D FIN RON RESTORATION

This is the first of two Ron Surfboards to be restored. Ron Surfboards was a subsidiary company of Crane Industries. A plumbing supply company. Geoff Mc Coy started his career in the surfboard industry there. The blue pigment work is original. It is hiding some large voids in the foam on the bottom. The original fin was a plastic dork fin. This was beyond repair and was replaced. The area under the fin was badly water damaged and had to be re built. There had been an attempted restoration a some point. It was decided not to re do the pigment work as the covered foam was quiet white and the reversing effect looked good.

REVERSE D FIN RON RESTORATION

This is another Ron. Restored in 2004. Production No1654.
It is 9'7" x 20" x 3". It has a reverse D fin. The fin was out of the board with a fair amount of damage needing to be repaired before it could be re set. There was a large number of stress marks across the front half of the bottom of the board. These had to be sanded out and the area reglassed. The original pigment work was re coated and the repair work under the fin was also covered.

70'S NIRVANA RESTORATION

This is a Nirvana. Built at Kincumber on the NSW Central Coast. The board was shaped by Terry Moane. This is its second restoration. It is still owned by its original owner. The bottom needed to be re built. There was a large area of delam on the nose and there was a crease and delam on the tail forward of the fin. The deck had also delamed forward of the legrope plug. The bottom was reglassed, faired and painted with auto acrylic paint. And gloss coated. The deck is original.

HAYDEN RESTORATION

This is a Hayden built in Queensland in the 60's. The board had two coats of pigment applied at some stage prior to restoration. The first may have been original as the foam is still very white. It has a Greenough stage one fin. The bottom had to be pigment coated,due to the areas in the middle and at the nose of the board being to damaged to leave clear.

HOT ROC RESTORATION

This is a Hot Roc single fin swallow tail. Built in Brookvale on Sydneys Northern Beaches by Micky Mac in the 70's.

PRE RESTORATION

The bottom of this board was in pretty poor condition. It had stress marks from infront of the fin to the logo. Numerous dings on the rails. And the nose and tail tips needed rebuilding.
The deck was ding free but has a lot of heel dents. Plus a legrope plug set well forward.

STRESSIES

This board had some pretty major stress marks.
The whole bottom was sanded down to the glass.

DINGS REPAIRED

The tips of the tail and the nose were rebuilt.
All dings reapired and low spots filled.

PRE AND POST LAM

The bottom was re glassed and lapped around onto the deck, covering the original pinlines to protect them, when the filler coat was being sanded.

UNDERCOAT

After the board was glassed, filler coated and sanded, an auto acrylic highbuild undercoat was applied. This was left to cure for two weeks. The board was checked for pin holes and they were filled with spot filler. The undercoat was fine sanded and the colour coat was applied.

PAINTED BOTTOM

The stringer, fin and logos were masked off. The rails up to the original pinlines were also masked. Then auto acrylic paint was applied.
This was also left for two weeks to fully cure before the gloss coats were applied.

LEG ROPE LOOP

As with alot of leg rope plugs in the 70's,
they were set along way foward on the tail.
So the old plug was removed
and a new
loop glassed on.

GLOSS COAT

The acrylic paint was given a fine sand.
And the board was gloss coated as normal.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

Wet and dry sanded 600,1200,
and 1500. Then Machine polished.

HAYDEN SURFBOARDS

This board is a "Hayden" built in the late 60's. Built at Hayden Kenny Surfboards, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. It is 8' 4" in length by 23" wide. The wide point is 4' 3.5" from the tail. The nose is 18" and the tail is 15.5" and it is 3" thick. It has a production number behind the fin 2990. The bottom is cambered. It has a Greenough stage 3 fin.
11.75" high and a 10.5" base set 9.5" from the tail.

