Total newbie here. Today I found out this tiny scratch (or maybe it’s really a crack or proper ding) on my rail: see pic.
It’s definitely not wax. Ran my nail over and it didn’t really catch.
But it’s also not dented or loose enough to fill some Solarez or similar quick repair in, it seems.
How bad is it? Good for learning to repair this for the first time? Thank you.
If it was my board I would smear a litte Sex Wax on it and paddle out. That’s the kind of ding you save for a Saturday when the ol’ lady expects you to clean out your $#!t in the garage or mow the lawn. Not that high on the priority list, but slightly more fun than above mentioned “honey do crap”.
I would wetsand with some 3-400 grit and MAYBE touch it up when you have an actual ding to repair.
Thank you, appreciate it. Is there a good wetsanding tutorial for first-timers? I can look on Youtube just wondering if there’s any classics.
haha - well I thought the conventional wisdom is no matter what, don’t put wax to cover dings. maybe i’ll try some sticker
just take a scrap of fine grit wet/dry sandpaper dip it in water, sand the area, repeat a few times, wipe down with dry towel. Done.
Fiberglass Hawaii has some ding repair videos on internet. Theboardlady.com has a great website worth browsing.
Seriously-- Just do as Huck recommends. The Fiberglass Hawaii Videos are some of the best. Sand and put a small piece of 4 oz over it to insure that it is watertight. Fill coat and sand. Pretty simple. The problem with a shatter is that you never really know if they are taking on water. You can assume they are.
What’s been said before, with one addition- DON’T use a sanding block. Especially on a rail or anything convex or concave. Basically, ever. Save it for refinishing a table or something.
You wind up making a flat spot where there wasn’t one. Sometimes ( watched a guy do this, he wasn’t the type to listen) you can sand right through gloss and hotcoat and glass and into the foam.
Okay, more than one addition-
As a beginner, hand sand only. Power sanders are great for production work and I like 'em, but you can do a lot of damage real fast. Don’t make a little job into a big one.
Use coarse ( say, 100 grit) dry paper to rough up the area you’re going to fix. Also use it to take down and feather out the edges of your glass cloth , but not all of it, work your way to finer and finer grits ( higher than 200, wet sand) and expand out a bit as you go finer. . Dust between sanding with dry paper, rinse with wet.
Gentle pressure with your fingertips, no more than that. Let the paper do the work. Nice thing about that, with dry paper you can feel it if it’s getting warm which means your sandpaper is getting dull or clogged. Wet paper, rinse often to clean it out, especially with the finer grits. If it’s clogging real fast, you need to let the resin harden more. Simply dull? Replace the paper. Paper is cheap.
Relax, enjoy, learn.
hope that’s of use
doc…
If you are looking for The Board Lady (and you should) her site is Boardlady.com, not TheBoardLady.com
well, if you type theboadlady.com into your browser, you’re still gonna find it, sheesh. Just sayin’
Hello; some points:
-you never ever put wax on a ding due to is better water inside than grease. Then the ding will be transformed x times bigger to get rid of the grease and fungus when is too old.
-you never sand to get rid of shatters, splints or damaged fibers with water.
-in most cases where you have a hole you should use FOAM (or the core material) not resin.
-400 grit is nothing there and in most cases; you cannot rid of the damaged fibers; cannot let a mechanical good surface for the next fiber; cannot flat right the surface.
—in this case: sand with 80 grit and the sander; slightly touching it; first the shatter parts then the area there. You stop when you see the cloth all around.
Pass styrene to check the work. In this case you will see the color of the board smooth with the rest.
Put the board on the rail; mask with tape put 2 layers of 4oz one bigger than the other. In the case that you need to level a bit; use more fiberglass, not more resin. Lam and wait two hours (or use UV cat resin) then hot coat resin. Sand the edges of the repair slightly with the machine then continue by hand with a EVA padded block (yes with a block)
80 grit, then 100 grit. Check that all is leveled with the rest of the rail; if not you need to repeat in the non leveled part until all is good. Normally in the first time all is good…
Clean the dust and apply a finish coat (you can utlize the hot coat resin) with a clean small brush. No tape the area; not too much resin. Fade out the edges.
After two hours start to polish (sand) With what grit depends on the finish of your board. If it s bright, after the polishing (320, 400, 600, 1200 grits) you need to rub out the surface.
If it s sanded use 280, 360 and 400. If it s “brushed” (matte finish but done on the gloss) use similar to the other grits then use a purple 3M sponge.
-My job is building boards.
Bondo…
Hello; some points:
-you never ever put wax on a ding due to is better water inside than grease. Then the ding will be transformed x times bigger to get rid of the grease and fungus when is too old.
-you never sand to get rid of shatters, splints or damaged fibers with water.
-in most cases where you have a hole you should use FOAM (or the core material) not resin.
-400 grit is nothing there and in most cases; you cannot rid of the damaged fibers; cannot let a mechanical good surface for the next fiber; cannot flat right the surface.
—in this case: sand with 80 grit and the sander; slightly touching it; first the shatter parts then the area there. You stop when you see the cloth all around.
Pass styrene to check the work. In this case you will see the color of the board smooth with the rest.
Put the board on the rail; mask with tape put 2 layers of 4oz one bigger than the other. In the case that you need to level a bit; use more fiberglass, not more resin. Lam and wait two hours (or use UV cat resin) then hot coat resin. Sand the edges of the repair slightly with the machine then continue by hand with a EVA padded block (yes with a block)
80 grit, then 100 grit. Check that all is leveled with the rest of the rail; if not you need to repeat in the non leveled part until all is good. Normally in the first time all is good…
Clean the dust and apply a finish coat (you can utlize the hot coat resin) with a clean small brush. No tape the area; not too much resin. Fade out the edges.
After two hours start to polish (sand) With what grit depends on the finish of your board. If it s bright, after the polishing (320, 400, 600, 1200 grits) you need to rub out the surface.
If it s sanded use 280, 360 and 400. If it s “brushed” (matte finish but done on the gloss) use similar to the other grits then use a purple 3M sponge.
-My job is building boards.
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Yes siree! Or that two part stuff that comes in a tube. Elmers wood filler?
Silly-Putty
All that for $25??
…I am a machine to lose money; today I had a problem with a big board that I did not have enough space to laminate so I had a tiny bubble on one edge of the tail. Pigmented lamination. Plenty of time trying to cosmetic fix that stupid bubble. Could not so Tomorrow still will be losing money trying…
I see plenty of boards with some difficult pigments and not so good laminations…but also see plenty of perfect laminations. I always try these lasts.
Yes! I know you do. And you do it very well. Teasing you a bit. And having some fun. You do great work. Lowel
I’ve used bondo before. Works fine. I’ve also used the two part epoxy in a tube. Works okay, can yellow in sun. However, for that little scratch you probably don’t need any filler like that.
Didn’t the Liddle guys use bondo?
Was pulling your chain. When I used to do lots of ding repair I hated it when somebody would finally bring in a board for professional repair after having done their own backyard Bondo or two part putty repair. I like my repairs to look as professionally cosmetic as possible. That’s hard to do when someone has stuffed Bondo or putty down into a ding that probably didn’t even need filler. As far as wood filler I recently used a Bondo two part wood filler that is easier to sand and supposedly stainable. But I didn’t use it on a surfboard.
