I borrowed an orbital sander, which in my inexperienced hands was probably not the best idea

Lots of air bubbles unfortunately





Some resin to cover the air bubbles



And a thinner piece of cloth that I was hoping wouldn't leave as much of an edge as the thicker cloth did










Finished repair after final sanding




Ugly but water tight. Any advice for painting without spending a fortune?

Thats perfect man.
Air bubble are always present so u didnt stuff anything up. Most people don't blend it in so its a big lump slapped on top, yours is very nice.

First a bit of primer and then wet sand with 240 and a block to see if it's truly flat. If not, skim of filler and then repeat.

If u want it nice go to an auto body paint store where they will make up a spray can with colour match and matting additive (flattening base)
Else you can use whatever in a laquer based spraypaint and go over with a flat clear later.

Nice repair. I'd leave it as it is - if any problems develop there in the future, they are not masked by paint. Got that suggestion from a windsurf world champion , who was not happy when I ignored that when repairing his board.
I've used the same approach of putting a separate layer of very light cloth on top of the sanded repair several times. I started doing that when I had problems with pin holes, and again when sanding too deeply, but plan to use it in the future when I am concerned about getting things water tight. The weight gain from the thin cloth is minimal if you squeegee it well, and then add an additional very thing layer of epoxy (again using a squeegee, not a brush). That said, my repair and board building experience is very limited.

nice

Good job. For small jobs like that you can wear latex gloves and pop/squeeze the air bubbles with one finger. You can also push with one finger all the fiber strands that appear to be sticking out a little bit (the white ones).

Nice repair , maybe a bit over kill but I've had good results using peel ply then some plastic with a bag of sand on top or if on any curved areas I would tape it down really tight.

Nice. Done right, done once. You would have been going back and doing it again if you didn't glass like this.
I think they go slower with ugly battle scars, so I like to celebrate the scars by painting a new graphic over it. This was a bit involved, getting an image off a YouTube vid, making a stencil, then spraying over a repair. it was all done pretty quick and rough but I'm much happier looking at that rather than mix-matched paint. Even if you just paint a star or something, looks like it is ment to be there.
I also like the idea of no paint to be sure the fix was good down the track.

Depending on your preference and the ding location, putting a sticker from your board- or sail-maker can be an easy way to hide the ding and make you look like a pro. Contest sponsor's logos can be even better. :-)

Looks like you leaned the board lady ways of hammer and chisel. Go and do a few more of these and then you realize that things can be repaired in a different way without subsequent need to look for and match spay paints and look for pin holes for that kind of damage specifically.

Small critique
1. You don't glass on the top of the paint, which you did. But not a bigie since that spot doesn't represent any serious structural damage.
2. You need some sort of glazing/spot putty to deal with pin holes and uneven surface before spray painting otherwise that spot will look a bit different in texture.
3. Matching that blue paint will be painful unless you give entire bottom sort of limited paint look. And yes sticking some logo to cover that spot will save you headaches. However, I estimate that the sticker will likely to hold there for a few sessions. So spraying some wide color line that goes across the bottom of the board to cover that area looking like a part of the design may be another option, which "may unburden what has been" done.

Cheers

Example of the latter (lines)

Good work. I'm going to go in a different direction to others and say do paint it, for exactly the reasons they've said don't paint it. Leaking water/ salt crust/something on the repair opening up will show up a lot better on fresh paint than it will on the clear(ish) resin. You'll be able to pick up on the source straight away with paint there.

A sticker will look good, and may even provide a water tight seal if you're worried about the repair leaking, but I've gotta say, it kinda feels like sticking a piece of tape over the check engine light so you don't have to worry about it.

Select to expand quote

Subsonic said..
it kinda feels like sticking a piece of tape over the check engine light so you don't have to worry about it.

Lol, I resemble that comment. : - )

Select to expand quote

philn said..

Subsonic said..
it kinda feels like sticking a piece of tape over the check engine light so you don't have to worry about it.

Lol, I resemble that comment. : - )

So happy you got a good result and just down to the cosmetics. It seems like a harder road at first to do a proper jib but you've acquired some nice skills and confidence. Well done.