Knowing how to repair your surfboard by yourself is not only saving money, it is mainly the peace of mind that you know you can fix your board from one day to the other, so you will not miss a single wave.
We will repair this small ding with polyester resin and glass microsphere. For this tutorial we used Poliester Solarez mixed with glass microsphere.
We could also have used Solarez Microlite, which is a mixture of polyester resin and glass microsphere, or H61-UV polyester resin with glass microsphere.
All those resins catalyzed with UV rays, which mean that the resin hardens in a few minutes, when exposed to sunlight. So, you must perform the repair in a room protected from natural light. If you can not do that, the other option is to use Silmar polyester resin with PMEK catalyst, so you can make your repair anywhere, while the temperature is between 15 and 25 degrees.
We will also need sandpaper, average thickness of 120 and 240 for the main sanding job, and fine sanding paper 360 and 500 for a perfect finish.
Your board must be perfectly dry, if the foam is wet, you should rinse thoroughly with fresh water, and let it dry a few days.
With a cutter and sandpaper, remove the damaged pieces of fiberglass, and sand the area you want to fix.
Place tape below the nose, so that the resin you will apply will stay in the board and not fall down.
If you use UV polyester resin, make the mixture resin + microsphere in a place isolated from the sun. The easiest way, for small ding like this one, is to use Solarez microlite, as the mixture is ready to use.
If you use Silmar resin, add between 1% and 3% of PMEK catalyst, depending on whether the temperature is 15 or 25 degrees.
Application of the mixture resin + microsphere on the surfboard
Now, put the mixture on the damaged area of the nose.
You can proceed in several stages if you see that too much resin fall down, and there is not enough resin in the area you want to fix.
Then, let the resin hardens, just a matter of a few minutes if there is enough sun.
Don´t worry if it looks bad, we will now sand the board and leave it perfect.
You can use an electric sander, but with extreme caution and only if you have too much resin to sand.
A manual sanding is definitely the safest way…
When the nose of your surfboard have the right shape, sand it with a finer sanding paper: 240, 360, 500 and 500 with water to achieve the same aspect as the rest of your board.
Final sanding and go surfing!
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