THE UNRESTORED BOARD

The board was in a pretty poor state of repair.
The tail had been chopped off and the foam was exposed. There was a large delam on the deck toward the tail. Caused by the ding on the deck to the right of the stringer letting water in. This board was being ridden up until the restoration. So it had absorbed a lot of water. Particularly in the tail and under the deck delam. The rails were covered in dings. These were repaired and a pigment coat was applied to the trim lines, top and bottom. The tail was rebuilt and the delam on the deck was re bonded. New yellow pigment coats were added to cover the repairs. New black pinlines were added. Then the board was glossed. And finally polished.

GLOSSED DECK AND BOTTOM

These two photos show the bottom freshly glossed. The brighter yellow pigment coat was added to cover some restoration work. New pinlines were added. The rails were pigmented to the cut lines. The red inside the cut lines on the bottom and the darker yellow on the deck are original colour work. Painted onto the blank.

THE PROFILE / FOIL

The profile on this board is quiet flat
compared to other boards from this period.

THE FIN

Glossed Greenough stage 3 fin.

BING RESTORATION 2004

This is a BING. Built in California in 1961 by Bing Copeland.
This restoration can also be viewed with other restored Bings at the link below.
http://www.classicbingsurfboards.com/bingrestorations.html

INTRO

The owner of this board wanted to get back into surfing. He is the second owner. A mate of his purchased it while on a trip to the US. It was in pretty poor condition.
The stringer is 2" balsa or I should say was balsa. It was completely rotted and had to be replaced. It has a timber fin with inlays. This was also restored.

STEP ONE

The board was sanded to expose all the dings and old repairs. The remains of the balsa stringer were removed. This meant cutting down each side of the stringer with a diamond saw and scraping the rotted timber out. The foam is in excellent condition. Probably protected by the glue used to glue up the stringer.

THE STRINGER

The dings were reglassed and sanded. All the low spots and rails have been faired with a 75% Q-cell 25% aerosil mix. Two layers of 6oz laminated over. The stringer has been rebuilt. End grain balsa was used. Blocks were laminated together and milled into 10mm thick planks. These were glued together two at a time in the board to fit the rocker. Once the stringer was fully glued together and cured, it was removed, the edges cleaned up and glued into the board. Two layers of 8oz-boat cloth were laminated over the stringer with Vinylester resin.

THE FIN

The original timber fin has been rebuilt and reset. All the old glass was removed. The timber was carefully sanded to remove all the excess glass and resin and to expose the inlay work. The trailing edge had to be replaced. Western Red Cedar was used. Two sealing coats of resin were applied. Then two layers of 10oz laminated to one side with 10mm of cloth overhanging. This side was then filler coated. The overhang was used to mould the continuous rovings, used to form the clear bead around the fin. Once cured the bead was sanded and two layers of 10oz were applied to the fin. Filler coated and sanded ready for setting onto the board. Once the fin was set, the board was filler coated and sanded ready for the pigment work.

PIGMENT COATS

The stringer and rails were masked and the pigment coats brushed on. I use a mixture of surfboard lam resin and neutral spray gelcoat. 75% resin 25% gelcoat and 3% Wax in Styrene. The gelcoat is designed to cling to vertical surfaces. This helps on the rails to minimise sagging and separation. The gelcoat ups the geltime slightly without having to use higher catalyst percentages. The board was sanded ready for glossing.

GLOSS COATS

Pinlines were masked and brushed on using the same resin/gelcoat mix. The pinlines were lightly sanded and the board was glossed.

ORIGINAL ORDER

The above image is from Bing Copelands 1961 order book. Thanks to Bing for suppling the image.

POLISHING

The gloss coats were wet and dry sanded with 600, 1200 and 1500 and the machine polished.
A total of 54 hours work.

