Iv got some spare time and some room in the garage for activities and im thinking about restoring a 6'6 x 19 diamond tail. There is a crack running all the way down the rails where the bottom wrap comes over so i retired it from the quiver years ago. I removed the pad and wax and cleaned it with acetone. My next plan is to sand the dogsh!t out of it and paint it, then do a 4oz wrap. My questions: How far should I sand the existing glass? Should I really be trying to level out all of those heel dings or just scruff up the surface? 80 /120 / 220 grit? use them all in order like a buff job? What type of paint is acceptable for use under glass? no airbrush... WIll taping over fin and leash plugs be ok? Do cloth dust masks even work? i could taste the resin in a lougie earlier....
Don't try to sand the heel dents flush. Just sand with 80 grit down to the weave. You're trying to get all the hotcoat off, and expose the lamination. If you sand into the existing lamination, that's ok... you're doing a 4oz lam over that anyway. Then you'll hotocat over that. No need for finer grits. A rough surface will actually create a better physical bond. You can use just about any paint. A good acrylic artist paint is best, but any good, flat acrylic paint will work. Just make sure it's fully dry, and don't scrape the wet squeegee across the painted surface too much. Wet out your cloth pull out the excess, and don't muck around with the lap more than you have to. Tape over the plugs is ok. Use a couple layers, and use the green 233 if you can find it. Since you're sanding fiberglass, not just resin, use a respirator instead of a dust mask. Dust masks are OK for shaping, but for sanding get a respirator with good particle filters. Otherwise you'll be calling the law firm of Swindle, Malarky and Shenanigan to handle your mesothelioma case. I use a respirator with particle cartridges every time I sand or use the router. You'd be amazed at how much glass there is in the air when you rout or sand. And for laminating and hotcoating, I switch out the particle filters with charcoal filters. One good mask does it all, and can save your life. I use a dust mask - the 3M valved particle mask - for shaping only.
If your interested in restoring, then check out www.swaylocks.com In the discussion forums there all sorts of techniques people use. Good Luck.
Swaylocks was a good resource, thanks. One more for the masses.... i have fixed and filled the key dings, but that line of cracks along the rail is sketchy. When i hit it with a putty knife i can feel and hear it crackeling, but it doesnt appear to be totally delaminated. Will the 4oz take care of that or should i be looking into some special treatment for that area?
get a dremel tool with a stone bit on the end and router out all thse cracks and fill with resin+qcell and a layer of cloth. I would research your plan about painting it. I'm not sure if you should lay cloth and fiberglass over a coat of paint. A better idea is to get color tint specifically for resin and add it to your resin mix. Greenlight has a supply of tints available. And yes, swaylocks is a great resource.
arent 95% of the painted boards out there fiberglass cloth right on top of the foam thats been painted with waterbased acrylic?
Yes... the foam is painted, then laminated over. There are other ways, but this is the easiest and most common. You can paint over the lamination, fill coat, or even over the hotcoat. The main concern with paint over foam is that some people say it compromises the bond between the lamination and the foam. But paint bonds to foam very well, and resin bonds to paint very well. Let's just say there are other, more important factors to worry about... Most rails have 2-3 layers of cloth... one lap around from the bottom up onto the deck, one from the deck to the rail apex, then one full lap around from the deck to the bottom. Chances are your line of cracks is at the lap edge, where one layer stops and another layer goes over that edge. You could slice it with a utility knife, and pour in some resin/filler, as someone did say. All the layers of cloth over a bad area won't do anything to help stabilize that are if the foam is crushed underneath and the lamination has lifted off the foam. Better to cut it open, get some lam resin down in there, then weight it down to get it re-laminated. Then put your cloth over that.
