Hey guys,

I have a pretty large ding to repair on the bottom of my surfboard.
It is about 30cm and at its deepest is about 22mm.

Would I try to get some foam in there or would it be OK to just fill with Q Cell?
It may be a pain in the but to get the foam.

I have seen quite a few of the YouTube tutorials, but none with a ding of this size.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have cleaned the ding up as you can see in one of the pictures.

I would definitely be using some foam and fibreglass matting.

I am definitely going to put two layers of 6oz cloth over it, but am going to struggle to get the foam to fill it and thought Q Cell might do the job.

You should be able to find fibreglass repair kits that have foam and matting etc at major hardware stores - it's not that expensive... or drop in to one of your local shapers, they will have plenty of off-cuts... and you could also talk the job through with them.

I am not sure if most would recommend it but I usually use some expanding foam on things like that. Have done some amazing jobs with it. Just rebuilt from the rail under the fin box on one of my boards. I just cut the foam back so its under the level of the board and fill with q-cell. Then apply a few layers of glass on top. Seems to work a treat. You can get the higher grade marine pour foam but I could not find any locally when I needed it. Otherwise you can just get some foam off cuts and cut a few bits to size and then q-cell around them before glassing over it as you normally would. You can just q-cell the whole thing if you get desperate but the weight it will add might be significant depending on what board you have there. With a ding like this you are going to have to do the repair in stages. Probably 3 or 4 to get a nice finish.

Have a look on sway locks for a few tips. Get something like this

www.bunnings.com.au/filler-expanding-foam-500ml-boom-expanding-foam_p1211402

Just make sure you are using the correct resin with the foam and board. Do not use PCU with an epoxy board or you will end up in all sorts of trouble. Lots of examples on youtube. Check out the board lady - she probably has done something similar although she mostly vacuums her repairs.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it . Just filler up with resin , chop up a bit of matting and mix up a brew . No need to go overboard.

That gouge will fill up easy and wont alter the structural integrity of the board .

But seriously, it isn't too bad. If you go to a decent surf shop, the people working their should be help a bit.

How'd it happen?

Was using the board for kite surfing - was moving quite fast and hit an unexposed rock. Don't think i will be kiting there on low tide again.
Was one of my favorite boards too

easy go to your local shaper and get some rail off cuts.

grab a router and cut out the damage. uniform depth if posible.
sand the perimeter glass down a bit to feather the job in when glass ing at the end.

Shape the PU foam off cuts to fit as best as possible.
apply some PU foaming woodglue to hole and part. have surrounding areas all taped yp with plastic to avoid contamination.
apply a weight on top and let cure.

once set, remove brick and sand to level.
spray the foam yellow with a matching ACRYLIC (anchor brand is best) spray can.
layup glass.

DONE

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KEARNSY said..

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it . Just filler up with resin , chop up a bit of matting and mix up a brew . No need to go overboard.

That gouge will fill up easy and wont alter the structural integrity of the board .

Given its for a kite board then this is what I would do as well although would probably use Q-cell if you have it lying around.

Go with Bertie's advice spot on IMO, before you glass I usually grind down the glass around the area a bit not all the way through but close as it'll help you get the patch job flat without having any areas that are thin.

OK just an update on the repair.

I took the board to my local shaper - he said just fill with Q-Cell and glass over.

I just filled the board with Q-Cell but ended up with a few air bubbles - will this be a problem once glassed over or should i try to fix it somehow now?

when you apply the finish resin before sanding this will infill those small gaps. You can just tape around the ding and use a brush or a nice sharp edged scrapper to apply it.

Anyone know the reason for the bubbles with Q-cel?

Had it happen to me before.

god i hate Q-cel, looks like ****

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KEARNSY said..

I wouldn't lose any sleep over it . Just filler up with resin , chop up a bit of matting and mix up a brew . No need to go overboard.

That gouge will fill up easy and wont alter the structural integrity of the board .

this

My take on the bubbles is that the q-cell mixture can be quite thick or viscous so when you pour it into the ding it takes a bit of time to slowly get into the small cracks and holes. These air pockets that are filled then slowly will try and come to the surface. It depends on the cure time and viscousity as to whether they will make it to the top before it hardens.. Can also be some bubbles stirred into the batch whilst mixing.
I obviously spend too much time thinking about these sort of things.

Good points there, taking time when pouring in might be the go, rail dings are hard when you want a thicker mix to stop it running out of the ding though!

Not been surfing as much as normal so not had to fix a ding in a while, next time around gonna go the solarez, not the quick fix stuff but the low voc resin. Its a bit $$ but with the 'safe use' (if there is such a thing?) UV lamp at the ready I will be able to take my time and get it right before it goes off.

Job Done!

^^^
Nice work - well done.

Ready to roll mate, looks pretty good. Nothing like doing it yourself!

Good job, looks alot better than my ugly fix attempts. I tend to always be using solarez and your right, its a pain in the ass to get to sit level in a ding due to the viscosity of it and therefore requiring heaps of sanding.

Anyone tried quracell? Or something like that, used for boat building and a bunch of other stuff. We got some and apparently it is heaps stronger than q cell.

We used it to glue the tail back on the ol' man's mal, some dude cut the tail off my running over it with fiberglass fins in his board, ass.

Tom.

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krazykatz69 said..

Job Done!

Hey, nice work..and colour match is reasonable..sand..buff..surf.

Bloody top effort!!