Monday, March 22, 2010

Glossing a Surfboard - It's a lost art!





We get questions all the time about Glossing surfboards. So we thought we 'd try to explain in some detail and show this video to help explain some of the difficulties and procedures.



First and foremost you need a sterile environment. Any dust particles will create "fish-eye's" resulting in a lumpy gloss. Be sure to use high quality heat resistant tape like our 3m 233 1-1/2" masking tape. The next step is to clean the board with the backside (sticky side) of some masking tape to help get the dust particles off, also clean your brush thoroughly so that there are no loose bristles. Be sure to use Gloss Resin which has a pink hue rather than the usual blueish hue seen with Laminating and Sanding resin. This Gloss Resin already has the Surfacing Wax premixed and contains special polymers to insure your gloss will polish up extremely shiny. Once the sanded surfboard is clean and taped off catalyze the resin and mix well. Pour the Gloss Resin on the board and move it around with your brush evenly so the resin spills off the sides of the tape. Once the resin covers the board completely squeeze the excess resin out of your brush (with your hands) and cross brush the wet gloss one time. Squeeze the excess resin again out of your brush and lightly brush the board parallel with the stringer to help the resin flow out. Don't spend too much time brushing the gloss as less is more in this case. As soon as the resin "kicks" pull your tape. Let it harden completely, flip the board over, and repeat this procedure on the other side. Once you've Glossed both sides you're ready to wet-sand and polish your board.

We'll explain the Polishing procedure in a future blog so stay tuned!!!

Good luck!

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The Foam E-Z Crew.