Question
damaged and displaced
QUESTION: Dear Patrick, I rammed my slalom board into rocks breaking the fin and damaging the deep tuttle box. The front bolt got ripped out but the rear one was intact. How do I go about repairing it. It is a new board in full carbon.
ANSWER: Darn... that sucks. Sorry to hear this but it looks like it could be repaired.
There are 2 epoxies I use that are really strong and waterproof. One is Marine Tex, the other is J B Weld. Marine Tex is white and J B Weld is grey. They both could do the job. Look them up on their websites and decide which one you like better.
Before you mix up the epoxy, measure the diameter of the original screw hole. Use a drill bit and keep fitting different size bits into the hole until you get a tight fit. Mark down the size of that bit as you will use it later to redrill the hole.
I would use gobs and gobs of either of these epoxies fill the hole and surrounding areas on top and bottom of the board making sure to force the epoxy into the cracks in the board. If you want it to be neat, use masking tape around the outside of the holes in a circle around the hole wider than the cracks extend. Spread the epoxy around the inside of the tape and up to the tape edge inside the circle of tape. I might even drill some small diameter holes diagonally around the main repair hole and force the epoxy into those holes to allow the epoxy to anchor itself into the board. But that is up to you. (Drilling holes in new board sounds scary) After all epoxy has dried and cured, drill a new hole using the correct size drill as you measured with earlier thru the hardened epoxy in the same place and same angle as the original hole. From the look of the hole you may also need to countersink another wider hole above the main screw hole. You can use a wide counter sink drill bit to do this. I can't really guarantee anything but this is my best guess of how to do this without really seeing the damage in person. Hope this helps.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Dear Patrick
I was told in addition to the above to prepare a steel washer the same size as the hole with the correct predrilled hole and press it over the epoxy to further foritify the remaining ledge. is this a good idea?
AnswerIf you can line up the steel washer with the original hole for the bolt and then set in with the epoxy it should work. If the steel washer is set slightly off of the hole then you will have problems. Setting the washer exactly in line with the hole is the tricky part. Good luck!
