Potentially leaking board??

[kookie]

Hi guys,

I bought my first short board the other day which had a couple of dings which seemed they have been repaired. But I took it out and saw some bubbles coming from one of the dings and the nose started to go dark in colour, does this mean that water is getting inside? If so how is it best to go about fixing it? Thanks for the help.

Board is Firewire Dominator FST

[waikikikichan]

questions:
1) how did you see bubbles ? Like air bubbles coming out of the board when you were sitting in the ocean ?
2) When you first went to the beach the nose was off-white color and after surf the nose is now darker, like more tan-ish / light brown ?
3) have you done repairs on the previous long(er) boards that you owned before this Firewire ? Were those board Poly/PU or Epoxy/EPS ?

[kookie]

I had a go at sanding down the old repair and it is definitely not water tight.

I've done some fibreglass patch ups on cracks before but not with epoxy. Would it be best for me to sand down the area and solarez over the fragments, or cut them out and fill the entire area?

[oldmansurfer]

It is usually best to remove all damaged parts including fiberglass resin and foam. Also on a rail it is best to glass it rather than just solarez but if you don't have the skills then just do solarez and watch it closely for more damage.

[kookie]

Ok thanks, I'm going to just go for it and try doing a proper repair as I have to learn. Would a kit like this be fine? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ding-All-Epoxy ... B0015G3ZGO.

Any tips on cutting out the section? There's a balsa wood rail so how do I avoid cutting deep into the wood and/or foam? Would a Stanley knife be fine for this? Thanks for your help!

[oldmansurfer]

Sanding it down will make the damaged fiberglass edges easy to cut with a razor knife. The wood underneath sand it if damaged then you may need some filling stuff to bring that outline back up so it won't leave a dent when you glass it. They make a two part epoxy putty that works good for that. Epoxy resin is the bear to sand so try to squeegee out the excess when you glass. Make sure you measure the amounts of resin and follow directions.