DIY kiteboard delamination repair with pictures

[Loki]

Theory delaminated and dinged up the edges of this board a couple years ago and was about to throw it out. I asked if I could try to repair it instead of him scrapping the board. It went well. Last I heard he was still using the board.

I settled on gorilla glue for it's light weight and flexibility, as well as ability to spread out and fill in any gaps.

First I needed to repair the cracked plastic. I scoured the house for suitable replacement plastic and settled on, of all things, a kitty litter bucket as the best fit. I first laminated together pieces to get to the right thickness, then sanded down to get the thickness just right (this took forever ... if I went too fast, the plastic would melt!) I finally trimmed everything back to fit the gouges in the plastic just right. I ended up removing a piece of existing plastic to make my job easier. The area I removed is shown in the first picture. After this, mist the area with water, glue and clamp like hell with random pieces of wood to prevent damage to the board as well as even out the applied pressure. This is pretty standard procedure for gorilla glue. Wait until dry, trim with x-acto knife and sand down as necessary.

For the actual delamination, I did it in two steps to prevent the gorilla glue from having nowhere to go and possibly bulging. Plus, I only had a few clamps. I had to resort to some crescent wrenches torqued down with vice grips, which is pretty ... I'll call it "inventive". It was actually a triangular-shaped delamination. Both front corners and about 1/4th of one side were delaminated. The other side was pretty much fine. I glued/clamped the entire front and part of the middle area to start ( spray with water, gorilla glue all over, clamp like mad and weigh down with 2 50lb bags of sand) then glued/clamped the side. It was easier doing it this way than the other way around, as it was easier opening up the side to apply glue than it was the front of the board.

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[Salmonslayer]

I love the use of a common household item as a prosthetic device. It is sooo anti-Stringy.

When clamping curves i find it is easier to use multiple layers of thin plywood. They are more likely to bend to the board instead of have the board bend to a thicker piece of wood.

I did not see an "after" pic!!!???

[Loki]

Just look at a stock photo. That's how good it was. Seriously though, it seemed totally normal. Just two white patches showing.

Ask Theory for a photo?

[jake s]

Great work.

[Scotte]

Why do you spray it with water?

[Loki]

Gorilla glue instructions.

[FR-Kiter]

Hi Loki,
I saw your delamination kiteboard pictures, and I was wondering if the kiteboard was still fiked ?
Or how many months or years it works.
____________________________________________________
D. of the French Kitesurfing team

[Loki]

I fixed it for a friend who was going to throw it out. He used it for about a year before selling it (he got a new quiver of kites and replaced all his boards.) Every time I'd see him on the beach, I'd take a look at the board. Seemed to hold up just fine. There was no degradation from what I could tell.