DIY Board Repair

G'day, pretty new to the breeze but thought I'd post this as I didn't find much about it when searching... and it turned out pretty good.
I brought a 12'6 race board off the breeze and upon close inspection at home there were a couple of small cracks in the nose which didn't look like much but were soft to push on and opened up quite easily. So I thought best fix them now. Was going to just put some araldite or similar over them but that wouldn't have fixed them properly. So this is what I did...
I took a blade and cut out the soft cracked glass, then sanded the area for better adhesion.
I used Sellers Aqua epoxy putty, 8 bucks at Bunnings, and pushed it hard into the holes and put a thin layer ( approx 3-5mm, most of which was sanded off) over the nose for increased strength.
Let set, takes an hour to harden. Then sand, sand and sand some more till I was happy with the profile. I used 400,800,1200 grit wet n dry.
Just need to paint and it's good as new, kind of.
Was super easy and worked a treat.
Hope someone finds it useful.

Ooroo

yeah thanks CJ83??.i,ve got a few little cracks and chips on my board but have just been covering it up with extra rail tape until now? after seeing your quick (and cheap) advice on your fix it method? i,m off to my local buntings to do the same thing !

I was heading that direction giz as it is the right way to do it, buts it messy stuff and hard to contain in small areas...and I'm inpatient so thought I'd try this stuff. It's a 2 part putty that you knead together, fumes are just as strong and similar to resin once combined. Larger repairs I'd be using resin.

Let us know ya go reddog, fun way to spend the arvo giving the board some TLC
Clint

Awesome glad to hear it's gonna last the distance. Might make a bit more effort on the paint now...

I would avoid the 2 components putty you mix with fingers. I found out that the slight grease / mucus you have on your fingers makes the repair not stick properly and may develop leaks.

My advice for a quick repair: 5 minutes epoxy glue (araldite or other brands) mixed with a lot of microspheres. You obtain a kind of putty paste that you can make as fluid as you want by dosing the microsphere, and will stick perfectly to the ding. When it becomes to harden, you can push it in place even more by pushing on it with some cooking paper that you use to unmold cakes. Do not use araldite alone, it will not harden enough to sand.

A even better solution is quick epoxy resin (20mn pot life), lots of microspheres, cooking paper on it + tape into place, and keep 1 hour at 40C after hardening to cure enough to sand.

In any case, always sand all the parts that the putty/glue/resin will touch, otherwise the repair will not stick.

And put the board in the sun, then in the shade to cool off and repair when the board is cooling, so that the pressure difference will pull the repair to the board rather than push it out.

For the paint, use car paint (spray cans or touch-up pens). Get the precise color from your board maker (in a color catalog: Pantone, RAL, ...). And always cover with clear, anti-UV car varnish. Sanding lightly + a quick spay of car varnish if also a quick way to make sand scratches disappear.

When you're kneading the putty, wear gloves, as recommended in the instructions. That should avoid contamination. I actually have used the Knead-It which sounded more suitable, but I am using it as part of a large repair which i glassed over.
The resin is theoretically the best, But as pointed out is difficult use as a putty. Iy is supposed to be OK with filler powder, but I have taken heaps to mix it to a paste.
Another comment is that Araldite is far more expensive by volume.
Also, the Knead-It seemed to not stick well on a Polyester/Urethane board I am repairing. I am going to persevere, because now I have it and it is handy.

Thanks for that mate.

The idea being microspheres (microballon in french) is to obtain a concrete-like structure: the resin/cement being just used to glue in place the microspheres/rocks that will provide the strength. Microspheres are air-filled glass balls, and resin + microspheres make one of the strongest (in compression) material available for a reasonable price, plus it is quite light due to the embedded air.

It does not thicken a lot the resin, I guess the balls still "roll" rather freely in the resin, to obtain a thick paste you can add also specific thickening fillers. A thin layer of resin + microspheres is often applied to the foam blank to seal it to avoid bubbles before glassing

Anyways, microspheres should be part of the quiver of any surfer/super :-)

Pic would help