Got my hands on two very cheap brand new epoxy 9" longboards. Unridden they look great and the shape and the thruster fin set up is what i was after, problem is in the thickness and rails. The rails are around the 3' in the middle and there is very little taper towards the tail or nose.

Rode one of the boards yesterday and it went ok, but way to much volume in the board. Given its thickness it was great on the nose but didnt need that much volume.

Given the boards werent that expensive I am thinking of de-glassing the deck and reshapping better rails and taking some of the volume out of it. Bassically thinning it out. What thoughts or advice do people have on this type of project.

P.S I popped the post here as the last advice i got from here regarding my surftech repair (profile picture) was great - a great fix was the result of some good advice from the forum, Boards been back in action for a month and a bit now and going well.

In terms of re-shape and re-glass, my idea was to hit the deck with the sander and basically strip the deck glass back to the EPS core and take about an inch of foam (maybee less from the entire deck and then re-roll my rails and re-laminate the deck.

Basically the outline of the board and fin position is great, just a chunk of a board.

the boards only cost 500 each or 250 each and 500 freight, the outline and fin set out is great it is just the thickness, ebay is littered with longboards, so i would rather fix my experiment gone wrong'...I will keep one board as is, for long fat points, but i want the other one for higher perfomence.


I have the epoxy resin from my last fix, just need to get 6 oz cloth, maybee 2 layers with a 4 oz deck patch. Just was looking for some repair advice, regarding where to join layers and the likes.

It is for stand up surfing, i posted in the wind surf section as it evident that you guys are massivly clued up with epoxy when it comes to DIY and repairs ulinke the surfing fraternity,and were a great help in my last project. The board is not a composite construction epoxy.

cheers be

They're surfboards Keef. They dont have footstraps and mast bases. If they are sandwich construction it would be less work building one from scratch. If it's just a glassed blank try running a sharp blade around where you want to reshape and peeling the glass off (might even be easier peeling the whole lot and reglass whole thing) Sanding the glass off would not be any fun at all.

be said...

Keef.

Maybee i am confusing you.

The board, is a longboard (surfboard) - like endless summer. Not a sailboard

Posted in this section as you guys have far better knowledge of the reapir side of epoxy fibreglass.

The board isnt a composite. just a blank, stringer and epoxy glass.

just though you guys might be helpfull.

I'd take hoop's advice and peel the glass off. You could even use a router to break through the skin if you have trouble using a knife. Once you get a section starting to peel the skin comes off pretty easily and leaves a relatively smooth surface (I have used this method to reshape old polyester/polyurethane core sailboards into surfboards). Heaps better then spendinding hours with a sander and creating all that horrible fibreglass dust. Is the core polyurethane or polystyrene?. When polyurethane blanks are made they tend to be denser towards the surface. By removing a lot of the outer foam you are left with foam of a lower density. This may cause the deck to dent easily when you stomp around on it with a normal layup. To counter this you may want to consider vacuum bagging some type of sandwich material to prevent the deck from denting. Same thing will happen with low density polystyrene cores. Timber veneers/balsa work well and look pretty sweet, otherwise some type of high density foam foam about 3mm thick (corecell, divincell etc) will do the trick. Do some small experimental layups if you are worried (with foam of a similar density). After they have cured do the old thumb test (press your thumbs into it as hard as you can) to see how resilient the laminate will be, and compare with other boards that you know wont dent easily.
NB If you use timber as a sandwich material dont let it get wet if you can avoid it. It may start rotting.

Board is just a blank wit epoxy glass - not sure what type of core as yet. Either way will be sterring cleer of core materials, will will go for a heavier laminate job (maybee even 3xoz) on deck. I realise the top of the blank will be softer as i go deeper but i dont want to disturb the FCS plugs underneath and am happy with the bottom of the rails. Will more than likely take all the foam by hand as oppossed to electric planner (what thoughts).

any thought on where to overlap the glass?

Are you sure it's epoxy???
Without sandwich construction or carbon involved, that's either going to be soft or heavy.

Epoxy isn't as hard as polyester, (although lighter and tougher) normally epoxy is used because the foam is polystyrene.
Polystyrene is usually softer than polyester, so if you have styrene/epoxy/glass construction, I'd guess it would need at least 3 layers of 6oz on the deck and would probably still be soft.

"Clubby" paddle boards are made this way, but they have very thick kneeling pads, in knee wells. Think they would soon get big heel dents and delaminate if used in stand up mode.

Nebbian.

ai guess the reason that i am willing to take this project on is due to the fact my last reapir went so well. i will pop some photos up in the coming days to show it off.

I ordered these boards through china (problem right there) and the thickness is there only let down. After my last fix, i am thinking why not!

I've just finished shortening a board, i will tell you it's not worth all the effort modifying a board too much, i took about 25cm from the nose, but the old one was already snapped off. it involved alot of work and i'm used to this as i repair boards as a sideline business.., it would be much easier to start from a block of foam as blending in glass where you leave the original in tact is a right pain.. but painting the board after it was finished was fun as always..

Just rode one of the boards out sandon point today, take it all back, went like a dream. i normally ride a 9'1 surftech byrne and this board was super loose and responsive and hung in on the nose better than my other board. I need to put bigger fins in it (it is a thruster set up) maybee GR's. Still to thick but you dont notice it in the water.

Only problem is i landed on the deck and cracked it righ on top of the stinger (cheap imports) so i might peel it back and have a squiz at it.

Keef whats this carbon stuff? I have been using a soft mix of Q-cell in stead of Divinicell - it seeps into all the crack and the absorption and compression strenth is great.

I should post some pics of the board.