Board repair tips

[Mike]

I should know more about this by now but I've had very little board damage over the years.

Local repair places are too busy so I may have to do this one on my own or I'll never freestyle again

Damage on the bottom of the carbon board is 3 dings. 2 are shallow dents/scrapes that just went through. The other is about 2 cm long.

I've read board lady and others. Question is specifically what to do in this case. I'm hoping just clean, sand down to roughen, fill then sand? The dings seems too small to add fibreglass or carbon sheets but not sure. I think I heard of someone saying you can add fibre pieces to the mix for structural strength (for the bigger ding of the 3?). There are epoxy repair kits at surf shops that I expect would make it pretty straight forward.

Any input appreciated.

IMG_20150914_165437.jpg (940.23 KiB) Viewed 13338 times

[Michael]

Mike those are small so I think the easiest would just to use ding stick. I've done a similar repair on both my 110L RRD and my Quad using ding stick. Just rough up around the hole using a 80 grit sand paper then fill with ding stick. Once the hole is filled you can use a touch of water to smooth it down before it dries then sand it smooth once it dries. First 2 pics I didn't even sand it down, the other is on my Tabou, sanded down.

[C36]

Mike:

I remember you saying how disappointed you were to see this board damaged so I hope the pictures M posted don't frighten you.
I
If you are looking to seal the board (to prevent water gain) then ding stick (or similar products like MarineTex) will work, as M has suggested. This might be an option if you are looking to keep using the board until you can get it professionally repaired (later in the winter).

If you are looking to do a permanent structural repair then I would suggest that glass fibre mixed in resin may not be strong enough. Part of the repair process is to remove any damaged or compressed material. This is the hard part (you make it look worse before the repair process can begin). The question is do you have to open the board the full length of the crease or not?

If the areas of damage are localized and you just filling three wholes then mixing glass fibre in resin will work to fill the voids. You may want to do it in stages, using expanding foam, mixing in pieces of foam or using micro balloons to fill the inner void with lighter material. Once the majority of the void is filled then you can cap it with a thick layer of glass fibre mixed with resin. If you don't have access to vacuum bagging equipment (wish I did) then taping it flat can help to keep the material in compression while it dries and help to reduced your sanding.

If the removing the damaged material would result in a trench in the board that needs to be bridged, than a multiple layer skin reconstruction would be required. See the info on board lady's site or the repair DavidM posted on BWD.

Hope that makes sense and is of some help. If not let us know.

[Mike]

Thanks Michael & Dave. Michael, your first photos look like work I did on the first board I had. Didn't keep that one long and want to avoid that look. The 3rd one smoothed out I could live with easily. Any reason this can't be a permanent repair? I think I've heard it can be?

Dave: That kind of repair I wouldn't mind learning on any of my other boards except they aren't broken . Is what I'm not sure of is what would be gained in my case over sanded ding stick?

[Michael]

The 3rd one smoothed out I could live with easily. Any reason this can't be a permanent repair?

Mines been like that for a few years. If it dries well I can't see why it wouldn't last. I think the trick is to rough up the surface well so it can stick to something. If it's too smooth it won't hold.

[Mike]

Mines been like that for a few years.

I viable option then adding a little character.

[LeopardSkin]

I used 3 tubes of Aquamend ding stick on my board, and it turned out great!

http://wtfbc.ca/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=387

[MikeyP]

I had a similar ding as the 3rd one and fixed it up with ding stick.. Looks ok, aside from the paint sanded away I'm pretty useless at anything like this and I managed fine. Just use the 80 quite a lot to roughen it up before applying it and then do a wet pass at the end to make it really smooth (I think I used 120 then 200)

Mikey

ps super jealous at the conditions over the weekend, had a friend in town

[C36]

The 3rd one smoothed out I could live with easily. Any reason this can't be a permanent repair?

Mines been like that for a few years. If it dries well I can't see why it wouldn't last. I think the trick is to rough up the surface well so it can stick to something. If it's too smooth it won't hold.

Structural integrity. If that crease has compromised the skin of the board (where it gets the majority of its strength from) it could create a weak spot.

If you are just filling small holes and the surrounding material is sound, use ding stick (or similar) as the surrounding area of the board will still have strength. I have not used ding stick but have used MarineTex lots of times (cures harder and sands better than ding stick from what I have seen) and it offers very little to no structural strength.

Hard to tell where it is on the hull from the picture. Worst case: that crease is running across the bottom of the board from rail to rail and could cause the board to buckle when under stress (like a flat landing).

Hope that makes sense.

[Mike]

Thanks again for all the input. Thinking marine tex. The first two smaller ones don't "connect" rather it's paint scratch in between so not thinking it's likely there is a board fold risk (good consideration Dave).