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stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 12:35 pm
by mg100
Hey guys,
Thought I would join up to this form to pick your brains and get a little advise please.
I recently bought a new hybrid Surfboard from a decent well know shaper, I thought I got a great deal as I paid £175 when they are normally £325 (converted into pounds), the guys in the shop were very helpful and it was basically cheaper as it was on the shelf from last year and not a custom made board which is what they normally do..
I took it out for a surf for a few hours, it surfed great but there was quite a bit of damaged to it after, I took it back to the shop and after they looked at it more closely they said it was a soft fiberglass problem which they had on a few of their older boards, as my board was from last year unfortunately it was one of the soft ones.
They have said they are going to sand off the fiberglass and re fiberglass it again and it will be perfect.
Has anyone had experience on this, can they really take off the fiberglass and make the board perfect? I guess it will be easier if the fiberglass is soft in the first place but I do not want a bodged board.
Ideally I would just say make me a different board but they would then charge me full price.
They did say if i was not happy with it after that I can still bring it back and we can make another plan.
Any thoughts on all that?
Cheers.

Re: stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 6:38 pm
by oldmansurfer
Probably the glass coat was too cold and the resin ended up not setting up entirely and remained soft. To fix this they remove the sanding coat and put a hot coat on that will hopefully set the soft glass coat off and make it hard. At least that would be my estimation of it. sanding off the entire glass job is most likely extremely difficult although perhaps they are expert enough to do that? Not sure?

Re: stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 8:58 pm
by waikikikichan
mg100 wrote:after they looked at it more closely they said it was a soft fiberglass problem which they had on a few of their older boards, as my board was from last year unfortunately it was one of the soft ones.

I have never heard Fiberglass being "soft", and not curing after a whole year. The problem is the fiberglass cloth was not thoroughly "saturated" during lamination. So there's a area were the weave is DRY. That leads to the area being weak.

mg100 wrote:the guys in the shop were very helpful and it was basically cheaper as it was on the shelf from last year and not a custom made board which is what they normally do..

Probably a "Made in China" stock board , were a whole batch had a pour lamination job. Does it have the shaper's signature on the stringer or just the shop's brand logo ?

Re: stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 3:33 am
by IB_Surfer
No, not very common. It can also happen when the board is not cleaned after shaping, the extra foam dust separates the glasscoat from the deck and cracks. Not sure who shaped it, they must have missed a beat...

Re: stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 6:42 am
by mg100
Cheers for all the helpful and interesting replies.
The boards are all shaped here in South Africa (at least thats what they tell me) I cannot remember if it has a signature on and its back in the shop at the moment, I'll check when I get it back in around a week though.
It is strange as it has hard parts then soft parts, the top seems fine, the edges are especially soft, maybe someone had a few too many beers when they were sanding.
I guess i'll see what its like when I get it back, I am sure (kind of) that they will fix it up like new.
Cheers.

Re: stripping the fiberglass on a new board

PostPosted: Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:58 am
by billie_morini
Q. can they really take off the fiberglass and make the board perfect?
A. yes, pretty close to perfect. Your eyes and body (when surfing) may not perceive the repair, if done well