I screwed up a $1M surfboard and almost quit my job 

Life lesson to be learned from all of this. " treat every customer's board like its a $1,000,000 board" Nice job.

35+ years of shaping, glassing and repair work. For fin removal use an oscillating multi-tool with a fine toothed, flush cut blade.......carbide preferably for longevity. A must have tool. When skinning a board, instead of angle grinder use sander at the apex of rails and sand until almost through cloth. Avoid hitting the foam. Finish the cut with a razor blade only cutting the cloth being careful not to get into the foam. Another method to peel a board is to blow it up like a basketball before grinding the rails. Compressed air will peel the glass pretty cleanly especially on the deck side. The less foam damage the better. Regarding your delamination issues. Resin and Q-cel for filler, not spackle. The less paint build up the better and let it dry completely between every coat. Always thin coats letting dry in between. If you apply the next coat too soon you've effectively trapped moisture underneath which will haunt you later. After final coat, let it dry twice as long as you think. A week in a very dry space wouldn't hurt. Resin hates moisture and is repelled by it. On a large area painted with red or blue in particular you have to pre-coat the board with lam resin before glassing. Squeegee it on thinly and evenly and make sure there are no drips. Some paints and some colors want to repel resin or react with the resin and crystalize. Precoating will reveal if you're going to have a crystallization issue before it breaks your heart when there is glass in play. If you get crystallization give a second thin coat of lam resin in that area before glassing. If you pre-coat both sides, use wax paper on the glassing racks to avoid lifting your paint from the foam when you flip. (I've learned that one the hard way) On your rails use bigger laps (an extra inch and a half of cloth all the way around) when going over a painted blank as the cloth doesn't seem to grip a painted blank like it does bare foam and keep a close eye on your laps until the resin kicks. Glossing glass on fin: No need to mask and do one side at a time. Sand to 80 grit and no finer. We want the resin to grip the fin and resist sagging. Fins side down in the racks and do both sides at once. Kick it hot and don't overload the resin on or it will sag. Lastly, know when to turn work away or refer a project to someone else if it is out of your comfort zone or something you've never done before. Cheers

Respect for not throwing in the towel. I'm sure the end product didn't meet your standards but the fact that you stuck in their says a lot about your devotion. Good stuff!!! 🤙🏽

Great story of overcoming big challenges and delivering in the end.

Curious why you chose sparkling instead of, industry standard, Q-cel for the foam restoration. The sparkling might explain some of the laminating issues you had. Laminating with pigmented resin as opposed to painting the foam would help with fiberglass adhesion to the blank as well.

Some projects are just snake bit. One catastrophe after another. But how you bounce back from them is what counts. The primer costs and time fixing the subsequent delams may have blown your profit margin, but your honesty and transparency with this project should inspire tons of confidence with every prospective client. A terrific project to watch (if not to actually do). Thanks! Oh, and I'll can confirm the quality of work and service Boadlams provides. They transferred some custom art a friend of mine did for an Umalon board that came out amazing!

I found that coating the whole board before paint works well. You want the entire surface to have the same texture so the paint behaves the same way over the whole surface. I use micro balloons (Q cell I think you guys call it) rather than spackle though. Having some background in auto paint causes me to have a natural aversion to putting anything chalky under paint or resin. Also the micro balloon resin mixture keeps the materials the same and therefore compatible. About half a cup gets me through one whole side of a 6' to 6'6" board. It acts as a sealer too.

Wawhhhhhh, that's like saving the air from an air balloon, making a new one and claming you've restored it!

As a veteran contractor/carpenter, I know exactly how that feels. When everything is going wrong and you feel like giving up. Kudos to pulling through and documenting the process. I'm not sure if it was in this video or another one, but you asked for advice on better concealment for a better overall finish. I think self etching primer would work well. It's used in construction and auto repair.

It's a pleasant surprise to see someone show their failures and challenges as well as their successes. The board came out sweet, nice work.

Ill be honest. Ive been in automotive refinishing my entire life, and a lot of youre methods had me scratching my head.

Happy for you that you got a result and I’m praying for you that they don’t delam in the future. With that amount of spackle and paint beneath the glass, that bond is going to be pretty dubious! Feel your pain and stress, the pressure on them would’ve been real real

I’m curious as to why the boards weren’t left as they were I’d have thought the valve would be in its original shape and condition?

Hey man, I just wanna say that watching your videos has taught me so much about board repair and gave me the confidence to step into doing larger repairs. And your ability to capture all this on video is really commendable. With all the prep and setup required for these repairs, filming them simultaneously is no small feat!

I've never surfed in my life. No idea how I got to this video but watched the entire thing, thoroughly entertaining!

In experiences of painting walls with vinyl/latex paints I noticed it has a tendency to delaminate, so if you later press on it, those areas crack and fall of the wall. The solution to remedy it is to dilute the paint with water and apply some thin coats before working upto pure paint. I know the paint and resin coatings on a board are very different things but perhaps there is some transferrable logic here?

