1st board, potential repairs needed?

[Dantastic1985]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post and i would like to say how informative ive found the site. After following the buyers guide ive bought a 7ft 3 board with plenty of volume. I am a beginner but have been about 5 or 6 times now and found myself doing ok.

What i would like help with if possible is how to determine if a board needs repairing or not? Its got a few small dings here and there but im not sure how to tell if it needs repairing or its ok.

I know photos will help so i will get some up ASAP.

Cheers.

Dan

[tony g]

Hello Dantastic1985,
If the board has cracks in it, they can potentially let water in and should be fixed. I like to put a high quality clear surf decal over any small cracks I get, until I have time to fix them all at once. You can also spray light cracks with acrylic clear lacquer to try to help seal them. Pressure dings do not need to be filled or repaired unless they have cracks with them. Any open dings or holes should be fixed before going into the water as they will draw water into the board and can rot out the foam and cause d-lamination. I hope that helps! In short, all dings should be sealed before going into the water.

[Dantastic1985]

Hi guys,

I have managed to upload some photos and have numbered them 1-5. In your valued experience which if any would you repair, or do they all need doing?

Im going away in 2 weeks so please let me know and I will invest in some stickers or some repair stuff.

If possible could you please point me in the right direction of some good repair stuff. I have some P40 fibre glass for cars, canoes etc but I don't want the board to look crap. Any help appreciated.

Cheers...

Dan

[tony g]

Hello Dantastic1985,
Since all of those dings have open cracks, they should all be fixed. They can all potentially let water in and damage your board further. I would buy a polyester fiberglass repair kit and re glass the cracked areas. If you do not want to tackle this on your own, you can call your local surf shop and get an estimate on a professional repair.

[Dantastic1985]

Wicked. Ive fibre glassed other things before as in canoes etc, i presume its the same process? Mix the hardener in with the fibre glass and spread over cracks, the leave to dry?

Are there any kits you reccomend? Are there surfboard specific ones?

Thanks.

[tony g]

Yes there are specific resins for polyester surfboards and epoxy surfboards. For polyester surfboards Ideally it is best to use laminating resin and fiberglass cloth when laminating the fiberglass cloth to the surfboard. Yes you use the hardener with the resin and follow mixing instructions and read warning labels. After your lamination dries you then use a clear sanding resin to brush another coat over the laminated fiberglass. After that dries you then sand the repair and feather in the edges. If you want to go another step and polish it back out you can put on another coat of gloss resin on repair and then wet sand that after it dries. I like to use 320 grit wet dry sandpaper then 400 grit, followed by 600 grit. If you want repair shinny you can then rub it out with rubbing compound.

You will want to sand down all damaged areas before applying any fiberglass cloth and or resin to your board. It is best to sand down far enough to add a few layers of cloth. This will help to seal the board back up. If you do not sand down to start with, you may add the cloth and then end up sanding it all back off again. You need to sand down far enough, so when the repair is sanded down you will still have cloth covering and sealing the cracks in your board. If you have a traditional polyester surfboard which I think you have. You can buy laminating resin, hardener, surfacing agent, and styrene. To make sanding resin just add surfacing agent to your laminating resin. To make gloss resin add surfacing agent and styrene to thin the laminating resin down. Some people also like to strain the gloss resin so it does not have any clumps in it. You can use a paint strainer for that. Sorry this is so long, but there is a lot of info you need. I hope this helps you. Message me back if you need anymore help.

Epoxy surfboards will need epoxy resins, polyester surfboards will need polyester resins

[Dantastic1985]

Tony your helps really appreciated.

With the cracks I have will I need to sand down all the exiting glassa round the damaged areas and then apply a section of fibre glass cloth? I was hoping to be able to just seal over the top parts with a repair kit then sand it down until smooth. As some of the areas are quite small, picture one for example, would you cut a piece of fibreglass cloth say 30% larger than the area you are repairing, sand down the fibreglass until your at the foam, apply new cloth then resin, then new cloth then resin, then sand the resin down?

With all the parts you mentioned above is there a 'kit' you would reccomend I can buy rather than purchasing the items separately?

I apologise for the questions but this is my first board let alone the first repair and I really dont want to screw it up!

Cheers

[Dantastic1985]

This is also most likely a stupid question but can this be used to repair boards? It is a fibre glass mix without the cloth.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65625#tab1

[tony g]

With the cracks I have will I need to sand down all the exiting glassa round the damaged areas and then apply a section of fibre glass cloth?

Yes,it is best to sand down the existing glass, but you don't have e to sand all the way to the foam. You just want to get it down some so when you add your new cloth it will bring it back to the finished level after sanding.

