Hey,

So bought a cheap used surfboard and one pair of FCS fin boxes became loose on my first session.
I watched this vid and have prepped my board accordingly:


I'm about to reset my FCS plugs and wondered if the resin supplied in the "ocean and Earth repair kit" is adequte or do i need a more specialised product.

www.surfstitch.com/boardsports/surf/hardware/accessories


By the way, the shapers who made my board were pretty bad as my fin box was never bonded to the fibreglass in the "h pattern" as shown in the vid!! It seems they drilled 30mm hole and that's it! Its a Kiwi made "New wave" board. The company is now in recievership! haha.

Er...yeah, i took plugs out as they were wobbling in place. I have prepped my board: created an "h pattern" to bond plug to fibreglass (underside of top deck). I thought i would cut up some fibreglass matt in very small strands to add tensile strength to the resin mix. Does 'Q-cell' increase strength or is it simply lightweigth filler?

If the ocean and earth kit is ok, it'll be a $30 repair. My time is not important. a repair from a surfboard shop is $90, the board cost me $150.

Can't see the vid as I'm at work. The O&E kit you show should be fine the only other thing you may need is some milled glass but you only need that if you are actually taking the plug out. If the plug is in place and you're just going to resecure you'll be fine without it.

hmmm, if that's where you are at then if you got some rovings and some sharp scissors you can probably roll your own milled glass by taking very fine cuts at the rovings. The job can be done without the milled glass but I wouldn't recommend it. If they haven't bored the hole twith the hole saw through to the deck I'd do that now as it makes a huge difference.

Mate I would definitely suggest going to the fibre-glass shop and getting some polyester lam (if it's polyester board). This will cost you less than 30 dollars for a litre of the stuff. Make sure you get a little bottle of catalyst to.

Q-cell will not increase strength, it is used for filling spaces and making it easier to sand. What you want is Cabosil, this stuff dries really hard and does add strength to whatever you do. Only down side is it is tuff to sand back, make sure you get onto it before it dries 100%.

I would suggest putting a layer of cloth in the hole (like you were making a pie with dough in a tin) and then putting the plug in after. Once you have sanded back everything flush, cap the plug with a small square of glass and it will add a ton of strength.

That's why you put the resin in the hole first then push the cloth in with the plug. I've done this many times before and never had one break back out again. You are free to do as you like though!

This might be helpful:

www.foamez.com/pdfs/FCSManual.pdf

May I mention, just make sure you never use Polyester resin on an Epoxy board. You can use Epoxy on a Polyester but never the other way!

I know this might be common sense for most but just incase you didn't know .

Did another quick fix last night. Pulled out 2 old broken plugs and put in two recycled plugs from an old board. Did the pie in the hole trick and mixed in a bit of Cabosil for good measure. Got up this morning sanded it back and went for a surf, all good! . Saved myself between 50 and 100 bucks to.

doggie said...

sir ROWDY said...
May I mention, just make sure you never use Polyester resin on an Epoxy board. You can use Epoxy on a Polyester but never the other way!

I know this might be common sense for most but just incase you didn't know .

But if its glassed in epoxy resin and has a PU core/blank you can use polyester resin.

True. Polyester will only eat through Styro.

Epoxy doesn't stick quite as well to Poly if you were laminating one layer of cloth after an other, but it will stick about equally as well for a repair job, and an Epoxy fix should be slightly stronger. Epoxy job will also go brown far quicker than the rest of the board if it's poly (if you care).

But as Rich points out your job is only as strong as the weakest link! haha.