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I was showing a friend a 70’s Twin Fin I recently restored to ride, and he said ‘I have two old boards which have been sitting in my attic for decades. Do you want them?’ As such I have come into possession of these two what I imagine are early 70’s Single Fins. They both have Lightning Bolts on the Bottom. The Green one is super light. The Yellow one is a little heavier, but I’m guessing the Coat of House paint on the bottom is adding quite a bit of weight. My goal for both of these boards is to Restore them so that I can ride them and my kids can ride them. My little one chose Pink for the last one… The Green one is so light, I think I have a lot of room to work with regarding fairing it out and making it a Cherry.
Motivating Factor… @ 8-9 days out… would like to ride that Green one in this next big NW Swell…
The nice thing about this Green Board is that it started off Very Light for it’s volume. That was what I notcied first so I knew I had room to work with. I restore these to ride them, so I can’t have them be too heavy. The first step was to sand down with 60 grit and see what was hiding. Ugh… who stuffs big dings with folds of fiberglass cloth and pours resin over it and then slaps a loose fit of Fiberglass over that? There were a lot of repairs and they were all bad. Some had to be cut out. The Nose and Tail needed a lot of work. There were a bunch of spots on the rails which needed to be reinforced. There were two Big spots on the deck which were delaminated. The Fin was wobbly and would need to be reset. But, the overall shape was real nice and classic, and this thing was Way lighter than any of the old Single Fins I’d ridden before. So I had a good feeling.
I like using the 4 parts Q-Cell to 1 PArt Polyester Resin for fills for rehaping. I cover it up after with Fiberglass, but it’s a nice way to fill holes. I set up tape to create the walls for the fills and overfill. Same with the Delam areas. This does not add a lot of weight to the board and it’s easy enough to shape. I sand it down just a little under flush so I can cover with Fiberglass.
Once the Fiberglass is down on the holes and around the fin, I give the whole board a good sand with 120 and I start to see the shape. There’s still a bunch of pressure dings, but sanding takes some down a litttle. I didn’t want this board to be the Classic Dark Red with Yellow and Black Bolt because I want to ride it, and that’s a little strong for me. But, I did want to include the Bolts as the Original. So I taped those off and mixed up some Yellow Opaque Tin with Poly Sanding Resin and added some Gold Flake. Did the same with Black Opaque and Gold Flake. The idea is to then Color the Whole Board with 2 Coats of Poly Sanding Resin and then when sanding down the Bolts will reveal themselves. For the Red I used 3 parts Red, 1 part yellow, 1 part white, and Gold Flake. I used two generous coats. Not super thick, but allowing enough resin for the coats to self level. This filled up most of the pressure dings. The pic which shows the relief of the bolts and some pressure dings is after one coat. After the second many of those filled in. I put on the second coat just as the first coat gelled up. First the top. Then the bottom, and I overlapped on the rails so they had some extra coats.
I forgot about the Fin… After a good sanding to blend in the reinforcement and keep the fin nice and thin and shaped, I coated with two coats of Sanding Resin mixed with Lemon Yellow Transparent Tint. The Board and Fin all got sanded with Oribital sander with 320 grit and some flat sanding forms with 320 grit and all the topcoats were blended flush and smooth. Most of the Pressure dings dissapeared.
From there I put my dustmaker away and used some flat forms and then some padded foms to wetsand with 400. I could go higher, but I like 400 grit wetsand because it still makes the board grippy in the water and not so slippery to grab where there is no wax. Very happy with this board. Took it out the other day. Easy to catch waves. Looks like some better swell headed our way soon.
Nice save , well done , let us know how it surfs .
Did you put it on a scale before you started?
Thanks, there is something about a saved board. It’s different from making a new board. There is already history. Very happy with this board. I took it for a quick surf leaving my 4yrold on the beach the other day, so it was quick. But it was real easy to catch waves with and I could even ride it like a long board way up on the front. I didn’t weigh the board prior but it’s not much heavier at all. Not sure how these repairs would do with a thinner foam board, but this thing is 4" thick.
Those came out great. I would have taken them to the dump. Well done. I had a yellow board similar to your yellow boardway back when. Surfed horribly, but what do you want for 40 bucks. I have a beat up Yater spoon hanging in my laundry room. Sun baked and twisted. Your work gives me some inspiration. Mike
I moved here with no boards… Got a Wavestorm for the kids. Restored that Lightning Bolt for ? $60? Seems like a good deal to me. Rides better than the Wavestorm…
