Soft deck issues

My poor xcross is suffering from a bad case of "heavy mutha jumpin on me" soft deck.

I just finished looking at boardlady's site, and am wondering whether I go the whole hog, and 'cut-er-open' (might not be a very economical remedy, the board is about 6yo, or should I look at injecting some expanding foam, or epoxy? (for starters....is this even compatible with the foam core in the board?)

Anyone successfully managed to repair this?

At the moment the area is between front & back footstraps about 350mm dia, and the deck hasn't cracked, or leaked.....movement is about 4-6mm in compression, and although I noticed it a few weeks ago, only after sailing in heavy chop yesterday has it become very noticeable.

Yes but not with epoxy. The heat generated by it going off can melt the styro core.

If you don't want to vac bag a new divinycell layer on (hard) this is the easy way with an acceptable result:

(1) Drill holes about 8 - 10mm dia about 3" apart, and inject with 2 pac polyurethane (expanding) foam. The stuff in the spraycan at the hardware store is useless, you'll need Erathane GP2 ... not cheap, about $50 but that makes a shtload of foam. It is really hard when it sets. Avail at fibreglass supply and marine shops.
It starts to go off big time in about 1min so you have to mix, fill syringe and inject before it goes off. If you work fast you can mix up about 60g and inject into 4 or 5 holes in a couple of mins.
Tip: use one syringe to suck each part out of the two tins and a third syringe to inject the board. If you coss contaminate you will have a garage full of foam
Wash all the half set stuff off the syringe and mixing bowl with acetone, then mix some more until you've injected all your holes. For that area I estimate about 10 holes needed.
Note: is best to drill two holes and pump the foam in one till it comes out the other. I have never had it spread enough doing it that way (as Eva does) ...as in Aust it is hot and it goes off too quick. I'd do two holes and then the next day see where it is still soft and give each soft spot one hole and a dose of foam.

(2) Then after it has set, cut off excess with a hacksaw blade.

(3) Re drill your holes by hand to a depth of about 2mm ... just enough to expose the outer layer of fibreglass.

(4) Fill each hole with a drop of epoxy and one or two pieces of thin fibreglass. I cut the glas sinto squares about postage stamp size. Poke the glass in carefully with a rounded off piece of dowel, so it will set like a little 'cup' in the hole.
Reason for that is you have fixed your compression problem in the deck but you have removed some strength by drilling thru the glass. You wanna put some glass back there, not just fill the holes with a resin filler.

(5) After all your little cups have set, grind off the excess glass and fill them with epoxy and q-cell filler. IF you are 100% sure there is no holes in them you can use a fibreglass (polyester) type filler like Plastibond or a 2 part auto body filler but only if you are 100% sure it won't go near the styro core of the board. A tiny bit in there will melt it.

I just did an old Starboard Carve like this and she is hard as nails now. I had to do 50 holes over about half the deck


PS if you can't be bothered, I'll have it ;-) Anyone else with soft decks on waveboards they don't want .......?

Yeah that is why I suggested that route ..... a 6 y/o board with a delam is not worth a relam (is that a word?) with new divinycell especially if you haven't got the gear as it will cost $300 or so. My way will get you another season at best and cost maybe $60 if you have no gear at all.

Some epoxy brands produce a lot less heat than others, using a slow hardener also reduces the heat, as does covering the area with a wet towel and putting a fan on it.
The warmer the epoxy you start with, the quicker it goes off and the more heat it generates.
A cup of epoxy sitting in a cup will go off quicker and generate more heat than the same volume of epoxy spread thinly over a wide area.
Go the 2 pack foam, Marks description is very good.

'BODYTECH'spray putty from autopro is the only one i've used, find it does have good filling properties.only $9;00 400g can.Dont now about using just any paint,i use killrust epoxy spray enamel,was advised its the best you can get for durability wiyhout going to a 2 pack.[did a sugar deck grip number on my SUP on saturday and while i havnt tried it yet it LOOKS the goods]

I use spray putty, bodytech has been used, and don't have a problem.
Every professional board repair I've ever seen has had the distinctive pink spray putty used.
Perhaps your blender technique (which is very unconventional ) is actually inducing bubbles into your resin?

Thanks for all advice, I used the 'Erathane GP2' on Mark's advice, and did it in one go.......great fun if you're into working under pressure, but couldn't be more happy with the result, although it'll be a few days before I get a chance to test it on the water.

For anyone that's interested;

I basically did as Mark described, although instead of poking in some glass fibres, I feathered out the 8mm holes to expose about a 20c piece size of glass (very gradual countersunk/tapered hole), I thought that by creating a lap of glass it might be more durable, and waterproof. IMPORTANT-Dont forget to mask up all areas surrounding the holes, luckily, I made sure I did, the foam doesn't clean off well! I then layed up a small piece of glass mesh with a coat of resin over, then sanded back flush. With the exposed 'orangish' mesh exposed with the white ring around the outside, it looks like bullet holes through the board.....I think I'll leave it for aesthetics! I might just put a clear non-slip coat over.

Please don't think this is difficult! It's my 2nd go at any type of fibreglassing (1st was rhinoplasty on my other board just a week ago!) All up, it took about 3-4hrs from drilling holes, to syringing in expanding foam, , cutting foam, sanding, glassing, and sanding.

Sailhack.... that is why when people ask for a board repairer in Melbourne or Perth or whatever on the forums I encourage them to have a go... it is so easy, and once you have a bit of resin and glass lying around each subsequent repair costs nil !! And further, a very satisfying feeling isn't it?

Thanks for the photo's Scotty

just dont let the girls at the pub hear you complaining about your soft "deck" !

true enough .

Had a chance to try out the fixed up board yet? I'm keen to hear the verdict.

After months of keeping an eye out for foam, I'm finally onto a solid lead..

Any clues on how much product you mixed to do that repair? (by volume maybe?) I don't really want to buy too much more than I need!

Sailed on it a few times now, the deck is heaps better! (as it should), I left the resin raised a bit, and although I cooped a bit of flack about the look, the raised (button-type) lumps actually help with grip.

The product I used is as Mark said 'Erathane GP2' cost $55 for 2 X 1lt tins (smallest I could get my hands on too), I used 2 syringes (from vet, gave them to me for nicks, coz they weren't sterilised) to measure the quantity, and from memory used about 30mls in total (15mls of each), which as you can tell by the pics was plenty. Wasted a bit, but better than to not mix enough, I reckon...