REPAIRING BROKEN BOARD: Should I fill foam voids with spackle before glassing?

[Dwight (DW)]

I’m with supuk, remove the whole bottom skin.

Super easy with this

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-LXT-Lithium-Ion-Cordless-Variable-Speed-Oscillating-Multi-Tool-Tool-Only-With-Blade-and-Accessory-Adopters-XMT03Z/205302496


My favorite tool for surgical cutting of glass skin. Use the wood saw tooth blade from Bosch on it.

[eDUBz]

You can blend in the back and mask off a paint design so you don’t have to worry about matching the Vector.

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sorry to say but the repaired version is always going to be heavier than the original, and carbon is no lighter than fibreglass, only stiffer so you can use less of it. i did a similar repair to a 14' downwinder that i re shaped the back half of and what a nightmare trying to get the join structural and neat, would have been much easier to just peel the whole bottom skin off and start again. its easy to feather something out on a radius i.e the rails but trying to feather a structural join out across a large flat surface and still have it look good and weigh nothing is nigh on impossible

[SlatchJim]

Sticker..

nearly shot coffee out my nose. 

No useful anything from me, I'm just hear to learn from ones that do this level of repair.

[magentawave]

I’m with supuk, remove the whole bottom skin.

Super easy with this

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Makita-18-Volt-LXT-Lithium-Ion-Cordless-Variable-Speed-Oscillating-Multi-Tool-Tool-Only-With-Blade-and-Accessory-Adopters-XMT03Z/205302496


My favorite tool for surgical cutting of glass skin. Use the wood saw tooth blade from Bosch on it.

Dwight, do you get a cleaner cut with that tool than you would from using a utility knife? And besides cutting, do you also use it around the edge of the cut fiberglass to help pull it up from the foam?

[magentawave]

sorry to say but the repaired version is always going to be heavier than the original, and carbon is no lighter than fibreglass, only stiffer so you can use less of it. i did a similar repair to a 14' downwinder that i re shaped the back half of and what a nightmare trying to get the join structural and neat, would have been much easier to just peel the whole bottom skin off and start again. its easy to feather something out on a radius i.e the rails but trying to feather a structural join out across a large flat surface and still have it look good and weigh nothing is nigh on impossible

Based on what I've been reading here I have decided to remove all the glass from the bottom. Thanks!

[Dwight (DW)]

I have more control with the tool than a knife. It’s easier too, like when cutting a thick spot.

[supuk]

Mask up a line to cut to then use a round blade on a multi tool

[PonoBill]

+1 on the multitool and I wouldn't do vectornet. If you must, then just do carbon on the rails, or the last half of the rails and do 6/6 or 6/4/4 on the bottom. Carbon rails will make a sort of visual transition to the vectornet. I wouldn't expect much else from it, though it will stiffen the rails some, and that would probably be a good thing. The board obviously folded somewhat--at least enough to break the bottom. The EPS has recovered or just flexed enough to not crease or break. I'm not super impressed with the properties of vectornet. That's a very weird break.

That glass looks to have come up very easily.

Unless you change your zone name to eDubZ it's not going to look like it was never repaired. I'd be satisfied to get a usable board out of that mess. That would be a challenge even for dub.

I'd fix your foam holes with foam patches glued into place and carefully sanded to the contour. Anything else will be hard to sand. Lightweight spackle is probably the only material around (other than perhaps peanut butter) that's weaker than light eps. If you have even the tiniest pinhole leak over the spackle you'll have a void full of soup.

[bajasurf]

I would fill the voids with foam or GG.  I personally cut new foam in glue iut in with GG. sand the new foam to shape,  then just re-glass the bottom with 2-6oz cloth n wrap the rails.  I would forget about trying to make it pretty, and just make it so it surfs again.  I wouldnt spakle it.  Just let the epxoy fill in the small voids so you get a good bond. 

It looks to me like they underglassed the board, n they thought Verctornet would make it strong enough. 

Your board will be a bit heavier, but its marginal. 

Time n frustration, not worth the effort.  But getting it surfing again is.

I had a board I added too much nose rocker on and addded bondo to smooth out the curve.  Added weight n looked ugly and the boatrd surfed well.

I had to redo a board simialr to yours and everyone here suggested I fix it, and getting it surfing again.  I added a little extra tail rocker, glassed it ( ugly), but wow, did that board surf great.

[Bean]

The blank is clearly compromised, so two concerns to address are maintaining the original rocker and adding some strength.  A single 12" patch running from rail to rail, in whatever glass you choose, over the crease followed by your regular full lamination.  Nothing too substantial for the patch, because that would just create a stress riser. 

And yes, I would spackle the blank simply because spackle is lighter and will naturally displace excess (non-contributing) epoxy.  Also, it will be much easier to get a smooth surface which will translate into a smooth glass job. 

Fun project Magenta, can't wait to see it completed!

[magentawave]

You can see by the photos below that I'm going to need the kind of filler that has to be troweled on because a lot of the foam that ripped out is 2 and 3 foam balls deep. Bill made the point that filling that much with spackle would turn to soup if I get a ding so should I use epoxy with microballoons?

[supuk]

once dry spakle is not water soluble it is acrylic based. that said I would probably go epoxy/mb in your case as you will be covering he entire surface were the beads have come out and it will tie the glass to the blank. spakle is only for filling in tiney  one or two bead size holes.

[magentawave]

once dry spakle is not water soluble it is acrylic based. that said I would probably go epoxy/mb in your case as you will be covering he entire surface were the beads have come out and it will tie the glass to the blank. spakle is only for filling in tiney  one or two bead size holes.

How much of the microballoons would you add to the epoxy/hardener mixture for this purpose? (I'm asking because the last time I added microballoons I must have added too much because it wouldn't cure.)

[supuk]

MB will never stop your epoxy from curing, you must have got a incorrect mixture off epoxy. The max is about 15-20% by weight but I just do it by feel, runney enuff to spread and stick