long story short, my leash cup/plug poped out of my board..can i just use the resin/hardner i have in my repair kit and glass it back in? Will this actually have enough strenght to hold in heavy surf? I don't see any damage to the board..
personally i'd take it to a shop and get it done right - wouldn't trust myself on that kind of repair and then immediately paddle out in heavy stuff
If the repair kit isnt 30 years old, then the resin and hardener in your repair kit is fine. But...when it popped out, how much of a hunk of resin/foam came out with it? If a bunch came off attached to the cup, grind it all off the leash cup and glass it back in. If it popped out clean (the hole in the board is exactly the size of the cup), you've got to redrill the hole...1 1/4" hole saw...or take to shop. Two leash cup install tips: 1) you need to thicken/strengthen the rein with something. in a pinch, a bit of chopped up fiberglass cloth will do ok maybe 2) the leash cup likes to float up while the resin hardens so have a little weight handy to set on top while the resin sets up, or tape it down.
I had this happen on my current daily driver. Mine came out clean. I used the cutup fibrglass mentioned earlier in the resin. After that was done, I put an extra layer of fibrglass on the deck around the cup. I carefully cut a small patch of glass, 3-4" maybe, and cut the center out for the cup so the glass just covers the lip of the cup. Probably overkill, but it's definitely not going to come out again.
Another scenario I encountered today repairing a board for a friend. The pin had broken out of the leash plug. For this repair fill the plug with resin and let harden. Now you have something you can drill into to create a centered pilot hole. Use a set of dividers to find the absolute center of the filled plug. Next make your pilot hole. Next switch to the appropriate size hole saw for the plug and drill to the depth of the plug. You may have to modify the hole saw so the center drill bit doesn't go too deep and drill through the board. You also should mark the hole saw with tape to mark how deep you need to drill. Pop out the old plug and proceed as if you were putting in a new plug.
I ripped a FCS Fin plug out. Set it back in, poured suncure over it. Only a little bit. Did 2 passes. Seems pretty solid and water tight... The board is three years old, not tempted to spend $30 to have a shop fix it. Especially since the last reapir they did looked horrible.
