Wakesurf board repair
 

I have a project board that was really badly de-laminated on the base. I thought rather than throw it our or mount it on the wall I would try and fix it. more for the fun and experience to try it. So what I did was drill some small holes in the delam areas and injected some fiberglass resin. Then i use a tube inflator and taped it over another hole and put it in vacuum. It actually pulled most of the bubble out. So I left some planks and clamps on it for a day and a bit. When I pulled off the clamps the board felt spongy. So i decided to cut open the bad area and take a look. What I found is that the resin I used melted the foam completely out in the areas I injected it! Is there still a way to repair this thing? What can I do to try and save this board?

It looks like the blank was EPS foam and you used resin for PU foam. It looks like that board is D U N done...

Cut out the bad foam and epoxy in new foam. Sand to the shape, then epoxy all together. It'll take a lot of work.

As johnny indicated you used a polyester resin and the styrene component melted the polystyrene foam. At this point you will have to pull up a lot of the lamination. A couple products will help with reattaching new foam and cleaning it up. First Gorilla glue make a white polyurethane glue, which is really good for glue down new foam or foam chunks. Secondly, get some lightweight spackle at your local hardware store. It is bright white, and very light weight. It does contain formaldehyde as a preservative, so use gloves, but it is used world wide to seal and fill holes in EPS blanks. Also, as tuneman indicated this is going to be a lot of work, but may be a fun project.

That is awesome that you guys say this can be fixed with a little elbow grease. I was under the impression, if something like this happened it was a lost cause. keep us updated if you try what Nick and Tuneman have suggested.

Thanks guys! I want to do this just for the learning. It will be fun to see if I can repair it and make it rideable. If this works I may look at building my own board someday.

I have to find some EPS foam to fill in the bad spots. I will try and keep you guys n the loop if I make any progress.

Trent

Just a quick update for anyone who cares.

So what I did was cut out all the bad foam and glue on some EPS foam from a foam cooler. Now I have glued the pieces back down and reinforced the cuts with some fiberglass. This is after a couple of resin coats and some sanding. I am going to do the final coat of resin tomorrow if time permits. Does anyone have an idea for paint to finish it up?

I'm in the process or repairing a board myself and just got this advice from Jeff Walker:

The BEST thing to use for the board is an epoxy based paint like you can get from hobby shops. They stick like crazy and won't rub off on your vinyl. It probably won't match the existing board, but the finish would be good. Get a solid color basecoat and then a clear, if they offer one, or a gloss in the color you want.

Good luck, let us know what you end up with?

Thanks Greg! Now I have to run to the city to find a hobby store. I filled in the low spots last night and started final sanding. I was thinking if I have sanded down this much I may sand the whole base and paint it all to match. I also have an old Hyperlite Landlock that was given to me that has delaminated at the edges that I will fix next. I can see that this can be an addicting little hobby.

Just another update. I rode the board for quite a bit at the end of the summer. I am pretty happy with the results. Now I just need to paint it up and it will look as good as new! And yes the wake was crappy. I didn't get any photos of it after loading the boat up. It was the first test run with it.

Epoxy paint source. http://www.klasskote.com/