Board repair - am I epoxy or fibreglass?

[DRG]

Hi

Ok so first this is a dumb question - how do I tell if my board is epoxy or fibreglass? Previously, I have reformed a tail on a board after UPS killed it using regular yellow solareze but I am not sure if my new board will be ok with that product as I need to do a nice piece of reconstruction on the rail.

Is there an easy way of telling?

Cheers

DRG

[Philchapman]

Fibreglass is Fibreglass. You mean "am I epoxy or polyester resin?" What make and model board is it?

[DRG]

Sorry yes that is what I meant.

It is a 5'9" Hawaiin soul quad fin fish, I think it was maybe called the catfish.

Cheers

[Philchapman]

Polyester. Good luck with the repair.

[DRG]

cool thanks - normal solarez it is then!

[42naminori]

If you are not sure as to whether it is epoxy or not you can take a couple of swipes with sandpaper and smell it. Poly will have that special poly smell. Epoxy will have a neutral slightly nutty smell.

[Philchapman]

I tried the sandpaper trick, and the old board I had to repair opened with a delicate floral bouquet, followed by a rich pine resinous body, and a lasting blackcurrant wood finish. What do you reckon.... Bio-Resin?
(Sounds like a top tip by the way).

[peteuk]

hi, you can easiy smell the difference between epoxy and poly resin but you have to know what you are smelling , also some epoxy glassed boards might have a finish coat of polyester , some surftecs for example just to confuse things ,
its easy to test a bit of foam with a dab of polyester resin to see if it starts to melt without comitting to a full repair ,
if in doubt in any way just repair with epoxy and you can/t go wrong , epoxy is compatable with all foams so there will be no drama in useing epoxy resin,
pete

[DRG]

Thanks everyone for the help. I repaired it with resin and fiberglass matting in the end and looks pretty good. However, not sure if anyone us an expert in these things - if I have to repair a big ding should I first use a resin and q-cell mix and fill the whole area, sand flush then fiberglass then hot coat. Or should I only q-cell the bits where chunks of foam are missing and build up fiberglass straight onto the foam.

I watched a few bids online that were great but I couldn't quite work out how much if a role the filler should play.

Cheers!

[42naminori]

opened with a delicate floral bouquet, followed by a rich pine resinous body, and a lasting blackcurrant wood finish.

That actually is the aroma of my flatulence one day after consuming roast beef followed by Pinot Noir. Most people are taken aback at first when they find out where that lovely aroma comes from. Oddly enough I'm mailnly served
roast beef and Pinot Noir at house parties I attend.

[42naminori]

epoxy is compatable with all foams so there will be no drama in useing epoxy resin,
pete

Good advice!

One more way to tell is to hold up the board to a light source (if it is not painted or opaque) and if you see beads then you know the blank is EPS and will require epoxy.

[Philchapman]

/\ Unless it's extruded Polystyrene. Not sure how you'd tell if the blank was Exps without knowing beforehand anyway (calling Pete??), unless you'd smashed it hard on some rocks and it had only minor scrapes after, or ridden it hard for years and still not got any pressures in the deck, as it's so strong.

[42naminori]

/\ Unless it's extruded Polystyrene. Not sure how you'd tell if the blank was Exps without knowing beforehand anyway (calling Pete??), unless you'd smashed it hard on some rocks and it had only minor scrapes after, or ridden it hard for years and still not got any pressures in the deck, as it's so strong.

Xps will have holes in the glass to let the gas out or big delaminations on the board. Phil, you try a bit too hard.

[Philchapman]

/\ Do you mean a vent? Not sure what you mean. I've got 4 Xps boards, one of them over 10 years old now, and none of them have holes in the glass. None of them have delaminations either.
Try too hard to what?

[peteuk]

hi, xps with holes in the glass was a patented glassing method by epoxy pro surfboards in the states around 1991 or so ,so its really old tech , the new ixps foams ( inovative xtruded polystrene) requires no thermo venting as the pinholes were called,

ixps foam is a surfboard specific foam that looks just like polyurathane foam and requires no form of venting at all ,
the only way to tell the difference is to test a tiny piece of foam with polyresin to see if it melts or not ,

there are lots of boards made with ixps now so it would be easy to presume the board was a normal poly because they don/t look any different and then end up with a disaster of a repair when the foam shrivels up melsts away , pete

[42naminori]

hi, xps with holes in the glass was a patented glassing method by epoxy pro surfboards in the states around 1991 or so ,so its really old tech , the new ixps foams ( inovative xtruded polystrene) requires no thermo venting as the pinholes were called,

ixps foam is a surfboard specific foam that looks just like polyurathane foam and requires no form of venting at all ,
the only way to tell the difference is to test a tiny piece of foam with polyresin to see if it melts or not ,

Learn something new every day! Never seen the ixps in Hawaii. And there is only one guy out there who is licensed to poke the holes in the board with a hot needle so not many xps boards at all.



Off topic a bit but I'm curious as to how well the ixps blanks respond to resin tinting. On par with pu/pe?