In the video below, you’ll see Jonesy mentioning how he accidentally let his board slide out of the car. His Hybrid Protech surfboard fell onto the pavement, giving it a good ding that needs repairing. So in this how-to video on ding repair, we are going to show you how to repair a ding in your epoxy surfboard.
Epoxy?
At NSP, almost all board constructions are "Epoxy", with the exception of our PU boards. All other constructions like Elements, CSE, E+, Protech and even P2 Soft are Epoxy based, although the P2 Soft ones do not ding (what's in a name?).
Back to Jonesy and his surfboard repair though - the drop caused a minor ding and to be fair, accidents like these are very common. At 0:23 (“I sucked on it!”), Jonesy found out that the damaged area goes all the way to the core of the board. If you are not sure whether a ding repair is necessary, you should do the same. If you feel air coming through, the outer layers are punctured and you need to repair your board to avoid water coming in.
If the ding hasn’t breached the surface, it is up to you to repair it or not, but we advise to
Since the board Jonesy is repairing is a baby-blue hybrid, he opts for skipping the final step of colour matching and spraying the board, but for anyone wanting to go all the way with theirs; exact information about color codes, years and charts can be found here.
Disclaimer on raceboard repairs:
Please note that while technically the NSP Race products are EPS as well, we generally do not advise using Solarez for a repair, but recommend a combination of sanding and glassing to maintain your Raceboard in perfect condition.
Step 1 – Required tools & materials for ding repair
– Some UV-activated resin, we are using Solarez
– Some clear plastic sheet, preferably one that doesn’t stretch
– Some acetone to clean up the board
– Sandpaper at varying grits (60, 250, 400 and 600 if you are super motivated)
– A small bowl with water
Step 2 – Prepping for your ding repair
If you know there is already water in the board, leave your board out in the sun until you know the water has evaporated. In Jonesy’s case, the damage was caused by an accidental drop from his car so he knows he can get right in there.
The board is clean too, so all he really needed to do is create a scuffed up area around the ding where the repair material will go. This feels counterintuitive to the inexperienced, as it feels like you are making things worse. But the rougher the area you are working on for your ding repair, the more surface the repairing material can attach itself too. So like Jonesy says; “Don’t be afraid to get into it!”.
Step 3 – Cleaning up your scuffed up area
Jonesy skips this step, but for bigger dings, this is essential. Cleaning out the affected area with the Acetone makes your repair that much stronger. It will allow the repair kit to stick as much as possible, without contaminants, dust or dirt particles weakening the bonding.
Step 4 – Applying the Solarez
Make sure you are out of the sunlight when prepping for this step, as the Solarez we use is UV-activated. Fun fact: If you have a UV-lamp, you can use that for an indoor repair too!
Put a nice goop of repair kit on, and use the plastic sheet to for the goo into the desired shape by pulling the plastic sheet around. Doing all this outside of direct sunlight will give you some extra time, and once you are satisfied with the result, you move your board into the sun, with the sheet still sticking to it.
Jonesy’s repair is a little more difficult as he’s dealing with compound curves, but it’s nothing a little final sanding won’t fix.
Step 5 – Wet-sand the repaired area down
Take out the finer grit sandpaper and keep the area wet as you sand down the repair material into the original shape. Go from using the coarse grit to the finer ones as you approach the final phase of your repair, and adding the water helps creating an even smoother surface. The matte finish Jonesy’s surfboard has doesn’t require that much sanding, but glossy surfboards require more wet-sanding with a much finer grit to blend in.
Step 6 – Colour match and spray paint
You can tell from the movie Jonesy was happy to have sealed his board for now and won’t bother with painting the repaired area. For those of you wanting to spray paint their ding repair, all you need to do us clean up the area you are about to paint, find the right colours from the NSP repair charts, use some masking tape to hit the right pattern, and for the best result, make sure your working area is dust-free as much as possible!