Advice for fixing first ding

[lemonade]

Hey all,

I've hurt my surfboard Don't know how it happened, but suddenly there was this ding (see pictures in attachment). It's on the bottom of the board.

I've been wanting to fix dings myself, and used to working with eoxy and resin. But never repaired a surfboard before. Checked loads of Youtube videos though. So I need some advice. Would it be OK to follow these steps?

- Sand the ding thoroughly and cut away loose bits of glass
- Add two sheets of fiberglass and resin, wait 24 hrs to dry.
- Sand again, until smooth, then wet sand.
- Apply a hotcoat. Sand again and polish.

Or am I missing something? Thanx for any help!

[oldmansurfer]

That is a huge ding for your first try. You want to be sure you get all the loose fiberglass removed which might be a huge amount given the L or T shape of the ding. If the fiberglass came loose from the foam it will create pocket of air that will be easily damaged and maybe allow water to leak in. This is an epoxy board? Do you know what kind of foam? I would probably take my board to have someone else repair a ding like that especially if the board is still fairly new because if you botch it you have to live with that for the rest of the time you have this board. You have to dry the lesion out if it was in the water with that ding. So remove the loose glass and let it sit with the hole at the low point for a week or three in a warm environment. I am not that familiar with epoxy resin but have done a few repairs myself and I would do the two layers of glass separate and overlapping. However if the youtubes say to apply them at the same time go ahead. If you don't sand away a bunch of resin around the ding in the area of fiberglass overlap there will be a bump and it will be heavier. Also you need to remove damaged foam for the same reason as the damaged glass. Then you need to replace the damaged foam with a product first before doing the glassing.

[waikikikichan]

First from the looks off it, the damage looks like it happened out of the water. So in the back of the car/truck it was hitting something. ( Or someone in the house, knocked it over and not fessing up )

Would it be OK to follow these steps?
- Sand the ding thoroughly and cut away loose bits of glass
- Add two sheets of fiberglass and resin, wait 24 hrs to dry.
- Sand again, until smooth, then wet sand.
- Apply a hotcoat. Sand again and polish.

1) looks like the color is a foam stain, so just sand down to just about the weave. Doesn't seem to be much loose stuff. I've used a Dremel tool and scraped back and forth.
2) you could also add two dime/nickel sized fiberglass cloth cut outs to help fill in the circle area to help fill in the void more.
Why do you need to wait 24 hours ? If you taped off the area, after the catalyst and resin starts to "kick", you should razor blade cut on the tape off edge to make sanding easier later after the laminated area get fully cured, ( which shouldn't be 24 hours )
3) you shouldn't be wet sanding the laminated coat.

[lemonade]

Hey! Thanx (both of you) so much for your help, that's really awesome

Indeed there isn't a lot of loose stuff. Good idea about the nickel sized cloth to fill op the circle area void! It's really not deep so that should probably be enough to fill up the void.
Doing it like that, I suppose I don't need any qcell filler right? I don't think the foam itself is actually cracked... And if I go that deep it would touch the colour of the board, so I hope it's OK to avoid that (it's rather new).

Ah, wet sand after the hot coat, that's better. My mistake...

So just to make sure...
First layer fiberglass (red contours in picture)
Second layer fiberglass (black contours in picture)
Would the shape/size of the cloth be OK like that?

Thanx again for taking the time to help!

[oldmansurfer]

I don't mind cosmetic defects as long as the end result is strong. In my mind If you have a small strong point like a glob of resin with fiberglass in a hole then if something hits that it will transfer energy to the surrounding area making it crack there. Perhaps however you shouldn't make too much of a job of it since it is your first repair. I would probably go wider but plan on sanding through the edges of the fiberglass to smooth it out. Also once you complete the sanding before you start glassing check the edge of the fiberglass to see if it's loose. Clean the area before you glass make sure it clean and dry before you start glassing. Make sure you follow the direction for the resin but you are familiar with it so I guess you know that. If it says 2 parts A to 1 part B measure it and make sure it is the right amount , whatever the label says to do. I usually tape off the area with newspaper and painting tape because I am a sloppy guy. If you overlap the edge of the fiberglass on the tape which is how I did polyester resin boards then you need to cut the glass off before the resin gets too hard to cut but what I usually do is tape off past the edge of the glass so I don't need to worry about that as my work life requires that I am on call and may need to leave a project and go back to work at a moments notice and I intend on sanding down the edge of the fiberglass anyway. So if you cut the fiberglass after glassing and want to make it smooth either you have to sand it down or cover the edge with resin and then sand it. The idea is to make a patch that leaves the contour pretty close to the same which means you have to remove resin by sanding and replace it with your patch. Hopefully didn't confuse you too much LOL watch the youtubes

