Been looking through a ton of posts and the archives to find an answer but now I feel farther from a decision…maybe because there is not one clear-cut ‘method’? Here’s what’s going on:
I decided to fix up my ole’ faithful step-up performance poly shortboard and give it some new ‘life’. The end goal is to fix up all the dings, hotcoat certain areas that had a good amount of scrapes/etc from reef/rock/travel to give it another layer of protection and re-paint the entire board. I’ve done ding repair for years, but nothing major so I’m no where near even a backyard shaper…and the board is pretty beat up in terms of pressure dings/dents so I didn’t want to invest a ton of time and resources into it…more of a little project for me to do on the side.
For reference I’m using a basic surf shop bought ‘sanding resin’ from ding-all, so I believe it has styrene and wax additive in it and I’m sanding everything by hand. I plan to use a spray acrylic (montana) to paint the board and then seal it with the Krylon Matte Acrylic Sealer and scotchbrite it, maybe polish it. Not really necessary to get a good gloss coat, just want to make sure its good and watertight.
My question: after sanding the hotcoat I noticed ever so feint weave showing through in random areas that I must have sanded too much. It doesn’t seem exposed much, if at all, because it I can barely tell a difference running a fingernail over it. From reading through TONS of posts, I’ve read so many different ways to go about sealing a board I’m now not sure which would be best? Or if any of these actually apply to an already finished board that was just sanded a little too much?
- Leave board as-is with slight weave visible, paint the board and acrylic seal the board. Would the acrylic paint/sealer actually seal the board?
- do spot touchups with another layer of resin, sand down, paint, sealer
- apply an acrylic sealer (either the spray that I have or a brush on acrylic), buff that down with scotchbrite, lightly sand for paint prep, paint, top coat of sealer
I also noticed when doing the hotcoat on the bottom of the board, it looked great and smooth (relatgively speaking for a complete amateur) the majority of the time it was curing. The next day I noticed it was uneven because of a bunch of little isolated depressions in the resin (pinholes?), so I obviously had to sand more than I wanted to get it to be smooth…but there’s still some small ones, but very isolated. Will the acrylic paint/sealer fill in these little holes or is the only way to use either more resin or a brushed on acrylic sealer?
What is the difference between the brush/sponge on acrylic sealer and the spray based one? Ease of application or is one more durable than the other? If the brush on acrylic is preferred, can you recommend something that would be relatively easy to find? I’ve seen everything listed from floor sealer, to floor cleaner/wax to automotive coatings…no clue which one would be the best??
Thanks in advance and take it easy on me 
I’m sure I screwed something up along the way!!