I am trying to do a fin plug repair on a board for a friend that was damaged a while ago. Instead of trying put in new plugs someone just filled the whole with some bondo or putty and glassed it over. I have done a good amount of repairs but never fin plugs. I have read about some different approaches and was wondering if anyone had some good advice for me in a few areas. First will the putty fill create any problems for me? Is laminating resin my best option and how important is it that I do a two part pour so that it doesn't heat up too much and melt the foam? Is there any easy way or set up I can make that will ensure that the system sets perfectly striaght? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated also.
A lot depends on how large of a damaged area you have. Are both plugs damaged or just one. If only one is damaged you can use the other plug to align the new plug. I would remove the putty (it can't look to good) and repair the area with resin. Two or three stages is a good idea if you have a large area of damage. Q-cell can be used if the area is large. You may have to laminate some glass as well. Don't use to much catalist as more heat will be produced and there is a good chance the the repair will crack. If you could provide a picture it would be helpful. You may have to repair the whole area and then rout out the repair and reinstall the plugs if damage is real bad. Use the other fin to determine the location. Good luck!!
Agree with Charlie... if you've got one good plug still in the board, use an FCS fin to jig the second plug. The good plug will hold the fin at the right angle for the second plug. If both plugs are gone, you'll use a fin as your jig for BOTH plugs but will have to be prepared to use tape to hold the fin at the right angle while the resin sets up. As Charlie said, if a huge area is damaged, it may be easier to just repair the whole area to flat, and then use a hole saw to cut new holes and install the plugs. use lam resin kick it off as slowly as the instructions allow..usually about 5 drops of cat./ oz. of resin
Its both plugs so im worried about keeping the alignment right. Im thinking im gonna rig something with tape to keep one plug in place while i completely repair the other and then move on the the next one so I will always have one stable plug. If I have to use q-cell im afraid it will make the repair alot more difficult. thanks for all the advice.
with two plugs at once i like to lightly draw up a grid on the bottom of the board to ensure everything is in place.....make sure you pay close attention to any marks the shaper put on there too, they are usually just tiny little pencil dots where the front and back of the fin should rest, even with the plugs torn out the dots should still be there..... unless the damage is REALLY bad.
I tried to attach a picture but i dont know if it will work. I haven't had time to remove the putty and fiberglass but i saw the initial damage when it happened and it wasn't too bad so I dont think im gonna need to use q-cell. Hopefully you can see a little from this picture.
that looks pretty straight-forward, just remember that FCS gets its strength from being tied into the deck laminate as well as the bottom laminate, so when you drill the new hole make sure you get past the putty and into good material. this is what FCS calls the "H pattern"
I was looking through the FCS installation manuals and they talk about their new resin for installing the fin plugs. They give you a recipe to make a similar resin which calls for 100mls of resin, 15mls of special fiberglass powder, white pigment and catalyst. Does anyone know what this "special fiberglass powder" is and how important it is that I use it? Also Im assuming it really doesnt matter if i use pigment?
I don't know for sure but I'd bet that it is small pieces of fiberglass to add tensile strength to the mix. You can use sissors and cut up cloth fibers to achieve the same effect. Just cut it up into very small short fibers and wear a mask cause it is nasty to breath in. It may be q-cell.
so after a few hours of sanding and digging out all the putty and mushy discolored foam this is what I have. Because there was so much damaged foam im gonna have to fill it with q cell before I redrill the holes for the plugs. Im not completely sure of how long after i put in the q cell I should drill the holes in terms of not messing with the strength of it but not letting it get too hard so it makes it harder. Are there any foolproof guidelines for this? Also upon removing all of this I realized that the shaper didnt use the H pattern design for FCS plugs. Should I attempt to make this or continue on the trend of the rest of the board?