[oldmansurfer]

Oh yeah and make sure you use a squeegee to remove resin from the glass. You don't want a lot of excess resin, just enough to soak the glass

[lemonade]

Thanks again for all your help!
So, I just finished the repair. I wanted to sand only to the weave, but when I did, I felt that there were loose bits alongside the crack. I cut away those loose bits and sanded the edges. Filled it up with a mixture of resin (part A and B) and qcell. Added some pigment, just to avoid it turning out as a white spot. Sanded it smooth, than added two layers of cloth, one small, one bigger. Sanded it again. The color turned out very pale, so in this stage i mixed a little bit of resin with some more pigment. Painted only the spot with this mixture. You can see in the pics that it leaked into the fiberglass a bit, so maybe it was better if I skipped this step. Colour matching wasn’t very succesful
Anyway, after that I aplied the hot coat, and sanded it all smooth.
Ok for a first repair I think. At least I can hit the water again!

[lemonade]

looks like the color is a foam stain.

Do you (or anyone) have any ideas on how to make a better colour match for a future repair? You said it's probably 'foam stained'. So, for a next repair, is it a good idea to paint the white qcell spot with foam stain to make a better match (before glassing of course)?

If so, what kind of paint would be OK and safe to use?

[waikikikichan]

When I did ding repairs, I refused to do color matching because it never came out exactly right and the customers are always disappointed. In your case, it might have been better to leave a little "bald" spot than that large off-color area.

Ding repairs guys all have their secrets. I was surprised with what one of the top ding repair guy used here in Japan for color matching.

[oldmansurfer]

I used to have tinted resin boards and used to have the correct tint but you know I forget how to make it come out looking like there was no patch. This was all polyester resin boards though. My epoxy boards aren't on display for others to see, only me and I can overlook some patches on a board that performs well to me. If I had a ding that I wanted to be more cosmetically repaired I would have someone else do it. To fill in small holes in the foam I often used epoxy putty. It comes in a roll and you just cut off what you need and mush it up which mixes the two parts together then I shove that in the foam deficit. It no way looks like foam but it is relatively light and easy to sand. I don't paint my boards but others know more about that which you might do to coverup that deficit

[ConcreteVitamin]

I also want to take a stab at my first ding repair. In where I am in CA, most surf shops are closed. Any recommended sites that sell kits (fiberglass, two parts resin, tools)?

Looked at some companies that sell resins but those are huge portions.

[oldmansurfer]

I buy kits called "Ding All" they come with all the supplies needed

[waikikikichan]

Any recommended sites that sell kits (fiberglass, two parts resin, tools)?

I would recommend you try the UV curing gel resin in a tube first. I've had good experience using Solarez. The Yellow tube is for the fiberglass layer. For filling / repairing the blank, use the White tube which is the microlite filler, so you don't need to mix Q-cell and catalyst. There are different versions if you're fixing an EPS/epoxy board, so be careful.

[ConcreteVitamin]

Any recommended sites that sell kits (fiberglass, two parts resin, tools)?

I would recommend you try the UV curing gel resin in a tube first. I've had good experience using Solarez. The Yellow tube is for the fiberglass layer. For filling / repairing the blank, use the White tube which is the microlite filler, so you don't need to mix Q-cell and catalyst. There are different versions if you're fixing an EPS/epoxy board, so be careful.

I read somewhere that the strength for UV curing tube repairs is not comparable to either the original strength, or a proper repair. But maybe you recommend it because it's easier for first-timers to not mess up?

[waikikikichan]

I read somewhere that the strength for UV curing tube repairs is not comparable to either the original strength, or a proper repair.

I've "read" if you inject disinfectant into your body it'll kill the corona virus. I've also "read" that quads are faster.

If done properly, the UV curing gel with chopped fiberglass resin will be just as strong on a patch repair. Would I wrap the deck and bottom on a totally buckled board with Solarez ? ............ No. But that's not what it is for.

Don't need to believe me, ( and don't believe everything you "read" on the internet ), go fix some boards. Just don't leave your cup of resin on the deck of your board, if you got the catalyst to resin amount wrong. ( trust me, a lot of us have made that mistake )