Hi all

Getting ready for my up coming winter project, going to refurbish my old starboard 161 formula, she's in pretty good condition for age and hours of fun delivered, just the usual scuffs and a few properly repaired nose wounds that just haven't been completely finished off. Was going to give her a new colour scheme but after close inspection I think I can pull off an original colour refurb, maybe have to lose the tiki and the decals but the wood and original colours will remain including the black border around the wood and red stripes beside that. although these will be brushed on not sprayed so they will be a bit more vivid, the cutouts I will highlight in black and maybe enhance the black/white sanded look on the bottom by using a bit more black dusting than standard before sanding. I do have some experience in this and was very happy how my last project turned out but there will be questions. Getting ahead of myself but I have not installed eva footpads before so should this be done after I have gripped the board or before on a smooth surface. I will be using contact cement not the 3M sticky back stuff?

At the bottom of this page, it says you can get tiki stickers from your local supplier. You might be able to laminate it.
windsurf.star-board.com/faq/

Pads on before regripping definitely
That bottom will need a paint, they were notorious for having virtually nothing over the wood and it gets UV damaged and/or water ingress

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Mark _australia said..
Pads on before regripping definitely
That bottom will need a paint, they were notorious for having virtually nothing over the wood and it gets UV damaged and/or water ingress

Yeah definitely, Im planning on giving it a coat of white polyurethane 2pac, maybe x2 and then dust it with black spray paint, then sand and coat over with clear polyurethane.

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Mark _australia said..
Pads on before regripping definitely
That bottom will need a paint, they were notorious for having virtually nothing over the wood and it gets UV damaged and/or water ingress

Hey Mark I have another question I think you can help me with. Im pretty sure I will have to remove the Tiki man decals to prepare the surface properly but I have managed to source 2 new ones for the top and bottom so my question is will I have to laminate these under epoxy before finishing off, I think polyurethane may melt them or stuff them in some way being solvent based do you think this would be the case ?

I did bit of work on my old 161, the deck kept failing as there is no glass only resin over the wood. I just glassed the deck using a fine weave fibreglass (not sure exactly what is was called) and used a paint brush to apply the epoxy then used epi-grip to re grip it before the epoxy dried. Worked great, was really easy and didn't lose any decals.

Mob dog I've never applied the factory ones - but I have worked over the edge of them with epoxy and 2K when repairing boards and never had a peel or dissolve.
To be safe though, a very fine mist / drop coat 3x or so, almost dry spray, then its protected somewhat from the full wet coat. I do that with normal vinyl stickers to build up some paint around the edges before proper clear over

What is the best method of applying a home made non slip on to a board. I have araldite and was planning on buying some thick brown sugar. Thanks.

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inglis2021 said..
What is the best method of applying a home made non slip on to a board. I have araldite and was planning on buying some thick brown sugar. Thanks.

Definitely not brown sugar that is too coarse and definitely not araldite as it cures yellow.
You want UV stable epoxy that cures and stays clear. Roll on thin coat and evenly sprinkle castor sugar for fine, 70/30 mix of castor/refined white sugar for medium or just refined sugar for coarse. I do it with a flour seive to get even coat, this is crucial if your worried about how it looks. I find this method the most grippy and long lasting. You can also sprinkle acrylic non slip dust instead of sugar but give the epoxy 20 min or so before sprinkling, and again its crucial to have an even uniform coat, then when that's cured you go over that with polyurethane and flattening agent mixed together. This method gives a closer to factory look but not as grippy or long lasting as epoxy/ sugar method. For closest to factory look you need poly urethane clear with 50 gram per litre flattening agent plus 50 gram per litre acrylic dust plus 200ml/ litre thinners(make sure it is p/u thinner) mixed all together and you can roll this on. This method I have found to give closest to factory grip visually but not quiet as grippy.

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Mark _australia said..
Pads on before regripping definitely
That bottom will need a paint, they were notorious for having virtually nothing over the wood and it gets UV damaged and/or water ingress

Im now thinking I might lay a 4oz skin over the entire deck as well, It has no soft spots or delams which is a miracle considering the lightweight construction, and its age, I want to make sure it stays that way, would'nt add more than 500 to 700gm I don't think, probably worth it in the long run?

Go 2oz, pricey but the weight saving would be worth it
2 oz s-glass would be stronger than asian made heat treated 4oz anyway......

but yes 4oz would be about 500g wet-out

worth it over that wood as they always degrade eventually

Thanks for the info mobdog on the deck grip.

