Ding Repair?

[Jeffroo]

Would I be better having someone else fix it, or fix it myself with a kit?

[gdude335]

if a proffessional fix it it will be better. But it will cost more and with a kit you will become a proffessional at it for futur dings

[Patrick__69]

Ask Kite, it looks like its down to the foam though

[Broosta]

Its not too bad, get stuck in with a SolarRez kit and you'll be all the more proud of yourself when done. Doing ding reapirs is all part of the surfing experience .

[teighto]

Do it your self things are always more rewarding if you do them yourself :) oh and they are cheaper

[kitesurfer]

I reckon you can fix that one up yourself. I'm not sure what comes with the kits as i don't use them as i have all the stuff anyway. But what i'd do to fix that is:
First remove any loose bits of glass and any that look like they could work loose. Then give the area around the damage a sand with say 120 grit. Then in preparation for the next part i'd remove a small amount of foam from under the surrounding intact glass to allow the filler (i'll explain in a sec what i use for filler) to seep under the edge of the glass so that when it goes off it can't just fall out. It's like keying a surface to get a better bond.
The filler is a mix of resin, hardner, wax in styrene and micro fibres. Microfibres are basically really finely chopped glass matting. I buy it by the bucket load as it's the best stuff for ding repairs, filling and insert fitting for kiteboards. You add enough fibres untill your filler mix is no longer runny but takes on gloopy texture. It'll dry rock solid and if you want you can add blue resin tint to get a simillar colour match.
Before making the filler get the board on it's side and mask off the surrounding area (away from where you've sanded) so that you can over fill the hole, excess can be cut off when the filler goes green or gells.
Mix the filler pour it into the hole making sure you work it in well, especially into the voids you've created under the glass at the edges.
Once it gells remove the masking tape, trim off excess filler and leave to go off. I use a sharp rasp to remove the excess filler and then sandpaper but be very careful not to damage the rest of your board at this stage. You may decide now that you need to add either more filler or you might decide to cover the area with some hot-coat to get the repair how you want it. My personal boards i just get them smooth for others i spend more time getting it right.
Work down throught the grades of sandpaper and once on the finer grades you can start to blend in the repair with the undamaged areas of the board.
It takes abit of practise and time but it's well worth doing yourself.

Hope this helps.

KS

[Jeffroo]

whoooo, thanks a lot kite.

Haha, that's a lot of stuff just for a ding.

All of that sounds a little tough/confusing to try for the first time, but I'll deffinatly think about it.

What's the difference with buying some "sun cure", and doing this?

[drowningbitbybit]

Suncure just fills the hole with resin which dries rock hard when put in the sun. Its okay for small dings, especially if its not got through to the foam.

But not so great if its a 'proper' ding

Kitesurfers way is the best way without a doubt, but you can get a ding repair kit which is a middle ground - it contains resin, filler, some glass matting, and wet n' dry. Its pretty easy to fix even some fairly large holes with one of these kits. Just follow KS's instructions!

[Broosta]

Just posting to add that I repaired a very similar ding on my board with a SolaRez kit which was spot on except for the fkn green wet and dry sandpaper which left little green bits of sandy stuff on the white repair . So I went out and got some of the normal grey stuff, pulled apart the first repair and redid it and now it looks fine without little green flecks everywhere .
Don't know if this problem is universal or something only I have experienced but thats my tuppence worth anyway .