Looks like a million bucks! Great video, I wanted more slamming of tools..

Are the boards still worth the same if they were to sell as before? I know sometimes restoring stuff can actually take away from the value.

Dude of course painting Crusty foam with no primer or anything is gonna give you that result. At least you figured it out in the end 🤙

well done man🤟

The boards look beautiful! Sorry you had so much trouble! Good to know when to set everything down and walk away for a while. I wonder if it was the spackle causing the delams. Over the years I've watched guys use it but it always worried me as it doesn't create a great mechanical bond to the foam. You do great work! Best of luck with future endeavors!

You did, you actually prevailed & did it. Once you have context & see the before pics of the board, this was a work of art what you did. Amazing job man congrats

good for you for not giving up , great job !!

Tonight I watched some of your repairs and I can say that you need to look into removing fiberglass using a heat gun. When you are done fixing the blank put a coat of white paint on the board. If the repairs still show add a 2nd or 3rd coat of paint. Then use red pigment when glassing. Put the logos on top of the first layer of fiberglass and then add a second layer of fiberglass. Look up Nathan J. Surfboards for other hints or help. I have been making and repairing boards since 1967. Good Luck, Nathan

My heart dropped for you at every turn mate. Well done and bloody good effort for not giving up.

This seems like a hard fought lesson in working the problem and not letting the problem work you (too much). Great result, brother! In my experience, those victories that come from having to navigate a lot of obstacles are far more rewarding and memorable than the smooth sailing projects.

I could see the stress and it back feelings of ptsd from jobs I wish I never thought of again

Overcoming the trouble and persisting until it is done perfectly truly is admirable. I know exactly how you felt. Respect.

So frickin cool @ the end with your hand-off of those two original Baywatch surfboards to their owner, in like-new condition>>he obviously picked the right man for the job...beautiful craftsmanship...RIP Brock (Braddah will always be one of my favorite Hawaiian Big Wave 🌊 watermen)

That is rough man, some jobs are just that way. But u pushed thru adversity and got er done. Plus u learned some stuff too! If i may offer: i believe your delaminations were the result of poor prep of old foam and too much spackling in place of prep. Id go over the whole board with your DA with a soft pad and 600 grit then lightly block the flats and hand sand the rails. Now youve got fresh foam that is open. Its also much flatter so u can focus your spackling on the deeper gouges only! Leave the minor imperfections and DONT skim the whole board with it. U gotta think now spackling was never meant to bond with foam or fiberglass, also structurally its very weak. Theres also alot of shrinkage so its important to have 100% cure before proceeding or u will have voids and delam. So when done with spackling i wouldve used an automotive filler primer that u apply with your spray gun. This u want to apply many coats and it will fill all the minor holes dips dents etc. Think of it as sprayable sandable bondo. Now u block sand using guide coat till youve got it all flat and straight. And now ready to proceed. Anyway dont be offended we are all learning from each other! Great video! Cheers!

Throwing tools around the shop never gets old they are easy to take our frustration out on easily great job on tha board

Love your channel. Crazy project, but the outcome looks great

Bloody epic, great job!

Woooo nice job 😊

"A legend he created baywatch" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Just about finished making my first skim board and it's been a rollercoaster ride. I had to learn how to handle such an unforgiving material. My boards got a dent, some scratches in it from my fingernail and a few other character traits. But it's been fun overall, and I didn't beat myself up too much, knowing that it was all good for learning. You do good work and this came out 💯!

turned out great

Way cool to see @LocalMotion being so cool with it.

I quit my 9-5 to go into my passion for painting. I have a great mentor, but some skill gaps are present and i've ate crow a few times. Internally I have wanted to walk off the job and more often than not, worked 12hr days wondering why I couldn't be better. I'll never give this up and it's reassuring to see others go through similar experiences in other fields of work. Keep up the good work, I would be happy with that final product considering it's a restoration of a really weathered board.

Awesome stuff KING. Keep em coming

As someone who has made some very sketchy board repairs at home over the years the challenges in this video give me some solace.

Wow, watching this was great, big fan! I feel the anxiety and feel like i'm messing up! Thank you so so so much for sharing!

Great editing, had a laugh the whole way through. Great job...in the end.

0:33 - love it.

YEWWWW stoked to watch this

Awesome to see you handle all those setbacks!

So sick! I kinda want to see the fiberglass redo tbh!

Nice job finishing. You and him had great rapport too.

This was a lot of fun to watch, you did a great job fixing the mistakes, the boards look amazing!

That image of the badly botched painting that kept popping up had me chuckling bro🤣 👍

Very apparent passion, perfectionism and professionalism, great job.

The painting part was painful. I'm a professional painter and I've used that spackle occasionally, and it really is hard to get a good finish with sandpaper, because it's a bit rubbery when dry. It finishes best with a damp cloth or sponge. Use a mini roller when applying primer to porous surfaces like that, or it will not adhere properly, just form a skin. There are heavy-bodied primers that can help with final sanding as well.

