Damaged nose of rapidfire spitfire. How to fix it?

[norspit]

Hi!

My board got damaged when bringing it on a flight from the US to Europe. Pretty bad damage to the nose, and also some cracks along the rail further down.

Can anyone give me step by step on how to repair this? At least some basic guidelines would be great! There's no repair shop that can do the job in my area.

853854855

[prjwebb]

That's a bummer. I'd cut out all the damage areas with a stanley knife and sand a good area around the damage to key it for the repair. You want to sand back until you start to expose a little fibreglass. The mix some epoxy resin with Qcell until it's a nice paste. Use that to fill the damage so it's flush with the rest of the board and wrap it with plastic wrap until it goes off.
Once it's hard sand it until it's shaped in with the rest of the board and paint back the pin lines if you want. The cut a section of fibreglass to cover the damaged area and overlap by 2" all the way around. Mix up some more epoxy and laminate that fibreglass down tight. Again, I'd wrap with cling flim and tape it down tight to get a nice, tight lam where it wraps around the nose.
Once that's gone off sand it back so there's no big steps where it meets the orignal glasswork and it fairly smooth and then mix up more epoxy and top coat the repair. I recommend brushing it on with a clean, soft paint brush. Leave that to go off and then sand it back smooth and blend it into the orignal glass work. You want to start with 120 grit paper and work your way up to 400-600 wet and dry.

If you're not experienced with repairs it's not going to be very easy so I'd consider finding someone more experienced if you're not confident.

[Baker]

Ha! i smashed mine up in exactly the same place this morning but it's about 6 inches long. Think its going to take a week to dry out as i stayed in the water for another hour after doing it.

Norspit, if your not too good with resin and cloth you might be better getting a tube of premixed resin and chopped glass. Just make sure you use epoxy else she'll bubble away. In the UK there's two brands, solarez and suncure, to be honest neither have ever worked for me though so i just use polyester and hope it goes off before melting the blank! (don't try that option if you want to sell your board one day)

[prjwebb]

Ha living on the edge! Your better off ordering some epoxy and hardener, some q cell and some fibreglass from seabase.eu
That'll have you covered for a long time and it'll do a better job. I don't think repairs are too tricky, there's plenty of videos on youtube to guide you through the process.
That said if your intentions are to sell the board down the line then a pro job is the best idea. Most of my repairs are tidy and water tight but very few of them end up invisible...

[iggy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWU34h1pzg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRWU34h1pzg&feature=related

Please make sure you use EPOXY RESIN!!!!!!! otherwise a chemical reaction will occur in which the foam will littlerally melt!!
Hope this one helps

[iggy]

Where are you in Europe?

[norspit]

Thank you all for the help, I appreciate it! I have only done some minor repairs with suncure earlier so I guess this one will be quite a challenge. I'm not planning on selling the board, I just want it to get back in good condition for me to use it.

I'm in Norway. Spent the last 10 months in California and started surfing there :)

[FW - Fan]

Ha living on the edge! Your better off ordering some epoxy and hardener, some q cell and some fibreglass from seabase.eu
That'll have you covered for a long time and it'll do a better job. I don't think repairs are too tricky, there's plenty of videos on youtube to guide you through the process.
That said if your intentions are to sell the board down the line then a pro job is the best idea. Most of my repairs are tidy and water tight but very few of them end up invisible... Be careful there, most resins that require hardener are PE resins not epoxy and that will melt the EPS foam on contact. Better to use UV cure epoxy or even Araldite..the 2 part epoxy adhesive that is also an epoxy resin. Araldite is however quite yellow so mix in some q cell.

[prjwebb]

Be careful there, most resins that require hardener are PE resins not epoxy and that will melt the EPS foam on contact. Better to use UV cure epoxy or even Araldite..the 2 part epoxy adhesive that is also an epoxy resin. Araldite is however quite yellow so mix in some q cell.

Epoxy is 2 parts, the resin and the hardener. You're thinking of catalyst I think.
I wouldn't recommend attempting to use a UV epoxy in Norway, although I'm not sure how the summers are, but I've had issues with it not going off well in the UK. Especially in winter. I don't like the epoxy in small repair kits either. I found the Ding All epoxy kits yellow quickly and sometimes don't go off completely. The epoxy I picked up from a local board builder/blank blower is good. Goes off well, dries clear and sands much better than the stuff in small kits.

