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Fin Box Installed, Board Sanded, and Bottom Gloss Coat - Part 7

The Grain Surfboards Waterlog surfboard has now had the fin box installed, the entire board has been sanded, and the bottom has received its gloss coat. Lots of progress since my last post. 

I bought a Fins Unlimited Performance fin. No idea if that was a good idea or not, but it looks cool.  

 

In my last post I had installed the vent plug and the leash cup. Since then I routed out the trench for the fin box and installed it. It went easier than I expected but I was nervous routing the trench. 

Before installing the blocking for the fin box a few weeks ago, I drilled two marker holes for where the fin box would go so that I could easily see where to install it when I finally got to this point. I felt better about doing this than using measurements from the tail that might change somewhat during shaping. See the pictures below and you can make out the two holes fore and aft of the box layout.  


I taped off the area and then carefully measured out from the lines 2 13/16" to account for my router base and bit. Then taped down boards to act as guides for the router. It worked really well although I cut the trench a bit too large. But that just allowed for more epoxy so it's all good.  

Here is after the routing but before epoxying the fin box down. I re-taped it. 

I installed my fin box a touch farther forward than the manual suggested because I was really worried about routing into the top deck. Turns out I shouldn't have been worried. But what that meant was that I routed into an open section of the stringer and had to fill it with thickened epoxy before adding the fin box. 

When I epoxied in the the fin box, I had a fin installed in it so that I could clearly see if it was in straight. It was and I did not have to do anything to align it luckily. After these pictures were taken I used a syringe to fill the gaps with thickened epoxy. My first go didn't completely fill them. 


The next day after fully curing, I used my sander with 80 grit paper on it and sanded the rim of the fin box flush with the bottom. 

Now I could take the board outside and sand it. Here's how the deck looked after sanding.  


Today I did the gloss coat on the bottom. Here are some pics. 


This is how it looks now. I could probably do the deck gloss coat tomorrow but might wait an additional day for it to more fully cure so that I don't get any indent marks on the bottom. 

At this point I am not sure if I'll do anything else to the board or not. The manual suggests sanding and polishing the board, but right now there are not tooooo many ugly bits and I might just leave it glossy. After just a few uses it will start to show scratches anyway so I'm not sure if I'll bother or not. However, my wife likes the idea of a satin finish so maybe I will...  

Next will be do gloss coat the deck and then make some decisions about any final treatments. 

 

Aloha! 




 

 

 

 

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