Very cool! Great job 😁

U sir, are an inspiration. This makes me wanna try restoring my old Al Merrick CI Sashimi board. 😮

Cool story and impressive work! Congrats, man!

The frustration and building anxiety is so relatable.

Great job!

Great video.. it’s cool to see humble, honest craftsmen admitting mistakes. I build guitars, and feel the way you did almost every build haha.

Glad you didn't quit and came through. Loved the kitchen nightmares cringe sounds. Most of these delam possibilities have been mentioned, but I'll put em all in one place: bad yellowing foam with integrity/ density compromised, spackle should be fine as long as it was roughed up enough for mechanical adhesion, but the less the better; crystallisation from paint, especially thick, uneven coats that havent fully dried through; and then finally heat from excessive sanding. The trial and error is what is going to get you on the level of guys like Randy Rarick some day. Keep at it!

Cannot imagine how stressful this would have been. But you pulled through and did a killer job, that passion in your craft shows!

Good job ... Never give up.!

As a surfboard maker too, I trully felt you. Good job not throwing the towel.

Just curious why couldn’t you have the center piece of wood still showing like the original? That’s the only thing that stands out to me.

At what time wound you just make a new board, identical? The visible part of thr board is what it has value, you don't se the foam in the movie. Probably better to keep the original as it was an have a duplicate.

Bonann seems like such a chill dude, love it.

I wasn’t having a day , but when you lost temper, I suddenly was not alone and I was sharing in your emotions that I know all too well. Thanks for the video. I’m going back out to the shaping shack now .

Nice work I think I can all say we've all been there doing one thing or another, great to see that we are all human and we all want to do the best we can, don't give up, ever.

Wow what tenacity! Kudos for finishing so well in spite of the many setbacks 🎉

Been there! Something similar happened to me nearly 20 years ago when i started learning violin restoration. And iv seen multiple luthiers get into trouble fast with extremely valuable guitars/violins.

Wow, great work and perseverance

Brilliant mate

Paint cure time could be part of the issue. As a professional painter I know some paints take weeks to fully cure. Manufacturer tries to hide that info for more sales :p read that fine print.

"this is the board from baywatch!" "really?!?!" "well, the foam at least."

dont ever skip buffing content that shit is straight gold there my friend

immediately subscribed. Never heard of your channel, stumbled across this video, love it! Keep doing you!

Great job sir

WOW, I felt your pain on this project. I was seriously in full anxiety mode as things went wrong over and over again. Great job pushing through and only destroying 1 poor defenseless sander. LOL

Nice job. That's some serious work

Great job! What a stressfull job!

Does the board moving around while you work on it drive you crazy? Seems like you should have some sort of setup to keep it clamped or held down.

this video is a must watch for any contractor, artist, artisan, maker, doer, whatever you wanna call it. you're not always gonna do everything perfect but you can always have integrity and give 100%

RU-vid really gives you the best recommendations at 4am. Hoping this hits the algorithm hard soon so you can achieve your desired 200k views.

"...hi Dave!...your vid just popped-up and I clicked straight away....I`ve been there and done that...but not and that scale!....I always say...Embrace The Struggle...great vid...!"😎🤙🌴

That was a master class in perseverance. I'm not a shaper myself, but I would have quit and got a job as a taxi driver after seeing the de-laminated tail - never mind the rails. Nice work!

I think it looks pretty cool un restored, and it's all original, basically now just a reproduction with original foam, wow 1 million for the foam, I would have thought it was the outside people would pay for, hope it didn't end up in the bin

Nice mate! As cornball as that show was, as a teen aged surf mad grom in Perth WA, it was never missed🤙

endless summer baby!!

That's the OG version of Local Motion for their logo. So cool to see they said yes.

How awsome that Local Motion sent you the vector graphics.

Video was such a freaking treat to watch.

As soon as drywall spackle came out I knew this was gonna be a good one 😂

Well done man good result in the end that looked stressful 🤙✨

I think the problem of the delamination must come from the spray paint on the blanck, I don't have a huge amount of experience, but I friend of mine actually had this problem shaping one of his first boards.

Never watched your videos before but loved this one and your app seems so genius keep it up.

what an absolut mayhem in getting this done, well done!

Brother It was the Spackle in the library with the lead pipe. As a painter I know that this product is ONLY for the thinnest cosmetic fixes. It would not bond to foam especially thicker at the rails. It might have worked for hanging the surfboard on the wall If you had doubled down on the proper sealer that would have Soaked in and bonded but for the ocean, it was over at the Spackle😅

I have learned this the hard way in my craft aswell - can feel the tension through the screen

Great work on this vid You’re a good filmmaker I too have been burned on spackling And q cel too Naked foam or nada

Insane work bro. 👍💜🤙🌊🦆

No matter how long you've been doing something, you're always gonna make mistakes. Sometimes several. A lot of the time, it has nothing to do with how skilled you are. Sometimes it just happens. You did right by identifying the issue, freaking out at a reasonable rate, fixing it, and moving on to the next step.