KING RESTORATION 2002

This is a KING steptail. Built by Graham King Surfboards on Sydneys South side in approx 1963. Graham King is still involved in the surboard industry today.
This board was found at a local NSW Central Coast market, in 2002, cost $200. The board was in poor condition and covered with non-original white gelcoat. Possible tail section missing. The original fin was missing and had been replaced with a 1970's Bahne-type fin-box (Multifins?) and plastic fin. See pre and post restoration photographs below. The condition of this board prior to restoration; on a scale of 1-10 would have been 2-21/2. The board was white all over. Probably not original because it covered the manufactures logo and the foam was quiet brown. It had major dings on the tail and nose, stress marks on the bottom, and fractures and dings all around the rails. The board was in such poor condition, there was no choice but to do a full pigment job. All the pigment / gelcoat was sanded off revealing the "King " logo and the wedge stringer on the deck. The fin box had to be removed and the step area rebuilt. The rails had to be faired and glassed, stress marks and dings repaired, and a new fin made and glassed in. Pigment coats applied, pin lined, wet & dry sanded and polished. A total of 40 hours work over a six month period.

THE FINISHED DECK

THE FINISHED BOTTOM

HAWAIIAN STEP TAIL

This image shows the board built by
John Kelly in Hawaii in 1962.
Which the Australian boards were probably based on.

Photo courtesy of "A Pictorial History of Surfing"
by Margan and Finney 1970.

ORIGINAL BOTTOM

Unfortunatly the King logo on the bottom
was damaged when the fin box was installed.

ORIGINAL DECK

The white gelcoat had been added at some stage.
It covered the King logos and the foam was quiet brown.

PROFILE

This profile image shows
that the board has little
bottom curve or camber.
It seems very primitive
compared to the John Kelly board.

THE FIN

As mentioned a new fin had to be made.
No clear photo could be found, of a fin template for an Australian version of this type of board. The only photo shows the board on its side. The fin looks as if it could be a reverse d fin. So that is what we went with. The dimentions are. Base 10.5 inches and Height 9 inches.

GORDON WOODS RESTORATION 1999

This is the board that got the restoration side of my business up and running. It is a 9'6" Gordon Woods. Built in Brookvale on Sydneys Northern Beaches. By looking at the fin, I would think it was built around 1964/65.
This board was purchased from a work colleague for AU $100. The deck was in good condition, apart from the manufactures logo delaminating, and some large dents in the nose. These dents I think are due to the lack of glass on the nose on the bottom. The bottom was another story. No glass, for the fist two and half feet. from the nose. This resulting in the stringer being completely rotted for the whole length of the board. The stringer may have been Pacific Maple or Western red ceder. The rails had the usual amount of dings and fractures for a board of this age. The fin was intact and in good condition.
The first task was to replace the glass missing from the nose with two layers of 10 oz cloth. Next, replace the stringer, This meant cutting the glass on either side of the stringer with a diamond saw and scraping out the sludge with a chisel. The fin was not removed from the board. The original stringer was 20min wide which ment 25mm DAR fitted straight in. I laminated five lengths of 20min by 20min Pacific maple, using FGI RI 80 epoxy resin and AEROSIL silica, and clamped in place. After planing the excess timber off the stringer, 150min either side of the stringer was heavily ground and two layers of 10 oz cloth applied after sealing the stringer with a coat of resin. All the other dings where ground, reglassed and sanded. The whole board was then sanded and all the low spots filled and faired with 75% Q-CELL / 25% AEROSIL. Once fair all the filled areas were covered with one layer of 4oz cloth.
After sanding it was time for the pigment coats to hide the ugly spots. The deck was left clear as original. The rails were pigmented a dark green to the trim lines on the top and bottom. The bottom was pigmented a peppermint green leaving the stringer clear. The rails needed two coats, which has now become standard practice on all the restorations I've done since. After sanding to 1200 w&d a 1/4- black pinline was added top and bottom on the trim line. The board was then sanded with 1500 w&d and polished. The resin on the deck is original and did not need any extra work done to bring the gloss up.

PREPARED BOTTOM

The bottom is ready for the new stringer
to be glued in, and glassed.

NEW STRINGER

The new stringer glued and clamped into place.

NEW STRINGER

Another view of the clamped stringer.

STRINGER GLASSED

The board is now ready for the lows to be filled.

LOWS FILLED

The bottom has been filled
and is ready to be sanded.