Garage Works - 1/28/2026

I got the last of the real work done on No.43 this afternoon.

Sanded the plugs and the two spot repairs.

Opened the tracks.  Filed the cuts to smooth them out.

Washed the residual dust off of it and now I'm letting it get settled (cool down, dry out completely).

I'm gonna go surf to get my exercise in - when I get back I may try and spray the clear coat on.

The dimensions are 5'0" x 19 3/4" x 3 5/8"

Feels good to be closing in fast towards the finish line!!!

Garage Works - 5/14/2023

The next board repair is already in the garage.

Going to use divynicell and the old style boxes on this one.

I dug out the old foam today.  I'll let the board dry a day and get back to reconstructing it.

I want to try and have this one finished by this coming weekend (because I want to get to shaping No.32 - the combo winging/Foil Drive prone board).

Garage Works - 6/16/2022

After foiling, I worked in the garage to get the boxes cut out in the boards I have on the racks.

I also got the carbon overlay for the Jimmy Lewis repair cut out also

Garage Works - 5/18/2022

It was raining today - when the winds blow from the south, we become the windward side of the island - and that usually means rain.  I opted to get this board over the finish line (so I can get it back to the owner and open up space in the garage).  I had taped off the board yesterday, but didn't have the yellow paint (I had mistakenly thought I had a can - but that was back in 2014 I think).  I picked up the paint today - and proceeded to get adequate coverage on the repair.

And here it is with the tape removed.  I just need to wetsand the painted area to blend it in with the rest of the board and I can get this board moving.

And I went ahead and did the math on where the inserts will go on this board - I've got a spreadsheet that correlates all the boards I've built with straps and I can input the length to get the ratioed locations.  Yes it is a tiny bit asymmetric to benefit my regular foot stance.

I'll rout out the reinforcement block slot before the weekend and try to get it installed.  I'll need to build up some more footstrap insert blocks before I can rout out those locations.  

With all the jumping that Roland keeps doing, I think I am ready to give it a go again (but I'll need this board).

Garage Works - 5/9/2022

I actually got home with enough time to pour the epoxy for the repair I'm working on.

3.5 ounces to set the boxes in their slots.

4.2 ounces to saturate the carbon cap sheet and make sure the boxes were filled.

All done.  I used the peel ply to make sure the carbon was tight against the boxes (to hopefully avoid air gaps and the subsequent filling steps).

Remaining steps - open the boxes, feather in the edges, add fill coat, sand, fill, sand, wet sand, apply clear coat and done.

Fixing Foil Tracks on a FFB

I had made some exploratory cuts into this board, but today I wanted to cut out the space for the new foam block.  The owner (Kalani) said the boxes "cracked" and you could see it with a foil mounted on the board.  Before I started wet sanding the front wings this morning, I set the tall Go Foil on top of the box and when you put a little pressure on it, the front of the futures boxes did flex down into the board (they aren't supposed to do this).  So after mowing the lawn, I started routing - here's what I found:

A layer of maybe Gorilla Glue was sitting under the foam block - and that was the layer that would give with pressure from above. 

I kept routing and would stop periodically to vacuum up all the shavings.  On one stop, I could feel the shavings were wet.  Eventually after I cleared a large section, I did find the whole "wall" was wet. 

I went ahead and just routed the whole space so I could be done for today.  Next step is to let the whole thing dry out, then I can set the fiberglass/innegra liner for the bottom of the slot, place epoxy (with milled fibers), clean up the block, route out the finbox slots, epoxy those in (again mixing with milled fibers), set a cap sheet of carbon fiber and a sanding layer of fiber glass, fair in the edges, set a fill coat, grind the slots out, then

Last Steps Before Glassing

I worked on the 4'6" yesterday and today.  Yesterday I faired in the slots for the track mount reinforcement blocks, cut out the carbon patches for the bottom of the slots, and dropped them in with epoxy (4.4 oz per box - probably only 3.0 oz stayed in place after squeeze out).

Today I sanded down the excess reinforcement block and sloppy epoxy work.  Then I measured out the track alignment and re-sanded the board at 180 and 400.  I also ran the block plane over the stringer one last time.  Tomorrow I'll route out the track slots and start glassing.  I'm still debating about what the glass schedule will be -

1.  Carbon patch at the tracks, then carbon strips up the stringers.
2.  Carbon everywhere top and bottom (just like the 4'10")
3.  Partial carbon along the back half of the board top and bottom (not forward of where my front foot would rest - not needed there).

If I go with 1 or 3, I can use printed labels.  Hmmmm - decisions, decisions, decisions.