Amateur repair question

[Todd Parker]

Had a small crack in the front foot area with stress lines running almost to the rails. Didn't notice it until enough water had seeped in to cause a fair bit of delamination. After I cut out all of the soft areas I now have a fairly large area to reglass.

Question: I was told that the beads/powder is better than using cloth becaue cloth adds a lot of weight. Is there any limit to the size that the beads are appropriate for? My area goes almost from rail to rail and is about 5 inches wide at the widest. Is cloth the way to go?

If beads are okay for almost any size repair then why use cloth? Just for rails?

Really inexperienced ding repairer,

T.P.

 

[drbombay]

i think what you're talking about is using a filler and resin mix to replace the lost foam. Then you would glass over that.

[ November 20, 2003, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: drbombay ]

 

[Todd Parker]

Thanks,

So if there is no foam lost I need only to use resin and hardener? I thought you need cloth or filler (beads) to give it strength?

T.P.

 

[jeff wells]

Todd, the cloth IS for strength. If you use filler and resin, you're wasting your time and money.

Make sure that you've scraped away and bad foam.

Sand the area around the bare foam with 60 grit.
Go about an inch or so PAST where the new cloth will end.

I would use 2 layers of cloth, 1 cut even with the bare foam. 1 about 1 to 2 inches overlap all the way around. Use laminating resin. DO NOT use sanding resin. The wax will make the cloth "float" to the surface.

Hot coat with sanding resin. Or if you have surfacing agent, add to laminating resin.

Sand.

I tried to keep it simple and I'm sure that others can give a little better instruction. Good luck!

 

[Simple Ben]

Good advice that JW. You definetely need to take the time to use a couple of layers of 4oz cloth (or 6 or whatever) then covering with a filler coat. Since it is the deck of your board, getting the whole thing nice and neet is not such an issue. However, since you will be stomping your foot on it you will need the added strength of cloth. If not, the repair will be quite brittle and thus more likely to crack the next time you land a rodeo clown.

 

[blakestah]

Use filler and laminating resin to fill out the shape, then laminating resin and glass over that.

Virtually every ding repair needs filler AND glass.

First, clean it out, and dry it. Mix laminating resin and activator, mix it, add filler to the consistency of toothpaste, and fill. Smooth it out, you want this later to approximate where the foam SHOULD be.

After drying, sand the filler and the original glass about 1/2 inch around the ding. Use 50 grit sandpaper. Lay glass over the ding, to overlap with the sanded original glass.

Mix laminating resin and activator. Pour the resin. Put wax paper over the ding, smooth it out, tape it down. Let cure.

Remove wax paper and sand.

And remember, if you have sanding resin, you cannot use it in anything except the outside resin layer - other resins do not stick to it.

 

[Todd Parker]

Thanks for the great advice.

I am in Japan and I bought a ding repair kit that only comes with 1 type of resin. I assume this is laminating resin but maybe I should go back to the shop and make my best effort to determine this with my crap Japanese.

So, if I lay two layers of cloth and the second one overlaps the original glass then the finished product will lay slightly higher than the original deck glass? Right?

Oh, and if I do this in my apartment (nowhere else available really) will my place smell like fumes for weeks or only days?

Thanks again,

T.P.

 

[jeff wells]

Correct to question #1.

I'd do it outside, when it's nice. You'll be bummin, if you make a mess. I ALWAYS think I can smell resin, but I can't stand resin fumes!

More than likely, the resin is sanding resin. To check, pour some in whatever you're going to mix it in, add catalyst, lam the first layer. When it dries, you should have a waxy finish. No waxy finish, lam resin.

Sand the waxy finish off and lam the 2nd layer.

Sand again, then hotcoat, then sand again.

Kinda hokey way to do it, but it can be done. Better than not surfing.

 

[Simple Ben]

Todd

Unless you are very freindly with all your neighbours I would definetely do this outside. As JW said previously chances are you will end up making a bit of a mess and let me tell you resin is not easy to clean up. As for the smell, I like the smell of resin, it makes me think of new boards but if I had it all day every day then... anyway it most likely will stink out your neirhgbours etc but not for long. Give it a day or two and it will be fine. Just try to be super neat especially with the laminate resin, that stuff really sucks to sand as it clogs up the paper.

As to the over lapping edges, sand it down beforehand so that there is almost a smooth tansition from the foam to the existing glass.