Is my board fiberglass or epoxy?

by **bamf64** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 3:07 am

I am buying Solarez off of amazon and i need to know whether to get the epoxy or fiberglass tube. Does my Rawson 6'3 Matador Skate III look like a fiberglass or epoxy board? Someone please help me out here...would be MUCH appreciated as i really want to surf with this thing, but can't until i fix the cracks that let water in.

**Sponsor**

by **jaffa1949** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:31 am

Looks like normal solarez to me,if you can see the stringer wood clearly and its not apinted line and the color of the glass is in the resin not as a coat then it is most likely normal.
Hey ask the shop where you bought it.

by **bamf64** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:20 pm

jaffa1949 wrote:Looks like normal solarez to me,if you can see the stringer wood clearly and its not apinted line and the color of the glass is in the resin not as a coat then it is most likely normal.
Hey ask the shop where you bought it.

Yes the line down the middle is definitely a strip of wood. That means its fiberglass right?

What do you mean by "the color of the glass is in the resin not as a coat"?

by **bamf64** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:34 pm

Like lets say i went out tomorow with this board, it wouldnt hurt it right? Or would it just be better to wait until i solarez it uP?

by **drowningbitbybit** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 9:58 pm

If it's letting in water, then going out could destroy it. Wait.

by **kitesurfer** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 7:35 am

Its difficult to tell. Just because it has a wooden stringer does not mean it is definately polyester. I have made several epoxy boards using exactly the same blank as i would for a polyester board. Weight and feel are usualy the best way to tell, which isn't easy on a photo for us to guess.
From the photos it looks like the foam is not eps, if it was then it would definately be an epoxy board, but this still doesn't help.
My gut feeling says that it is polyester though, purely by the way the glass has shattered.

KS

by **bamf64** » Mon Aug 15, 2011 3:40 pm

and polyester is fiberglass right? so the normal yellow tube of solarez?

by **kitesurfer** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 7:05 am

bamf64 wrote:and polyester is fiberglass right? so the normal yellow tube of solarez?

No. Polyester is a type of resin just as epoxy is a type of resin. Fibreglass is as its name suggests, a sheet of woven together glass fibres.
Custom surfboards can be made in a variety of ways using a variety of techniques depending on foam type, skills of the maker and the types of resin one like to use. But in the case of your board it has been made using either polyester or epoxy resin laminated over fibreglass with a final sanding coat applied over that.
The issue is that polyester resin does not adhere particulary well to epoxy resin and vice versa, although it is possible. So you really want to get the correct stuff to repair your ding. And, this is the important one although from looking at your board it doesn't apply to you. Polyester resin will melt EPS foam so you must use epoxy resin on a board that is made from EPS.

KS

by **bamf64** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 6:20 pm

I emailed the origional owner of the board, and he is actually Pat Rawson's nephew. He says the board is polyester so i bought the regular solarez, and covered the cracks. The board surfs great! Only used it once so far, but hope to get a bunch of hours on it once im back at home.

by **jaffa1949** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 1:23 am

bamf64 wrote:I emailed the origional owner of the board, and he is actually Pat Rawson's nephew. He says the board is polyester so i bought the regular solarez, and covered the cracks. The board surfs great! Only used it once so far, but hope to get a bunch of hours on it once im back at home.

Advice done , job done, surf achieved :lol:

Is my board fiberglass or epoxy?

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