Little restoration project that is in the way.
Motivation: One of my old MTB deck lacks a bit of angle on the tips for the channel trucks to turn properly. It wasn’t the original board that was on those trucks, but that one delaminated pretty bad a couple of years ago, and is a write off. That temp board was OK for a bit, and the large turning radius was not too much of a big deal when used with a kite, as there’s always potential to slide and push through the turns. Anyway, I was trying to find a proper MTB deck, but shipping from UK to NZ is a killer, MBS is all out of stock, …
But then, a friend gave me an old deck that has a pretty interesting shape. APT brand ,… Early 2000s, made in NZ. Good flip tips, concave and wide, compact wheel base, should be pretty nimble… Board is a bit distressed though…
Wet stains on the deck are from some penetrating oil to try to remove bindings…
Orbital sander is not really the right tool for the job, as the vinyl wrap tends to clog the disks pretty quickly. The sanding disk kit for the angle grinder is a much more efficient option!
At this stage, I’m pretty much set to clean it a bit further and prepare for a fibreglassing job. All the holes and scars will be filled with epoxy putty, and new holes matching my trucks requirements will have to be drilled eventually. Existing holes spacings are 50mm / 70mm, whereas my trucks seem to require 70mm/86mm… how foolish was I to expect some standards, right?
Didn’t take pics of the cleanup of edges, big mess of a fibreglass dust…
Board is definitely stiffer now, and should be pretty much bombproof. Still looks pretty bad, with the stains underneath, but that will be the duty of the clear coat and finish paint…
Today I did a gloss coat, and I ventured into some experimental resin tinting, happily mixing into my resin a pot of black sparkly eyeshadow. I’m not completely sure at this stage if this lets me get away with it, or if I’ll need to paint, but this gave some color to hide the blemishes underneath, and it’s got some sparkle in the light. At least the wooden core is now fully sealed.
The paintbrush strokes gave some sort of charred oak wood aspect. Far from perfect, but that’s a level of finish that could potentially suit my low standards…
Actually love that effect! This is a cool project. All boards wish their master was as caring as you!
Did something similar with a Comet Ethos. Was in rough shape. Stripped, filled stained and sealed. Now it’s a snowskate!
Great work.
Weather didn’t play ball the last few days with either humid conditions or 120km/h winds, which aren’t suitable conditions for doing resin outside.
In the end, I managed to do a cleaner finish on top and bottom, lots of sparkly resin with a bit of purple mixed in, some wet sanding and finally a clearcoat, to finish that leftover can that was rusting away in the shed.
That’s probably good enough in terms of finish for my personal use… Lots of imperfections, bugs getting stuck in the curing resin, disposable paintbrushes losing stray hair in the middle of the action,… but fukit, that’ll do!
Onto more functional details now… In the next post
I feel this! Even with going through it with a fine toothed comb after resin application, I still manage to find a hair or 2 the next morning.
Frit hides a lot, but anything fritless will show imperfections
These were the old channel trucks I wanted to reuse, but despite their shiny genuine Trampa™ springs, there is a massive source of squeak due to the king pin being fairly worn out and rusted out.
I thought I’d stop being a cheap ass and treat myself with a pair of Matrix2. I know everyone is going metal on those, but they’re sold out pretty much everywhere, and I could find those locally. I can still go for a baseplate upgrade later… But I’m pretty sure that for the intended usage of kite/wing board, that composite material would be adequate
Bit of cleaning the wheels, putting some fresh bearings and spacers, another setback desperately searching for speed rings or washers to take up the 2mm slop still present once the nut had reached the end of the threaded axle. Washers are a bit big and overlapping too much over the spinning part of the bearing. Once some sand goes behind the washer, it’ll add extra drag. Probably gonna print speed rings…
And first 5km test ride on asphalt with a quick tow-in mission, trying to adjust the bushings for a looser feel. Quite a dramatic change from the Evo in terms of how it turns… Definitely requires more coercion to turn, and some re-training for more back foot drive. Still quite a large turning radius, maybe I’ll try to wedge the trucks a bit more. Looks like about 28 degrees tips at the moment.
Bindings will help for more leverage, they’re getting a coat of paint to hide the rusty bits…
This required some new 40ish mm bolts, since the original 30mm ones aren’t up to the job anymore.
Ending up with a mix of Hex and Phillips, steel and stainless steel M5 hardware… Oh well… there will always be a time to rationalize all of that one day…
