So, some water got into the board this past weekend, and by the time I got home, I could feel that one plank on the bottom side of the board was warping a bit. Kind of "cupping" up. I tried putting a little pump over the vent to suck out the air gently and any moisture with it, but by the end of the next day, two more boards had also "cupped" up. The board was staying in the garage, and we were having a bit of a heat wave out here, so I think the heat and moisture basically caused this. And not being able to suck out the moisture better. Looking back, it may have been best to drill a hole or two and patch up later, but get the board dried out immediately. I was a little worried on the fact that most likely this meant that the planks were not still glued to the internal frame where they were cupping up, and this would eventually manifest into something worse. And if there was still moisture in there, it may cause rotting or mold inside. Also looking back, I shouldn't have shouted to my friend to bring the board out, without telling him to screw in the vent! ha
So the planks that warped were the two on either side of the center plank. The two touching these planks on the outside of them seem to be fine. So instead of stripping all planks off and completely redoing the bottom, I am just stripping off the three center planks. Since the two on either side of the center were warped, I figured it may be best to pull out the center plank also, and replace it in the process. Also, since I'm not taking out the two planks outside these ones I've pulled, I am not messing with the fin boxes or having to dig them out and replace them. This isn't exactly what I imagined I'd be working on now, but here's the positives on replacing these planks:
a. I can get those knots out of the inside of the board that fell out after I glued on some last pieces. They've been rattling around in the board since it was finished. These will be taken out since I am exposing the internal frame! pumped on this.
b. I will also remove the tail block and replace it. When I glassed the board, this was my second board to glass, and I took too long on getting it all wetted out, and the glass wrapping around the tailblock looks like crap. You could see the cloth, which you should, so I will be replacing this also, and it should look better!
c. Since I'm removing the three center planks, I can get to the internal blocking that supports my vent that comes through the top of the board. I'm going to pull out this blocking and the vent, install new blocking and a new vent that is a goretex vent. This will just remain in place at all times because the goretex lets air through, but not water. This way, I won't have to worry about screwing in and unscrewing the vent screw everytime I, or someone else, goes in and out of the water. I had initially not gotten this vent because I am cheap and it was 17 dollars instead of the 6 dollar vent screw. Lesson learned here.... I will go ahead and admit that I already forgot to unscrew the vent screw once and let the board sit in my apartment and car for some time, with the vent screw in, and it was very hot, so I will avoid situations like this from not on also.
d. I can glue in little strips of support along the internal frame, which won't add weight really, but will provide more gluing surface for the planks. I did this for the top of the board planks because I learned this tip after gluing in the bottom side planks. Now I can do this on the bottom, and hopefully further prevent something like this happening again....
Here is it almost all cleaned up and ready for some new planks. This wasn't as hard as I thought to get the old planks out. Just set the circular saw to the right depth and cut lots of little strips along the planks you're pulling out. Then you can pull these little strips off the internal frame easier and the glue usually came with it, without taking wood away from the internal frame. Any remaining glue or wood was just scraped off with a wood chisel.
Here's my new skateboard shape too! I'll be trying this out later today!
I traced the wood grain with a woodburning pen and then painted some acrylic up front. It doesn't look as cool as I'd imagined, but whatever, it will get messed up soon anyways.
