Garage Works - 7/23/2024

Marlon and I hit the garage today to get some work done.

Here's Marlon getting the fill coat on the bottom deck.

I finally sprayed the mast that I stripped of clear coat.  I may have to spray it again to get the interfaces between the polymer and carbon to fill in.

And I sprayed the bottom of No.37 again.

And I grinded the tail of this board repair for Matt.  I gorilla glued the loose foam and then went ahead and added the epoxy fill.  I'll sand this tomorrow and add a carbon patch.  I want to try and get this done so I can get it back to him (I am looking to get another board started...)

And as a note - I setup the AFS adapter on the Project Cedrus mast.  Nice fit!

Garage Works - 7/21/2024

Marlon got a fill coat on the longboard he is building.

It's coming together - it'll probably be done this weekend.

Garage Works - 10/3/2023

When I got home from work, Marlon was napping.  I figured I'd let him rest - so I went over to the garage and grinded the laps on Marlon's new longboard.  From there I added the reinforcement patch on the deck, trimmed the top laminate, and then headed out for a surf.

Once we got back, I went ahead and mixed up 15.5 ounces of epoxy and began laminating.

I had to mix a second 15.5 ounce batch and finished the lamination.

I also sanded down the repair on Tim's board

And I cleaned up the small cracks on Harris's wing board

And I sanded this repair on another of Marlon's boards.

Lots of work going on in the garage!!!

Garage Works - 10/2/2023

Marlon and I glassed the bottom deck of his new longboard today.

Tomorrow we will laminate the top deck of his board.

And while epoxy is being mixed, I got a couple of ding repair jobs also worked on - sanding tomorrow.

Marlon Painting His Board

And Marlon and I finally got around to painting his board.  He wants a "water reflection in a pool" effect.

Got to tape off the deck first, and cover the stringer (optional but he wanted to).

Here he is spraying the paint on, and the finished product.

The next steps here include posca pen lines to get the desired effect, draw in the logos (I've encouraged him to come up with his own and not use my logo for his board) and dimensions, spray urethane over everything (two separate efforts), then outfit the board by cleaning up the boxes, inserting the set screws, installing the leash tether and waxing up the board.

Final Work on the Pigfish & Marlon's Top Deck Fill Coat

The title says it all.  I went ahead and worked on the boards for a little bit today.  I grinded down the excess resin around the leash plug, and then sanded the whole board to 220 and a wet sand to 400.  After that I sprayed clear coat over the whole board to fill in the tiny gaps left from sanding (and despite my best efforts - there will always be tiny gaps left from sanding...).  I still have to label and sign, put the worm screws in the three Futures boxes, set the fins and wax it up!

Marlon got his top deck fill coat on.  Now all that stands between him and surfing this board are good swell (out of our sphere of influence), rough sanding with 40/80, leash plug install, grinding the leash plug, sanding to 220/400.

He says he wants to spray paint the exterior and draw on his logo.  In theory, his board could possibly touch saltwater by the end of the weekend.  We'll see...

The Recent Boards Getting Very Close To Being Done & My Mom

I installed the leash plug and filled in a couple of low points on the pigfish yesterday while Marlon ground down the laps on the bottom deck and got his bottom deck fill coat on.

My mom passed from heart failure in the early morning of April 16th.  This has been a tough day for me.  It's been almost a year that she has been battling from complications of her Type 2 Diabetes.  Mom - I am glad you can rest now.  The main reason I started this blog was so my family can see what Marlon, Noe, La and I have been doing - for that reason I'll keep writing and posting.

Fill Coat and Leash Plug

Marlon finished grinding the laps today and he got the bottom fill coat on.  Marlon's next step is to flip the board and get the top fill coat on.

I used a little of the epoxy and got my leash plug installed.  I also filled a couple of low spots where air bubbles got sanded through.  I'll get the leash plug grinded down and the butt crack fill sanded down, then total sanding with 220.  Then the last step is spray a clear coat on, let it dry then wax it up!!!  Should be able to get this wet this weekend (as long as there is surf).

Marlon is probably a day behind me, so maybe this board will get wet this weekend also.

Marlon's Board - Laminating the Top Deck

This morning we laminated the top deck onto Marlon's board.  He did most of the work.

The lamination came out pretty good.

Marlon Grinding

Marlon grinding down the laps from the bottom lamination.

He did a pretty good job.  Building boards has actually been a good way to ride out the COVID-19 lockdown.

Marlon Glassing

Marlon has been my assistant in glassing for a long time now.  MOST days he is an excellent epoxy mixer and with that I can focus on applying and getting a good lamination.  Today was the first time he did the glassing himself.

Always a learning curve, but the glassing job came out pretty good.  Tomorrow will be grinding the laps and laminating the top deck (while I'll be doing the fill coats on the pigfish).