Hey guys & gals,
I am renovating an old 1968 surfboard that is badly water marked. I have repaired the damage and have it nice and water tight and flushed, but the water marks are way beyond patina that you would keep, so I have decided to paint it.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Surfing/Longboarding/Help-ID-vintage-surfboard
I am using White Knights acrylic enamel and I am not sure that this is hardening off enough between coats, as my wet and dry sanding paper is filling with 'gummed up paint' quite easily. I'm going through sheets of this stuff like dunny paper!
www.whiteknightpaints.com.au/products/craft-and-decorative/white-knight-squirts/
I have been painting light coats and as the temp has only been around 20 degrees have a couple of 500w work lights providing gentle heat around the board which I leave on for 3-4 hours. I don't believe I have over painted (too heavy) as I have not had a single run - however I have been re-coating in a little over an hour between coats. I left the board in the sun for 5-6 hours on the weekend both days - yet tonight the paint was still clogging the 600 and 800 grit W&D paper. It's dry to pick up and hold, but I reckon your fingernail could push a mark into it...
My question is - given the time of year, how long should I be leaving the paint to harden before attempting to either rub it back or re-coat?
Cheers
GPA
White Knight Squirts is a real budget kinda thing that really is not going to do that board justice sorry.
It is quick to touch dry but then won't set really hard.
Plus I do think you are probably sanding it a bit early, and dry sanding will gum up more than wet.
I would not sand it for 24hrs, and that's with good sun time in the current weather.
If you can stick ur nail into it, it is not ready for a finish sanding
When they say "sand between coats" they mean a sh!tty scuff just to get it to stick, not a real sand.... so a light scrub with 180grade or a hard scrub with a scotch pad...... then re-coat.
Finish sand is wet, and a week later. Then the buff...... that's all too hard and wasted effort on a cheap paint.
Best to find a spray painter who surfs and get him to do it in a 2 pack? Will be 100x harder........ and it is only $40 worth of good proper 2K paint. That board deserves it.
Enamel paint on a board always struggles not to delaminate after a few years, however seems like you are committed now.
as mark states when sanding between coats this is more of a scuff, in this weather it pays to thin down the paint a fair bit to get a slightly thinner coat and a quicker drying time. If you thin enough you can get a pretty gloss finish which if done right will look amazing.
if you want a flat finish still use thinners but not as much, when doing coats the last two I will normally spray a flat finish and than gloss on top.
Good ratio to start with is 4 part paint 1 part thinners for flat and 2/3 part paint 1 part thinners.
you can thin down more for a high high gloss but if you start here you won't get more runs than don bradman.
People will give varying ratios but if you start here you are safe and can adjust for temp/humidity etc as you master it.
Aaaaagh just realised it was spray can enamel...
yeah nah no good......
get some thinners and a two buck spray bottle and give it a mist after spraying to get a proper gloss finish. ( gentle gentle)
that is about as good as you will get it with the can job
Thanks guys.
I'm actually quite pleased with the White Knight's application and finish. Once I rubbed the orange peel effect out of the base coats the top coat gloss finish looked very good - until a moth landed in it (FFS).
I went for acrylic enamel based on some reading off the inter-webs as this seemed to be what everyone was using and was supposed to be both hard wearing and flexible. If it turns out not to be then it's just a couple of hours to sand it back... I also wanted to do the board start to finish myself. The board was quite rough in areas so I did not want to spend a heap of cash on it - as it's turned out it's come up pretty well so I ended up getting the logo re-done by a signage company - so I will put the logo back on it also.
I guess I'm just going to have to fight my natural impatience and slow down and give it more time to harden between coats... 
Select to expand quoteoz surf said..
How about some photos, GPA 
A couple of the completed repairs and one of the painting... sorry about the rotation - they were ok on the PC when I double checked them?!
Looks great!
How long did the paint take to dry/harden properly?
I will be doing a shade of turquoise blue on the deck with the rails and bottom in midnight blue with a 4mm black pin stripe running around the lap line. Leaving the fin in the original green resin colour - just glossed up.
20 mins to touch dry. I left it a week before I gntly sanded and put on the epoxy/sugar deck grip.
But it's for cars so it dries fast and is presumably polishable. Not particularly glossy from the can though.
That's an interesting board GPA. What year is it and who shaped it.
Would be good to see it when your finished
It's a 7'6" 1968 Peter Clarke Stringerless Pintail. Made somewhere between May and Sept 1968. Seems to be the board that sits right on the transition from LB to SB.
interestingly, enough I surf s 7'6" Modern Lovechild that pretty much has the exact same template.
yes, I will post pics of the completed project and post a surf report once I've had her out a couple of times.
Dude! May 1968 is now officially Vintage. 
Restoring old things is always the trade off of somewhere in between "Keeping it original" and "Doing something new with a timeless design"
Either way its fun doing it. 
I have a 1963 Mini 850 in the shed... my first car. Waiting for me to get time to get back to it...
Restored and still use my grandfathers Scott Bonnar 45 mower (Built 10 June 1977). I used to use it weekly when I was about 12.
^^^
Yep - she's 50yo soon. Be good to get her back in the water just for the novelty of surfing a 50yo board.
Would have liked to keep her original, but some areas were too far gone with water damage and delamination.
