Surfbort medical advise (aka ding repair)

Cut out the delam, if foam is good, reglass. Just take your time and don't rush through the steps or cut corners.

Iv heard of people putting holes in the delamed glass and injecting with resin. Basically a method that requires no cutting or reglassing. Iv never done it but it sounds easier to me. Don't know how well it actually works though. Someone else will have to chime in on that one

 

I'm sorry to be the one to give you the bad news bud, but your boart has delamination AIDS.

 

I've done it many times. Chances are the ding on the bottom and the delam are not related, and chances are you're talking about a standard PU/PE boart, which are all prone to deck delamination: PU surfboard foam is considered "rigid" polyurethane foam, made of "cells," or tiny bubbles of PU with rigid walls. The problem is that this rigid material, when crushed, collapses the cell, and repeated crushing turns the rigid foam into dust, compromising the bond between with skin (glass) and foam - delamination.

If you want to rehab the board, you can cut away the delaminated foam and re-glass with two or three layers of 6oz. This works well if the board has no color or artwork, so you end up with a white patch on an otherwise yellowed board. If your board had color, you can cut a big cemicirle with a little hinge, flap it back, clean up the foam, and laminate it back down. This at least looks better (less noticeable).

Either way, it's really important that you clean out all of the dust from the delaminated area, so you get good, clean foam to laminate to. If you do the flap method, a single layer of 6oz over the entire SANDED flap will seal the flap edges. Hotocat and sand. If you do the cutaway method, your first two patches should be cut to fit the cutaway... use the piece you removed as a template. The third layer should overlap the edge of the patch a good 3-4 inches, so you can fair it out nicely. Hotcoat and sand.

 

If you’re that worried, maybe go to a reputable ding repair guy.

My advise for the more basic questions are to go to YouTube. Otherwise, listen to LBCrew. That guy knows his stuff.

Upload some pics for us to better assess.

 

Based on this I would strongly recommend finding a ding repair guy and paying him to fix the board.

The last thing you want is to open up the wound, figure out you are in over your head, and then have to pay twice as much to have it fixed correctly... or possibly never ride the board again.

 

1) I use a utility knife. It's crude but effective. Make sure you cut just outside the delaminated perimeter, to good, well-bonded foam and glass.
2) I blow out the dust. Reverse the flow of air on the shoppe vac, use a leaf blower, or a can of dust-off.
3) Under the flap, clean the dust off well, and do not sand. In fact, do not sand anything until the flap is re-laminated back down. More on this later.
4) Mix up some resin and hardener and spread a thin layer onto the exposed foam evenly. Lay the flap back down, and weight it down. I use gallon paint cans, dumbells, whatever... to make sure it's fully flat and tight back down. Resin will squeeze out around the perimeter, so clean that up after you weight down the flap. This will re-laminate the flap to the deck foam. Clean up all excess resin that squeezes out, or you'll have a lot of unnecessary sanding later.
5) Once the flap is laminated down and fully cured, sand the surface of the flap and the surrounding area down to the weave. What you're doing is removing the hotcoat (a layer of resin painted over the laminated cloth) and prepping it to be re-hotcoated. You'll also be sanding down any little edges of the flap that are sticking up. The whole thing should be sanded smooth. Don't worry about it being perfectly flat... you'll create problems. Just get it smooth, and you should sand until you start to see the weave of the cloth appearing in spots. Again... you're sanding the old hotcoat off and fairing the area smooth. The sanded area should extend about 5-6 inches outside the perimeter of the flap. Once sanded, cut a patch of 6oz. cloth about 2-3 inches larger than the flap, so the perimeter of the flap is well covered. Laminate this patch down with resin, getting all of the excess out, but leaving the cloth fully saturated, but flat and tight.
6) Tape off the sanded area around the patch and re-hotcoat the whole area by painting on a layer of catalyzed resin with a 3" natural bristle brush... the inexpensive ones from Home Cheapo. Pull the tape when the resin starts to gell; sand when fully cured. You may have to hotcoat twice, if you're a lousy sander.

 

If it is an older board, I would fix it yourself...follow LB's advice. If you take to somebody for repair you will probably spend $50-$100. Is it worth it on an old board? Plus, if you fix it you will learn a lot about board repair...which will be a good skill to have being NJsurfer. I have paid to have a nose tip put back on a newer board. Otherwise, I just learned over time to fix dings. Can't say I enjoy doing it though!

 

Good advise. It gets easier and easier with every ding you repair. You will make mistakes and learn from them. One thing I found is most of my mistakes were fixable. I finally got to the point where I enjoy doing repairs and cleaning up my boarts. Listening to guys like LBCrew and Mitchell, and a few others will go a long way. Youtube is great too.

 

There is a lot of info in this thread I started a while back that you might find helpful. Check it out...

https://www.swellinfo.com/forum/threads/surf-bort-repair-thread.30141/

 

I say go for it then. You certainly have the right attitude. Just follow LBCrew's direction as closely as you can.

For me the golden rule is to spend the extra time to make sure all your surfaces are completely prepped and cleaned before you start glassing. Prep is like 90% of the work, and if you get it right the rest will go nice and smooth.

Take your time, and be patient. A couple cold beers will also help if you're into that.

 

You're on the right track, man. Make sure to take pics so we can see your progress.

 

Yes... wait until your cloth lamination is completely cured before going to the next step... which I left out one small detail: Once the patch is cured, fair the edge of the patch all the way around with 80 grit. You do not need to sand the whole patch.

Catalyzed resin is resin and hardener.




Special note: There are three types of polyester resin - lam resin, sanding resin, gloss resin.

Lam resin is for laminating, and leaves a sticky surface that does not sand easily. But that sticky surface bonds better to whatever you put over it, whether that be another layer of cloth, or the hotcoat.

Sanding resin is lam resin with a surfacing agent additive (wax dissolved in styrene). It's used for hotcoating because the wax rises to the surface before it cures, then when it cures, it has a waxy film that will allow the resin to cure without a sticky surface, so it sands easily.

Gloss resin is sanding resin with yet another additive (leveling agent, cobalt, some other stuff) that raises it's barcol hardness so it can be polished to a high shine.

Chances are you'll be getting one kind of resin for this repair... sanding resin... which you will be laminating with. If that's the case, you should LIGHTLY sand between applications to improve bonding between layers. It's not absolutely required, but it does improve the bond between the lam and hotcoat. Your other option is to buy lam resin and surface agent separately... use lam resin for laminating and add the surface agent for the hotcoat. This takes some experience, so I don't recommend it on your first shot. But something to keep in mind for the future, when your skills improve.

 

Go follow joe ropers Surfboard repair on instagram.

He documents a lot of repairs. Could give you some pointers