How do you repair a surfboard that has fiberglass coming up?

Answer 1

That's a big problem, I think what you are referring to is when the fiberglass de-laminates itself from the foam. The best way to do this is to cut the bubble out and remove the damaged foam.

Let the board sit in the sun to evaporate any moisture that might be trapped in the foam.

Now here is tricky part number one. Using either a surfboard repair kit (from your local surf-shop) or a filler such as bondo, patch the hole you cut in the foam. Be sure to leave an excess of filler material on the top(to sand later. Take care in filling the hole you made, insure there are no air bubbles that are trapped, they will rise to the surface and leave a pit in the filler. I like to use a tongue depressor to, in a sense, pack the hole with filler. Allow to dry until completely hard.

Now its time to sand. You want to get 3 or 4 grits of sand paper varying from coarse to ultra-fine. Sand the filler material until it is level with the rest of the board and go over it repeatedly with different grits of sand paper, starting with coarse and ending with fine.

Tricky step 2. Now that you have sanded the filler until its surface and texture match that of the existing surfboard, its time to glass. In your surfboard repair kit, you should get some fiberglass and a 2 part epoxy resin. cut a piece of surf quality fiberglass to fit over your ding with about 1/4 inch overlapping onto the good glass. Now mix the 2 part epoxy resin and pour it onto your patch of fiberglass. Using a a spreader such as a card or tongue depressor, spread the resin like cake batter over the class. You should start to see the fiberglass disappear. Insure that the fiberglass is thoroughly covered. Allow the resin to cure overnight.

Morning, ahh, birds singing and its time to sand down your surfboard patch. Using the same sanding principal of coarse to fine, sand the resin until it is flush with the rest of the surfboard. When finished, buff it with one of those green dishwashing scratch pads, this will bring the board back to a kinda shiny finish.

Now your ready to wax and shred, just make sure that your patch doesn't take on any water or you'll be doing it over again, only bigger!