I believe United Airlines is to blame for this one, although I didn't discover it until a few days after I returned from Australia, so I figured any recourse with them was futile. Yeah, though it's worth a try. American Airlines really sucks.....
I've got a de-lam that is about the size of a
paperback, your standard small paperback, say 3.5" by
7". It is located right near the rail, on the deck
and probably about 2" to 3" in front of wear my toes
would be on my back foot. I'm not sure if any of that
matters, but I figure the more information I give you
the better.
My question... um, how should I fix it? I just got
through doing a series of smaller repairs on the board
and they seem to have turned out fine, but this one is
a bit bigger and I don't want to screw the thing up.
I believe I have two options. The first is to cut the
whole section out, fill in the foam dents, assuming
there are some, and then add glass, sanding, etc. If
this is the right thing to do, the questions I have
are about how to tie the new filler resin, glass, top
resin and the patch in general into the existing
board. How much sanding, if any do I do outside of
where I've cut? Do I lay the new glass over the old
original glass too?
The second option sounds easier, but it might be
difficult with a de-lam of this size, I think. That
option would be either cutting or drilling some holes
into the bubble/de-lam and the filling it with resin.
This is to be followed with some sort of creative
process that pushes the old glass snugly against the
new resin so a bond can form. I'm worried about this
because the glass seems to have stretched or deformed
some how. It seems like there is too much material
there for the space it needs to occupy. It's like
when you dig a really big hole in the earth and upon
back-filling it could swear that someone added extra
dirt to the pile; filling the hole to be level with
the surrounding ground leaves you with a substantial
amount of remaining dirt. I don't know how it
happens, it just does.
Anyway, those are might thoughts/guesses. Your
thoughts and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Kevin Choquette
Ocean Beach
First, cut (using a sheetrock/utility knife and a sharp blade ) a slit at one edge of the delam. Prop it open... I like to use a popsicle/stirring stick on edge. Get the board up so that the slit is the highest point on the delam.... and pour in a resin-cabosil mix, easy on the cabosil. Add some white pigment if your board is new and the foam still pretty white. Just an appearance thing. Go easy on the catalyst, this will go off quick enough as is.
Burp the delam...pressing on it lightly to get all the air out. Add more cabosil/resin mix as needed. It will slop over the edges of the cut, so it's not a bad idea to skip de-waxing the board until after this step...it won't have to be scraped real hard to get the dribbles off. When no more air burps out, remove the popsicle stick and use a weight on top of a piece of wax paper to hold the delam down a bit. Try to keep the slit uppermost still.
When the resin has hardened, sand the whole thing to the shape of the deck as it should be. I like a big 8" disc sander and 80-grit discs for this, but a smaller sander can do the job... sand it flat and then glass over it.
Okay, you don't want to do all that sanding and at the same time you don't want to leave a big bulge.
Slit the delam right down the center. Front to back is best. Set the board on the appropriate rail. Hold one side open, fill and burp and weight as above, then after the one side has hardened, do the other. Less sanding, usually just a strip down the center where the glass overlaps, then glass over it as above.
There are ways that involve peel-ply nylon and assorted and sundry other things like vaccum pumps....but that's awfully complicated and far more than you .... or I .... really want to deal with.
Hope that helps.
Oh, one more thing... couple friends of mine surf Ocean Beach, including Scott and Chris Rodgers. If you see them, give 'em my regards, and Chris (Devil Boy ) is a pretty fair hand at dings himself. He can give you some good advice as well.
Doc
While it's quick and easy to use one of the glue-ons, I'd go with a
replacement for a few reasons;
Materials
Resin, glass cloth, catalyst, a new plug, masking tape.
Tools
a single edge razor blade, a drill with either a hole saw or a Forstner bit
(see Woodworker's Warehouse or something like that for one of those) that is
just a touch larger diameter than the leash plug, a sander of some sort - a
random orbit type is good, a throwaway bristle brush - sometimes called a
chip brush.
First, remove the steel pin in the old leash plug, if it has one - some are
all-plastic. Otherwise, check your new leash plug against your hole saw or
forstner bit and mark that so you know how deep to drill. Drill out the old
plug deep enough so that the new plug will fit in flush with the deck of
your board.Carefully, that is. Don't want to drill through the whole board.
Next, sand around the hole lightly, making sure all the wax and such are
gone first. Cut a piece of glass cloth ( I like 6 or 8 ounce cloth for
this ) about 4" square and tape it to the deck centered on the hole. Tape
over the open end of the new leash plug with masking tape. Cut the tape
around the outside of the plug. Cut an X in the cloth that just goes within
the hole.
Now, mix up a little resin and brush it into the cloth, letting a good bit
get into the hole. Push the plug in- it won't go in all the way. The cloth
now acts to reinforce it all....you have a stronger installation than you
started with. Brush resin into the cloth a bit more, so it's smooth.
When the resin is at a hard gel stage, cut around the inside of the tape to
give you a pretty straight edge. Cut around and remove the tape on the plug.
Sand the plug flush to the new glass and sand the edges of the new glass.
Wet sand the edges and you're done.
Lets see...your local surf shop will probably have plugs and resin and
cloth.
Also, couple things...okay, three things...
The pages have moved and i don't know how long there will be copies at Cape
Internet/capecod.net. The new home is
http://jfmill.home.attbi.com/dings/dingdex.html
With that change the email address has changed too, to jfmill@mediaone.net
Doc
Are you sick of this yet? Okay, wanna read some surf stories or go back
to the index page. Otherwise, just hit the Back key to go look at more ding fixes..
From: "Andriuk, Stephan"
To:
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 3:46 PM
Subject: Leash Plug Repair
Here's what you'll need: