Hi everybody.
Unfortunately my fin plug broke. This happened with me first time. Now on place where plug was is nothing, I cleared everything for repair. I want to repair it by myself, but i don't know what to do and which materials i have to use.
Could you help me please. Here is a photo of my board,

Since you're asking the question in the first place it's probably best to let someone that knows what they're doing fix it

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mitchbat said..
Since you're asking the question in the first place it's probably best to let someone that knows what they're doing fix it

Yeah thats right, but surf repair costs around 90$. I bought my surfboard for 200 so it will be not very important if i make it not perfect.
By the way, do you know how to do it? I watched some youtube vids and read some articles, but it better if somebody will tell me exactly what i must do

Tell you what I would do. Im no pro but have done some ugly repairs in the past.

Put your plug back in the fin and put your fin back in the board. Hopefully the broken plug will sit close to the right spot. Pour some resin in to set it in the right place. Looks like epoxy is the way to go for your board. Once its set in the right place, take the fin back out and fill in the rest of the hole. Being pretty lazy Id say a tube of solarez stuff should about cover it.

Youtube vids will give the right idea too. Give it a bash, worst case is you take it to get done properly if it breaks again.

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coreyb said..
Tell you what I would do. Im no pro but have done some ugly repairs in the past.

Put your plug back in the fin and put your fin back in the board. Hopefully the broken plug will sit close to the right spot. Pour some resin in to set it in the right place. Looks like epoxy is the way to go for your board. Once its set in the right place, take the fin back out and fill in the rest of the hole. Being pretty lazy Id say a tube of solarez stuff should about cover it.

Youtube vids will give the right idea too. Give it a bash, worst case is you take it to get done properly if it breaks again.

sounds too easy corey do you want a job

Surely you can beat $90 Dave

Just take it to someone and get it fixed.
For you to buy all the correct stuff you need presuming you have nothing will end up being around $50.
It sounds like you have absolutely no idea what you're doing so you'll most likely make a mess of it. When you take it to someone once you've stuffed it up it will most likely be more than double to get them to fix your stuff up and then fix the original problem.
Not being rude but don't do what Corey b said. That just won't work.
Cheers

$90 sounds like someone is having a laugh. Where are you based?

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Ted the Kiwi said..
$90 sounds like someone is having a laugh. Where are you based?

I live in the Gold Coast, i called to the nearest surf shop and they said that it will cost around 65-100 dollars depends on how big is the hole. Also this price includes new fin and plug.

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Dumer said..

Ted the Kiwi said..
$90 sounds like someone is having a laugh. Where are you based?

I live in the Gold Coast, i called to the nearest surf shop and they said that it will cost around 65-100 dollars depends on how big is the hole. Also this price includes new fin and plug.

looks like SLX construction tricky to regain strength I would recommend a fcs fusion plug for an extra couple of bucks and change the rest as the fall outi bet the other plug next to it has lost its bond to the deck

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Ted the Kiwi said..
$90 sounds like someone is having a laugh. Where are you based?

hey Ted you should see how much a coffee cost over here them!!

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coreyb said..
Tell you what I would do. Im no pro but have done some ugly repairs in the past.

Put your plug back in the fin and put your fin back in the board. Hopefully the broken plug will sit close to the right spot. Pour some resin in to set it in the right place. Looks like epoxy is the way to go for your board. Once its set in the right place, take the fin back out and fill in the rest of the hole. Being pretty lazy Id say a tube of solarez stuff should about cover it.

Youtube vids will give the right idea too. Give it a bash, worst case is you take it to get done properly if it breaks again.

Yes as coreyb said this is a good way to do it ,
Plus ,to seal parts together and add strength to your garage ding fixing, make a groove with hot hook or electrical welder on both edges , board and fall apart block with plug. You can do some space into the bottom of the hole melting the EPS so the resin will have a gap to fill without plumping out the plug/EPS part, you will be able to flush it later.
Kind of that way i use to do on fixing new plugs. see below.
Then sand flush the extra lip of resin mixed with micro balloon or solarez like coreyb said

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Kami said..

coreyb said..
Tell you what I would do. Im no pro but have done some ugly repairs in the past.

Put your plug back in the fin and put your fin back in the board. Hopefully the broken plug will sit close to the right spot. Pour some resin in to set it in the right place. Looks like epoxy is the way to go for your board. Once its set in the right place, take the fin back out and fill in the rest of the hole. Being pretty lazy Id say a tube of solarez stuff should about cover it.

Youtube vids will give the right idea too. Give it a bash, worst case is you take it to get done properly if it breaks again.

Yes as coreyb said this is a good way to do it ,
Plus ,to seal parts together and add strength to your garage ding fixing, make a groove with hot hook or electrical welder on both edges , board and fall apart block with plug. You can do some space into the bottom of the hole melting the EPS so the resin will have a gap to fill without plumping out the plug/EPS part, you will be able to flush it later.
Kind of that way i use to do on fixing new plugs. see below.
Then sand flush the extra lip of resin mixed with micro balloon or solarez like coreyb said

But what happen if I will use fibreglass reinforced filler to fill the hole with plug and will put a layer solarez on top of this? Because I can buy resin and Q cell filler only from internet and i will have to wait minimum 1 week but i want fast repair to continue surfing.

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Dumer said..

Kami said..

coreyb said..
Tell you what I would do. Im no pro but have done some ugly repairs in the past.

Put your plug back in the fin and put your fin back in the board. Hopefully the broken plug will sit close to the right spot. Pour some resin in to set it in the right place. Looks like epoxy is the way to go for your board. Once its set in the right place, take the fin back out and fill in the rest of the hole. Being pretty lazy Id say a tube of solarez stuff should about cover it.

Youtube vids will give the right idea too. Give it a bash, worst case is you take it to get done properly if it breaks again.

Yes as coreyb said this is a good way to do it ,
Plus ,to seal parts together and add strength to your garage ding fixing, make a groove with hot hook or electrical welder on both edges , board and fall apart block with plug. You can do some space into the bottom of the hole melting the EPS so the resin will have a gap to fill without plumping out the plug/EPS part, you will be able to flush it later.
Kind of that way i use to do on fixing new plugs. see below.
Then sand flush the extra lip of resin mixed with micro balloon or solarez like coreyb said

But what happen if I will use fibreglass reinforced filler to fill the hole with plug and will put a layer solarez on top of this? Because I can buy resin and Q cell filler only from internet and i will have to wait minimum 1 week but i want fast repair to continue surfing.

It will add an extra weight to your board and hard to sand flush with the non adjusted fin plug

So you have to wait the material , i think solarez won't do a clean and accurate job . Be patient and then have methodic matters following the way to do it.
I already did it on the SUP 7'11" 28" 6 channels round pin tail breaking the 2 plugs in a row, the board pictured up here , i sat on the fin

Remember that fin must be fitted in the plug while the resin goes off at the bottom of the hole.
Once the plug and its piece of foam stuck in right position, i mean with not any drop on the fiberglass board bottom, fill the gap and groove as i reckoned to do with an hot hook or electrical pen, around with resin and micro balloon. Do as the pro are doing on the FCS video shows to fit plug as normal way.
Sand to flush the micro balloon resin. put one glass over and around your fix with a bit of overlapping. Sand it flush with an hard and flat sanding block. you ready to go, .

Be aware that just filling and replacing the plug as-is will most likely lead to it coming out again at some stage (and is no doubt why this one pulled out, looks like a dodgy/cheap install in the first place).

When inserting plugs you need to score the foam right through to the deck on the other side, so the resin can form a i-beam ridge that locks in with both deck and the bottom lamination to provide strength, as per the pic attached (shot from the deck/top side of the board). The FCS installation manual also has a few pics describing this well.
Ever wonder why boards have the the little FCS stickers on the deck above the plugs? - to cover up these resin circles.

Also add another layer of 4oz glass on the bottom a few inches around the plug for strength.

I agree with others here - there is no way that I would be filling a void that large with just resin or resin/q-cell. Replace the foam with either a block or pour foam, then install properly as above. Otherwise you'll be doing it all again at some stage when it pulls out a second time.
(*and when you look at it that way, the $90 quote is not too bad.....).

get it done properly not worth the pain,pay the money they will glass properly sand properly set the fin properly reinforce properly etc etc it will probably even be set right at the right fin angle, 90 bucksis a good price to pay for art....katana... than just buy a good board when your therr custom epic win win

Need to put a block of foam in as it you just try to fill with resin your will exotherm the foam and probably have some melt issues.

Katana is right change the plug to FCS fusion and replace the rest as they break out

Hey guys I am in the same boat, have just bought a great board for $100, took it out and broke a fin box on low tide. Local factory (not many round here) won't touch a board for less than $80 and repair quote was $90 !%&^$%$ For that money I could buy another good second hand board.

BTW I use these boards for kiting so FCS fins break easily, note to self to buy glassed in fins next time.

My plan is to squeeze a tube a solarez into it, fit the fin plug (using a fin a template) and hope for the best. At least half the plastic around the fin plug is still there so I might reinforce the other side a bit. Here's a pic, any tips welcome....

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HighzaKite said..
Hey guys I am in the same boat, have just bought a great board for $100, took it out and broke a fin box on low tide. Local factory (not many round here) won't touch a board for less than $80 and repair quote was $90 !%&^$%$ For that money I could buy another good second hand board.
BTW I use these boards for kiting so FCS fins break easily, note to self to buy glassed in fins next time.
My plan is to squeeze a tube a solarez into it, fit the fin plug (using a fin a template) and hope for the best. At least half the plastic around the fin plug is still there so I might reinforce the other side a bit. Here's a pic, any tips welcome....

If you have some tools (router is the only serious tool, hand tools will do for the rest) the best way to fix that is as Dave said above swap it for a fusion box, since you are kiting it the fusion box really is the only way to go......way stronger, I have one kite board I built with fusion boxes that I have literally ridden onto a shallow sand bank to the point that the board stopped dead without any damage.

Use the box to trace outline onto the area, remove the grub screw from the other plug then use a router to carefully cut the foam, glass and old box out, drop the new box in check the alignment and depth, once thats all good rough up and thin out some of the old glass around the box (will help the glass you drop in over the top bond and key in, especially after sanding). Glue the pulg in and fill as required then glass over the lot and sand. One of the great things about this is there are heaps of vids covering installation of the fusion boxes on the net and the only real difference then is cleaning up the area around the plug.

Seriously though, if it's a great board just get someone to do it, probably wouldn't cost much more to have all the boxes done at once and you won't be back doing this again in a week or two. The reality of doing repairs yourself is that unless you are making your own boards and have the gear around or are doing lots of repairs is that you'll spend money on tools, you'll spend money on material (most of which you'll waste because they'll go off before you do another one and even small quanities are too large for most jobs) and then you'll spend you time and effort. In my experience (assuming you are not doing lots of repairs or building your own boards) I find it hard to believe you wouldn't spend ~$40 on material, tools, consumables that will never be used again plus your time (if you know what your doing with all the tools you'll spend maybe an hour doing this, including use of a sander, otherwise you'll spend far more mucking around trying to work it out) and you probably won't get a job you are happy with first time.

Not trying to discourage cause being able to repair your own gear I think is really valuable but also acknowledging that we all have different priorities in life and if you want a quality, quick repair then paying is most likely the best way otherwise you'll probably spend more on the first onw but the payback really happens over a long period of time. What's the saying fast, good, cheap.....you can have any 2 but not 3

Good luck