Here is my first attempt to fix a small 1.5" x 3" delam on the deck of my Goya Bolt as recommended by West Systems support. Note that the delam was due to an impact (dive knife plastic case) which compressed the EPS and then the deck sprang back to its original shape pulling away from the EPS.

Initially thought I could just make a cut in deck, insert syringe, and inject epoxy and push through to exit cut. But needed to make a small hole for syringe tip to get epoxy in (did not cut down syringe tip from stock West Systems syringe).

Couple of comments:
1) It took a lot of effort on syringe plunger to get epoxy to enter delam, but it went in and moved through it and then exited two small cuts I made in deck on each far end of delam.
2) Before injecting epoxy, when I pressed and released delam I could hear deck sticking and releasing from EPS (residual glue used to hold deck to EPS). After injecting epoxy could not hear the sticky sound.
3) Pushed delam deck to move epoxy around until it came out of two exit cuts.
4) Once delam area was filled with epoxy could NOT inject any more with syringe, just too much resistance using thumb/finger pressure.
5) Put soft foam over just delam area and then added weight to press deck down.

Will get back after it cures!, again this was a small delam area.



Used orange crayon to mark limits of delam, comes off with microfiber cloth and 70% isopropanol. West Systems syringe and mixing tip for SixTen epoxy cartrige.



Injecting epoxy into delam, really had to press plunger hard and make sure tip was not blocked by EPS, had at a very shallow angle (more than in picture).



Epoxy oozed out of all cuts, pushed on delam to move epoxy around inside delam to edges.



Probably 30 pounds of pavers sitting on soft foam that only covers delam. Covered delam and holes with Saran-wrap so epoxy oozing out would not get on foam.

Not thickened epoxy?

I'm just here for the comments. Pass the popcorn.

Imax1 said..
Three days of off gassing in the bathroom with the fan on and you'll be good to go .

Very close!, when I touch up the two cuts and one hole with Rustoleum enamel paint it will off gas for 7 days in the bathroom with the fan on for the first day or two (have a variable speed switch for fan so can leave on low and not hear it outside the bathroom). Enamel also needs 7 days to cure before seeing water.

Good stuff. I think this is a good key hole surgery method for surf boards. The only thing I would recommend is to form up the holes with blue tack to prevent epoxy spillage, and have a 2nd syringe to suck the access epoxy from these blue tack wells. If you destroy your lovely grippy deck around the pads, then you will have a new problem when you go to gybe/tack this board.

How much epoxy did you inject ?

When I first used injection method, I was worried about the thermal runway effect. So, as a test, I mixed various qualities of West System 105/206 in day time temperature of ~25C (eg 10ml, 20ml, 30ml etc). I heated each quality with a heat gun to ~70C for 5 minutes, then took heat away. I then monitored. I found that about 50ml (about 3cm deep in the silicon container I was using) it would go critical, so this gave me an idea of the quality not to approach. So I never inject anymore than 10ml of this 105/206 at once (a safety margin of 5 times less), and this has never given me an issue. I also do my repairs at night when the air temperature is dropping.

This threshold could be different for other brands/models. I have been using Eparency's ultra clear epoxy lately (a fantastic product !). I should probably perform this same test on this product before I start using it for key hole board repairs.

Imax1 said..

Sandman1221 said..

Imax1 said..
Three days of off gassing in the bathroom with the fan on and you'll be good to go .

Very close!, when I touch up the two cuts and one hole with Rustoleum enamel paint it will off gas for 7 days in the bathroom with the fan on for the first day or two (have a variable speed switch for fan so can leave on low and not hear it outside the bathroom). Enamel also needs 7 days to cure before seeing water.

Variable speed ....?.....why didn't you mention this before ?

That is on a strictly need-to-know basis, and you did not need to know until now.

Actually, the paint touchups I did are so small (used the end of chopstick wet with paint to touchup the cuts and small hole in deck) there is no need to put in bathroom while it cures. All done, no mess from oozing foam, and deck is now stronger than when new!

So there you have it, a relatively easy way to fix small delams due to impacts, versus the separation of the skin from the core due to manufacturing defects, age, or exposure to excessive heat and/or sun.

And have to say that deck is really thick, from cutting through it, and even though I stepped in that area many times the deck did not crack over the delam area. Francisco Goya really had the Bolt built tough.

Got out today on the repaired Bolt, nice solid deck, delam is no more

Should have put it in the bathroom for seven days with the fan on , medium setting . If it's a four speed setting , it's a tricky one . You never really know if you should use setting two or three . And you won't know unless you try both .

How the hell do you know the correct setting?

Have had the repaired Goya Bolt out now for two sessions and then carefully checked the repaired deck and it is still solid!

Sparky said..
If it's survived two sessions it will probably now last a lifetime, maybe decades, that's what I find, failure will most probably happen in the first two sessions. Well done sandman.

Good to hear, thanks Sparky