasquan shop.

 

Oh yea- plug here for greenlight- buy everything you need from these guys- they are the best around and have all you need also answer questions and are totally cool to talk to!

http://www.greenlightsurfsupply.com

 

I don't know about using it with epoxy but saran wrap works for smoothing PU resin too.

 

Dude slashdude- here is the link to some instructions I posted a while ago about vacuum bagging-
http://www.swellinfo.com/forum/showthread.php?14741-fixing-a-delam/page3&highlight=Ding

 

Also- for everyone - this lady has some great techniques ... This is the first time I learned about vacuum bagging- but she has the real set up for it... One of those pumps is over 100 bucks at HF....
http://www.boardlady.com/repairmenu.htm

This is good for anyone that has any kinda question- she cover it all!

 

Tim Nolte was doing "Seal a meal" last century with carbon fiber crap.

 

That's awesome! Wow- like last century brah!! Back in 89 in Belmar! He was probably using that suncure stuff too...

just tryin to help some brothers out with their DELAM issues