[FW - Fan]

Epoxy is 2 parts, the resin and the hardener. You're thinking of catalyst I think.
I wouldn't recommend attempting to use a UV epoxy in Norway, although I'm not sure how the summers are, but I've had issues with it not going off well in the UK. Especially in winter. I don't like the epoxy in small repair kits either. I found the Ding All epoxy kits yellow quickly and sometimes don't go off completely. The epoxy I picked up from a local board builder/blank blower is good. Goes off well, dries clear and sands much better than the stuff in small kits.
I have a UV epoxy that is not 2 parts. You just squeeze out of a bottle and when in the sun (goes off by sunlight, not heat from the sun) goes hard in 3 - 5 mins, summer or winter. You have to work any ding etc in the shade and then when you are ready for it to harden just move outside for 5 mins. I will post what it is called later. It is very clear too. Highly recommend it.

[Baker]

I found some 2 part epoxy glue in the end and mixed it up with a bit of q-cell, bunged up the hole a treat, sanded it back and will get the local boat guys to put a nice thick finish coat over the whole lot, the give it a wet and dry. PU resin won't matter for that as no foam is exposed.

UV cure resin is useless in the UK, not seen the sun for a month, they should make something that goes off in wind or rain!

[prjwebb]

Haha agree on the wind/rain cure epoxy. Someone get on to Greg Loehr

[Baker]

PRJ - how's the nose on your Spit, mine seems very thin on resin, i've have to repair it about 3 or 4 times now.

[prjwebb]

Mines been fine. I kept cracking the diamond tail though so I ended up sawing it off into a squash haha.
A few little stress cracks on the rails but otherwise it's been solid.

[Baker]

Maybe i should stop surfing the shorebreak and let the spongers have some waves!

[prjwebb]

Ha yeah I'm usually pretty careful with mine. The Spitfire is now my beater board for days like that so we'll see how it handles some more abuse!

[Baker]

Watch out man tourist season starts end of this week...i find they do more damage than rocks!

[prjwebb]

Yeah I know what you mean. I avoid main beaches where possible this time of year. Waves have been so bad it hasn't really mattered so far!

[Matt_s]

septembers not too far off now, I think we are owed some decent waves by then,

im spending the summer vanning around spain and france, still crowded but better chances with the weather right

[prjwebb]

I was tempted to do a France mission but now contemplating saving as much as I can until next May and doing a Maldives trip. Everyone on here having already been is making me jealous!

[Matt_s]

I was tempted to do a France mission but now contemplating saving as much as I can until next May and doing a Maldives trip. Everyone on here having already been is making me jealous!

prj that is a sold plan, I think may will be a good time of year to go, defo follow through with that plan

im a teacher so i have a mandatory 6 weeks off, i think living cheap in a van for 6 weeks will equate to a similar amount of money as staying at home for 6 weeks (once iv paid for the petrol to get down there)

[prjwebb]

Yeah France will be ideal once you're there. I've been looking into all the options of getting there recently. Was working out around £700 inc fuel for Plymouth Roscoff and around the £1200 zone for Santander crossing. Pretty steep! Seems cheaper the further you drive and if you've got 6 weeks time is on your side!
Not sure how much the tunnel is?

[prjwebb]

Those were peak season return prices by the way.

[Matt_s]

always cheaper dover-calais or dover - dunquirk in my experience, but far less convenient for you as you have to spend time and petrol getting to dover

im going saturday and coming back in 6 weeks so very peak times, 101 pounds return! (dover-calais) - not too bad. Petrol will probably cost me around 200 to get down there and 200 back again in a van, but thats split between 2 so pretty cheap really (might be able to avoid toll roads with a bit more time), then day to day diesel and food

Did it in a car in June for about 250 for the week staying in hossegor campsite based on 2 sharing incl everything (food included)

as a surfer you are constantly weighing off costs of everything in life against surf trips or surfboards. Last summer i talked myself out of a trip abroad and stayed in europe to justify my purchase of a sweet potato instead of a long all flight :) i wonder what il trade off against the cost of a hellfire or something other amazingly tempting surfboard

[Matt_s]

tunnel was at least twice the ferry btw, have done it before though and in october for example it can be a similar price, its very quick and theres little queuing