I was hoping to be able to just seal over the top parts with a repair kit then sand it down until smooth. As some of the areas are quite small,

Yes you can repair it that way, but be careful to feather it in and not sand all the cloth away when you are smoothing it out. The other way is more work, but when you sand the board down smooth again, there will still be fiberglass sealing the repair.

With all the parts you mentioned above is there a 'kit' you would reccomend I can buy rather than purchasing the items separately?e]

You can buy a small surfboard repair kit like ding all, but it usually only has the sanding resin. This resin will work, but does not laminate down as well because the surfacing agent is already added. Most people use this and it will work though. Just be careful that the cloth does not rise to high. You want the cloth to stay down on the repair. Laminating resin is sticky and not sand-able. That is why it works better for laminating. I am not sure if you can get a kit with sanding resin and laminating resin. You will have to buy them separately, or buy just laminating resin and surfacing agent and make your own sanding resin. For your little dings the sanding resin should be alright.

This is also most likely a stupid question but can this be used to repair boards? It is a fibre glass mix without the cloth.

There are a lot of ways to do repairs. The way I explained is the best I think, but also the most difficult. If you just want to seal over the top, keep an eye on your repairs, because you may have to fix them multiple times. The other problem is it is not a smooth repair when you add resin filler over the top of cracks.

[Dantastic1985]

I think im actually starting to get to grips with all this resin!

""You can buy a small surfboard repair kit like ding all, but it usually only has the sanding resin. This resin will work, but does not laminate down as well because the surfacing agent is already added. Most people use this and it will work though. Just be careful that the cloth does not rise to high. You want the cloth to stay down on the repair. Laminating resin is sticky and not sand-able. That is why it works better for laminating. I am not sure if you can get a kit with sanding resin and laminating resin. You will have to buy them separately, or buy just laminating resin and surfacing agent and make your own sanding resin. For your little dings the sanding resin should be alright.""

So, use laminating resin to adhere the cloth to the board over the damaged area which i need to sand down enough to take cloth and resin and be at same level. Once this has set i then need sanding resin to go over the top which when set i can then smooth out with the different sandpapers mentioned above to a decent finish?

Is that right?

If i buy a std kit of the net i can then buy laminating resin separately i presume to do a really decent job?

[tony g]

I think that was well said!
I know my explanation may be long and hard to understand, but it is difficult to explain how to do the repairs correctly. I think it is much easier to show someone. Anyway I hope it goes well for you. Remember if you mess up, you can sand it all off and re do it. You also will get better with experience.

[Dantastic1985]

Tony, thanks for all your advice. I will give it a go and let you know the results!

[tony g]

Sounds good! Send some pics of your finished work. Then we will have the before and after photos.

[Dantastic1985]

I will do mate.

Can i ask one last favour, of these links below which is the best for what i need?

http://www.surfsurfsurf.co.uk/surfboard ... repair_kit

http://www.surfsurfsurf.co.uk/surfboard ... repair_kit

http://www.surfsurfsurf.co.uk/surfboard ... repair_kit

Cheers.

Dan

[Dantastic1985]

So, progress so far...

[Dantastic1985]

So after sanding it down and marking the corners with a wax crayon (bad idea as the resin wont stick, it dyes the board yellow and is hard to get off) I decided to brave it, mixed up some resin with far too much Q-Cell I think and the below images are the results! Its beend rying off since yesterday and i will sand it down tonight. i am worried however that using too much Q-Cell will make it weak? Any feedback?

[jaffa1949]

Yep that looks dantastic. About the same as just about everyone's first attempt.
A couple of tips ( bloody after the event sorry )
I find instead of using a whole mess of stuff and having a lot of after sanding to do with hole do a bottom hole filler and then add a glass layer above that and yes you have discovered crayon = wax = doesn't stick! But it seem like you are heading down the right path.
You may have some difficulty with the masking tape under the resin if it has gone hard. If the resin get to the gel coat you can carefully pull off the masking or you can score the resin at the masking line.
If you can work neatly and have smooth edges and finish in your wet stage it will save a lot of sanding later.
realistically you are doing much of what first timers do and its OK.
Just watch that you don't sand through elsewhere on the rails, which btw are the hardest area to get the glass to lap!

[Dantastic1985]

Yeah ive really struggled on the rails. On one of the repairs i did it felt like id sanded away everything i put down to get it flat, is that just how it seems or is that what ive done? Im concious about doing the repair, sanding it all away and going through the boards original layers. Luckily ive got really good tape (frog tape) and it cones off easy as pie.

With the massive areas i had already sanded large patches unstead of researching just doung about 1/2" bigger than ding area.