I bought some araldite but i will now buy some UV stable epoxy.

I have a few carbon fins that are too small for the finbox do you think the araldite will work on them to add a millimetre or so - thanks again.

Araldite not designed for continuous immersion so not the best.
Also very thin layers of resins tend to flake off. Thus, shim with plastic or similar.
If its needing a decent thickness then resins do work, best to use a metal filled epoxy like JB Weld or similar from the auto store

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Mark _australia said..
Go 2oz, pricey but the weight saving would be worth it
2 oz s-glass would be stronger than asian made heat treated 4oz anyway......

but yes 4oz would be about 500g wet-out

worth it over that wood as they always degrade eventually

S glass only available in 30 inch width max which means I'd have to have a lap join down the middle of the wood. i've done an experimental join on a piece of ply wood, hard to hide the join completely in clear resin whilst still glossy. Probably be invisible once the board is gripped but I'm unsure whether to take the risk or just use one large piece of E glass without joins to be sure ?

Yeah good point
Shapers 1m wide SUP glass is a proper hi-tensile Eglass and prob best option

As an aside, if anyone knows a source of 4oz s-glass wider than 27" I would be stoked..... only overseas it seems.

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Mark _australia said..
Yeah good point
Shapers 1m wide SUP glass is a proper hi-tensile Eglass and prob best option

As an aside, if anyone knows a source of 4oz s-glass wider than 27" I would be stoked..... only overseas it seems.

I've contacted all the suppliers on the east coast and the best I could come up with was a maybe for 30 inch, definitely no wider. ordered 3m length of high tensile E in 4oz in 50" wide from shapers was the best option for my project, although I did manage to make the experimental lap join invisible with light sanding and subsequent coats of resin but decided I don't want to do it on the board when it's go time for various reasons

mob dog, remember to post pictures of refurbishment stages, its mandatory:)

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mark62 said..
mob dog, remember to post pictures of refurbishment stages, its mandatory:)

Yep definitely, its going to be a slow process though over the next few months fitting it in with work and kids etc. planning on finishing in july some time.

Finally broke ground on the project this morning. Didn't do much just removed the eva pads, cleaned all the glue off and removed the red pin stripe sticker. Found the "compliance plate" under the starboard side front foot pad, I thought that was pretty cool (see photos). Now that Ive started and things are happening I got a taste for progress now, hopefully should be finished in about 6 weeks. Any way got a couple more questions.

1. What is the best method of filling the mast track/vent screw and footstrap inserts to prevent resin getting in there. I was thinking for the mast track fill with dry clean sand to within 5mm of top. then top that with expanding foam from bunnings, cut that level then tape over that should be easy to cut and remove after the resin has kicked and gone solid but not cured then just vacuum the sand out. Maybe just blue tack in the footstraps and vent screw. Would this work ?

2. What is the best epoxy to use to shoot a 4oz deck layer on top. the only suitable UV stable/clear cure resin my local supplier has is called Fibreglass (A/asia) surf resin and it only has 30min work time before it kicks. I would be more comfortable with an hour or more, Im going right over the whole deck down to the underside so there's going to be a big mother of a compound curve at the nose. They also really don't seem to know much about their products so Im a bit wary. Can anyone recommend a good resin that a supplier will post ?

Not to hijack the thread but if anyone else wants a formula board resto project I'm giving a board away:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/New-South-Wales/How-come-we-cant-get-a-free-thread-going-in-NSW?page=9#2681012

Good one Roger. I'd encourage anyone with interest in some practical skills to take up Rogers offer for a free (+materials and time) way to get a foil board flying.
I had "fun" repairing my FMX after a few nose strikes. Good experience doing this for yourself and a good activity over lockdown.

Laid new deck reinforcement, it came out looking good but did not stick very well except around the nose for some reason, just came straight off with a scraper without much effort at all, don't know why, it was all sanded and cleaned with nor clean before epoxy, oh well there is no damage or delam so just a paint job it is then. At least the nose and front deck area is stronger now.

Bottom of hull painted with cutouts in black.




Still wet when I took these photos

top deck painted.

Tried to get fake wood look on the deck. then added chunky black pinstripe border. Don't know if I like it better with or without stripe, should have made it 5mm instead of 10mm, oh well can't remove it now.









All that's left now is to stencil a small Tiki man on the foredeck, install eva pads and grip the board. Also have a big ass tiki man sticker which I think I might put on the underside.