Minor repairs to carbon wing

[alowishus]

Kite and prone surf in unreasonably shallow waters with lots of shells. As I said, it doesn't look nearly as bad in person, I think there are only a few small spots that actually penetrated the outer skin. I'm just coming off of a slingshot H4 which I could abuse badly with nary a nick, so I clearly need to recalibrate my tolerance to the shallows. Had no idea a carbon wing would be so sensitive. I didn't have any major impacts, just some light nosing into the sand 2-3 times. I also upped my mast size at the same time as switching to Moses wing, so my sense of depth was also thrown off a bit.

Yeh, the G10 wings are almost indestructible! I was always more worried about my board breaking at the collar than the wing or the mast when I bottomed out. Some of the Slingshot gear is bomb proof

[Foil]

So you used the plastic filler primer to coat the whole wing and fill in tiny scratches, then sanded down and sprayed over with gloss finish black?

The filler primer when fine sanded between coats covers any very slight scratch, but nothing deep, I use JB for that, or if very small then glass compound, but the filler primer will cover sand scuffs and slight imperfections, but it needs fine finishing every time between coats to get a super smooth finish.

I don't use the wings with the high gloss finish as shown in the photos,
I use 600 grade wet paper to to matt all the surfaces down, one way strokes back to front, lots of fresh water,
the matt finish using 600 paper looks special, and is easier to maintain, the surface shows any finger oil, normally delivered by curious dog walkers who will rub the wings asking "is that carbon"
I don't know which is worse, their dog peeing on it, or their greasy hand smears. both I guess is the worst,that can spoil my day

[ragzilla]

Good quality super glue.... and bicarb soda.

No doubt your laughing...... but google it.

If its good for formula 1 , its good enough for me

[MaximumAC]

Alright carbon repair guru's. I poked in all the little holes to deepen them a bit, sanded the edge lightly to roughen it up, taped off the leading edge, alcohol wiped it all down and then poked little gobs of JB into all the holes. Since the whole leading edge showed whitening/scuffing I decided to lightly smear JB all across it. Currently there's a little excess that I assume will sand away nicely. I literally just did this so I have some time to amend my work if y'all say different. What say ye?

yes done that, thought my wing was dead after seeing the inside foam,
fixed mine and it looked like new.(and was back to flying fast and true.
what I did-
first using a very small micro screwdriver mini flat blade type, I scraped out a deep V into the open nose edge, this would allow a deep seating area for the JB marine epoxy, and ensure the epoxy would key into the top and bottom skins and give a epoxy bumper for future impacts and scrapes,

the wing needs to be fixed secure edge up when applying the JB. and cover the undamaged surfaced to prevent JB epoxy running down and sticking to them.

Using a slightly larger mini slot edge screwdriver I layed on a line of JB, ensure the JB is warm and runny and push the epoxy into the gap, being patient as you go and tease out any bubbles with small little dibbing in movements,

Leave to set until like putty to the touch, around 4-6 hrs,
using wet fingers mould the jb to the correct shape and leave to set,
covering it with tape did not work when previously used, the putty stage and finger shaping works just fine.

when set hard 400 wet paper to get the profile back to new, any bubbles or imperfections will need another application of JB, being very fussy may need yet another fine application and wet finish with 800 then 1200 wet paper.

Finish with filler primer spray, and the next day a final wet 1200 finish under strong lights.

Dry and secure the wing, close all windows and doors, warm the air if cold or damp, then 2 or three light coats of gloss black.
leave for 24 hrs.
Using T cut then bring back to new all over the wing,

[Foil]

looks good, smooth it out with wet fingers before it goes too hard, and mould it into shape
have you remembered to warm it so you get the runny JB resin filling all the little gaps?
best done quickly when you first apply it, within the 1st 30 minutes ideally.

[MaximumAC]

well shit, i thought you suggested smoothing with fingers at 3-4 hours. She's pretty well set right now. I didn't heat it up but i was working in a pretty warm environment and made sure to poke through as much as i could. Probably took 45 minutes to apply. Guess I'll take the 400 to it in a few hours and see if I can get it back to shape. Best to just run 400 over the putty as it is currently using tape to protect the rest of the wing? I'm always fearful of ruining the rest of the glassing whenever repairing dings in surfboard etc.

[MaximumAC]

is there any value to spray paint other than aesthetics?

[MaximumAC]

OK, sanded to shape with 400, filled small imperfections with glazing putty, wet sanded again at 400/800/1200 and this is what i have now. Feels smooth to touch, but as you can see i've messed up the original finish (there seemed to be small scratches along the top and bottom that i tried to use glazing putty for as well and then had to sand down. Do I just spray over all this? Is this where the T cut color fast comes in? Thanks for holding my hand....learning a lot.

- Alex

looks good, smooth it out with wet fingers before it goes too hard, and mould it into shape
have you remembered to warm it so you get the runny JB resin filling all the little gaps?
best done quickly when you first apply it, within the 1st 30 minutes ideally.

[Foil]

blimey!
If that was mine I would now definitely do the same as shown in the pics above, and then go for the Matt finish.

If you decide to just fine wet sand with 1200 wet paper and polish up with T Cut, you might find the thin surface paint will rub away in patches and look a bit odd, and trying to do this without a Palm Buffer is plain very hard to do.

You might like to try another way that might work if the scratches are not too deep or your not trying to get back to a showroom finish.
first fine wet sand all the wing with 800 then 1200, ensure all nicks, knocks and other imperfections are super smooth,
clean with soapy warm water, paper dry, then run clean water slowly down the full surface, look for a full gloss appearance, no gaps in the sheen.
paper dry and leave in a warm dust free environment, rest the wing on a suitable stand, thick leading edge towards you, wing level.
final surface inspection by eye, at this point I use a hair dryer on low to warm the wing and blow off any tiny bits of dust.
spray the surface with 3 light coats of gloss black, wait a few minutes between each coat, (or follow the instructions on the can)
you should end up with a full edge to edge deep looking high gloss finish, if not leave to dry, around 12 hrs or more depending on room temp,
use 1200 wet paper and use long light stokes to smooth off any tiny imperfections, clean and dry with plain kitchen paper, then dry all over with warm air,
apply 1 or 2 final coats of paint, watch for the gloss joining up between passes of the spray can, missed a bit? go straight back over at the same 10-12 inch distance away.
leave to fully dry, normally 24hrs in a warm 20c environment.
using a palm buffer and T Cut to your prefered look.

[MaximumAC]

lol, this shit is hard man. and what if i just tape off the wing and high gloss spray the parts that look funky now?

The work feels super smooth at this point only with a subtle difference in how the finger slides over the scuffed region. Obviously this will be problematic to water flow to some degree, however this is the 790 so i'm assuming the low speed will negate some of the imperfection.

If I go the filler primer route why use yellow vs black?