Rescuing a rescue board

I pulled an old 11’ Surftech ST lifeguard board out of the dumpster awhile ago and I’m finally getting around to doing something with it. It’s essentially the same template as the Munoz Super Glide with flatter rocker. Since a few inches of the nose had been broken off and most of the glass stripped off the bottom I decided to cut it down to a 10’-something nose rider. The blank with the deck glass is very light and dry, and the deck has that nice contour from years of knee paddling. There’s no delam on top so I plan on leaving that alone and glassing the bottom and rails.  I’m filling small voids with DAP Touch & Foam and looking at the rails I can see what looks like a mold line.  I’m wondering if I should cut the existing glass off at this line or just sand back the paint and leave the rails wrapped?  I will have to wrap the nose & tail where it’s been reshaped. I know in the end it would probably be easier to shape a new board but I have a sentimental attachment to this design and I like to reuse whenever possible. Thanks for all the tips on my previous post on removing the EVA foam on the deck - the multi tool scraper attachment did the job. I meant to reply but the site is not allowing me that privilege at this time. Thanks in advance for any tips, thoughts, etc. 

Oldgrom-

You should be set to reply. Looking forward to seeing where the repurposing take you on this one.

-J

I’m gunna reply cause I think it gives you points and when you get to 10 you can reply.

oldgrom just earned a point and now has 3 points in the General category.

oldgrom has less than 10 userpoints and is no longer a “trusted” Swaylock’s member

 

+1 on the like  = jump this guy in to the gang

OK, I see what is happening. I toggled Oldgrom’s user status to ‘trusted’…but ‘liking’ the thread gives a point, which then recalculates ‘trust’, and thereby reverses the status toggle.

 

If people could get behind this and ‘like’ Oldgrom’s original post in this thread to 10+ points we should be able to fix it mo bettah.

 

Oldgrom, I am curious: was the board glassed normally or did it also have a plastic skin under the EVA foam?

I’ll throw you a point.

A couple more likes for the OP and we can get this thing out of hock…

I’ll add one.  Will also suggest you take a sander and bring the edge of a putty knife to a sharp edge.  Attack all those areas where the edges are lifting until they are either:

A.  Completely gone, or

B.  Lifted back to solid material.

Once you have eliminated that layer,  the fiberglass beneath it should be solid enough for a redo.  It  looks like it had a fair amount of bondo/putty/sanding primer smeared over it or else it was simply repainted at some point.

In any case, I can see the exposed fiberglass a few inches back from the edge… it’s the stuff that’s cracking off along the seam/edge that has me concerned.

Stick with it.  You may end up with something fun in the end.

Thanks John!

Oldgrom, can you reply now?

Thanks everyone - now I’m good to reply. 

To answer jrandy from what I can see it’s a normal glass job on the deck and bottom but there is an extra layer of heavy fiberglass mat on the bottom (as used in boat repair) which was mostly stripped off when I recovered this board. If you look at other ST’s you can feel a ridge just below where the EVA foam wraps on the rails. One unusual thing I’ve found is staples spaced out about a foot apart around the top & bottom section of the rails. Also these boards are stringerless, so with that in mind I’m going double 6 on the bottom as it’s already pretty light. Also the fin box, leash and deck handle plugs (as this was a lifeguard board) are all set in high density foam. 

And I’ve pretty much followed John Mellor’s advice on the prep work and as you can see the reshaped nose pre-glassing. I’ve got it at a friend’s shop and it’s already glassed up and readyt o sand so I’ll follow up with a progress report in a couple days.

Here’s the post-glass job. I’m carefully sanding the deck overlaps down smooth and adding some glass to clean up any imperfections. Once I get down to 220 grit I’m thinking a satin white would be the best color to hide any imperfections. I’ve looked at lots of old threads on painting but I’ll probably just do the rattle can. As always any thoughts or suggestions welcome. 

Rattle can and poly or rattle can and epoxy?

Just a couple cans of Krylon or something similar over the glass job which is sanded down to 220. Probably a light color satin finish and may add some stenciled designs to help hide any blems. It’s gonna be a fun beater board anyway not a work of art.

Here’s the finished product. Rode it for the first time yesterday in waist high conditions and it was pretty fun. It’s got a pretty flat rocker so it paddles and rides fast but requires a little finesse on take offs. Thanks for the input and I’ll be sure to post up the next project which will be a couple glass jobs on finished blanks or replaceing a Soft Top deck with cork. 

Here’s the before pic as it looked when I pulled it out of the dumpster. It had seen a lot of use and abuse - glass had been stripped off the bottom, a few inches busted off the nose, a buckle, etc. It was completely dried out and it sat in my garage rafters for a couple years till I decided what to do with it. Thanks again everyone and remember to reuse-repurpose-recycle.