Board Epoxy?

mikemcd · Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 11

Grrr!!!

I stopped to help a family on a capsized sunfish yesterday. They were way in over their head. After getting the boat righted they were fine. Unfortunately it was the end of the day and I was too tired to get the rig into position for a water start. So.. I uphauled it. On my return reach I looked down to discover 2 puncture divits in the middle of my 1 year old board! ARGH! I guess my harness reactor thingy pressed into the board and left the 2 circular punches as I was climbing on. Water got into the board.

No good deed goes unpunished eh?

Anyway, I need to figure out how to repair these holes. Ive got the board out and drying now. Someone suggested going to West Marine and getting an epoxy kit but looking online I see a bunch of them and have no idea where to start. Does anyone have any brands that they have successfully used to patch board holes? Oh yeah its a Fanatic 2003 board.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Yeah, that forecaster dude from this site Wink

Windlover · Joined: 06 Oct 2015 Posts: 623

Ding Stick works well for epoxy boards. Trim off a small slice, work it together with your fingers, apply in/over holes, smooth slightly with paint scraper, let dry, sand, paint, done in about 30 minutes. Available at most surf/sail shops.

gemoore · Joined: 14 May 2001 Posts: 494

Be sure to roughen up the surface / remove the paint (or at least scar it up), so that the ding stick will grip onto the surface.

Your other option, but much more effort, is to go for epoxy and glass cloth to patch it. WEST System is probably the way to go if youve never worked with epoxy.

tycoonguy · Joined: 20 May 2015 Posts: 0

Before you do any repairs make sure the core is dry. Theres more than one way to skin a cat here. You dont have to go to a specialty shop for the materials, either. Ive tried most methods. A ding stick would be identical to an epoxy stick found at any general or hardware store. If your board is white, you may want to try Marine-tex which works well. Most marine and some hardware stores carry it. Stay away from 5 minute epoxy as you cant sand it after it cures. Two-ton epoxy and fiberglass cloth wont be necessary for such small holes. The epoxies are the most widely available and cheapest, you can find them in drug, consumer value, and grocery chains. You can, however, do a similar repair using the West systems poly filler mixed with two ton epoxy. Fiberglass cloth wont be needed unless you want to build a skin over the core.

steve1 · Joined: 30 Apr 1998 Posts: 239 Location: Alameda, CA

I have just finished repairing the road rash from my 85l F2 Air and a dinged nose on my ML 94 follwing misadventures posed earlier.

The ML was relativey easy as its pigmented epoxy over clear epoxy carbon. I had to do some research as the F2 has an ASA skin around an epoxy carbon lay up. The ASA skin was punctured.

It turns out that epoxy will stick to ASA so even if your board has a similar skin all of the advice so far is good.

I used expxy resin, fast hardener, silica filler and white and yellow pigments to make filler pastes. All are readily available (TAP Plastics on the left coast) which almost matched the yellow ASA and was a perfect match on the ML.

However, the cat is now glued to my daughter (kidding).

higgybaby · Joined: 25 May 2004 Posts: 149

weather dude,
A few dos and do nots from someone thats messed up a lot of repairs.
1)Ding sticks great if you want to get back on the water in a matter of minutes but its not good for the long haul.

2)5:1 marine epoxy is what they made your board with (good choice), but dont use fast cure hardener (a.k.a. Part A) when doing fills as it can melt your foam.

3)Dont add a smidge extra Part A hardener thinking that it will cure faster or harder. Epoxy isnt polyester resin where adding more catalyst just makes things kick faster. If you dont get the proportions fairly close, it will cure tacky/sticky or not at all. Buying the hand pumps is safest.

4)Let the damage air dry before you get to work. Dont use a hair dryer/heat gun as the wet high density foam swells and leaves permenant welts.

5) Dont fill with straight epoxy as its heavy and hard to sand. Mix in filler. Microballoons are my favorite.

6) Most important of all, if you ever hope to sell your board its probably best to find someone thats done it a few hundred times to do the work for you (solely for cosmetic reasons). If youre in the SF Bay area go talk to ASD in Burlingame... its about the same price as buying all the things youll need to do it right and you wont have to discover for yourself how much working with epoxy, sanding fiberglass, and huffing paint fumes sucks!

Hope this helps.
-Higgins

nprguy · Joined: 05 May 2004 Posts: 18

go to wal-mart paint dept get 5 min epoxy tape area follow directions back on water in 25 min later sand and paint keep rescuing people it will pay off in the long run (keep hoping for the swedish bikini team to capsize)

philodog · Joined: 28 Apr 2000 Posts: 209

I`m surprised no one has mentioned Solar Rez yet. That stuff is fantastic, it has fibers in it already, sets in seconds once you put it in the sun and is ready to sand after five minutes. It sets so fast I use the cheaper polyester resin version on epoxy boards!!

higgybaby · Joined: 25 May 2004 Posts: 149

Careful! Polyester resin eats thru the polystyrene core (EPS)used in 99.9% of epoxy boards. Polyester resins are usually used on surfboard blanks (or really old sailboards)which are polyurethane. Sailboards have a high density foam layer (like Divinycell)over the EPS core which IS compatible with both epoxy and polyester resin. So if you use polyester resin, make sure your core (the white coffe cup looking material)isnt exposed. I also remember someone telling me that polyester resin doesnt adhere well to epoxy, but well may be a relative term.
-Higgins