Home
Epoxyboard Anatomy
Water in Board
Repairs - Menu
Disasters
Assorted Repairs
Miscellany
Ancient History
Donate
Contact
Legal Stuff
Field Repairs

Never, ever - let me repeat that: NEVER use anything other than Epoxy on your EPS foam-cored board! Styrene solvents in Polyester and Vinyl-Ester products dissolve EPS foam. Even the slightest whiff of Styrene, migrating through the minutest crack, will eat the EPS foam!  Many $20.- dings have come to me, requiring $50.- in core surgery, because someone thought they could get away with it...  Click here for tale of woe.

Say NO to duct tape!! Duct tape is a fabric and therefore not watertight. Besides, it leaves an infernal, sticky residue.

Do not squish wax into a ding! It does not form a reliable seal. It does, however, contaminate the area, so that a proper repair later may not stick.

To seal non-structural dings on shiny surfaces, use a decal, or clear packaging tape, or Aluminum Plumber's tape.

For dings in rough surfaces (non-skid), or for deep dings, use Marinetex, or Ding Stick.

Always remove surface gloss before applying Marinetex or Ding Stick! Always remove the vent screw if any, and always wait until the warmest part of the day has passed before applying Marinetex or Ding Stick. As the day warms, the air inside the board warms, expanding in the process, and spitting out your repair. About half the field repairs brought to me, leak, because folks get this timing wrong.

So - wait until late afternoon, clean the wound as well as you can, scrape away loose bits with a knife, rough things up a bit with 60grit sandpaper, a nail file, a piece of glass, whatever.

 

"Ding Stick", "Epoxy Stick"

an Epoxy filler that comes under a lot of different names. They have in common ease of handling, fast cure, great hardness when cured, convenient long-term storage. It should be in everyone's kit!

surgical tape??? and I thought I'd seen it all....
slice off some Ding Stick. When done, wrap it again in plastic, then stick into its cigar tube or a Ziploc bag, to keep from drying up.
Kneed thoroughly until color is perfectly uniform, then squoosh into ding. Work in with gusto, in order to eliminate all air pockets that might leak later.
Apply yoghurt. No, no, that's water in that yoghurt cup :)

Smooth repair with wetted fingers.

Sand it if you desire a more perfect finish
 

Warning!!

If a more or less continuous crack develops across the middle - somewhere between forward straps and mast box - a dab of Marinetex is not going to help much, since your board is preparing to break in half. Do not go out further than you care to swim!

back to Repair Menu