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Step 6Finishing touches
You are almost done!
You can either leave your board blank or paint it. For your first board you may want to leave it blank, as it may break, and all your hard painting will be ruined.
But if you do want to paint it here is how.
Painting:
You are going to need some sand paper and spray paint.
Regular paint works too (like the stuff that comes in big tin cans)
Grab your board and take it outside, put it on a desk or sheet or something that will not get ruined when your painting. Spray pant that bad boy all over.
Take breaks and let it dry a bit in between coats.
Always wear a respirator and goggles when spray painting.
Then leave it overnight until it is fully dry. The next day, sand it with your soft grit sandpaper on top and bottom. Be careful to not push too hard, you are just trying to smooth it out, not take away the paint you have just done.
Clear Coating:
If you want to do a clear coat, then do this after you paint.
Just get your clear coat and brush it (or spray it) on. Apply at least 5 or so layers of clear coat, letting the previous one dry before you do the next.
This will let your board have a shiny, protective coating.
Gripping:
Go buy some grip tape!
Now you can apply your grip.
Take your grip and peel it off the backing. Stick it on the part of your board where you want grip, you can also make designs if you want to. Roll it down with a skate wheel to smooth out any air bubbles. Then sand the edges down with a file where the grip hangs over, until it has a kind of while outline. Finally cut it with a razor blade and try to keep it as clean as possible. (see pictures 2-5)
You can either leave your board blank or paint it. For your first board you may want to leave it blank, as it may break, and all your hard painting will be ruined.
But if you do want to paint it here is how.
Painting:
You are going to need some sand paper and spray paint.
Regular paint works too (like the stuff that comes in big tin cans)
Grab your board and take it outside, put it on a desk or sheet or something that will not get ruined when your painting. Spray pant that bad boy all over.
Take breaks and let it dry a bit in between coats.
Always wear a respirator and goggles when spray painting.
Then leave it overnight until it is fully dry. The next day, sand it with your soft grit sandpaper on top and bottom. Be careful to not push too hard, you are just trying to smooth it out, not take away the paint you have just done.
Clear Coating:
If you want to do a clear coat, then do this after you paint.
Just get your clear coat and brush it (or spray it) on. Apply at least 5 or so layers of clear coat, letting the previous one dry before you do the next.
This will let your board have a shiny, protective coating.
Gripping:
Go buy some grip tape!
Now you can apply your grip.
Take your grip and peel it off the backing. Stick it on the part of your board where you want grip, you can also make designs if you want to. Roll it down with a skate wheel to smooth out any air bubbles. Then sand the edges down with a file where the grip hangs over, until it has a kind of while outline. Finally cut it with a razor blade and try to keep it as clean as possible. (see pictures 2-5)
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Once again, no idea if this would work, it seems practical, but I'm not sure.
I love longboarding, the only problem is that all the coordination i have is in my hands, so i won't be doing any tricks anytime soon. Plus most of the boards i like tend to be a little out of price range...
some people use castor sugar on windsurf boards and it works well, except its more for barefoot riding.
the crushed glass is savage, but will last forever, just be careful about how coarse it is or u will rip up the tread on ur shoes.
Worst case: just put tape on top of your sandy monster. Haha.
I guess fine sand isn't really what i meant to say, I don't want the stuff that you find in hourglasses, but no too coarse that I have to hit the grains with a hammer 37 times just to get the consistency that I want.
I'm not too into the sand terminology, but the sand you might buy for a kids sandbox or just sand you can find on any old riverbank.
I can see why you might only want one coat on top of the sand, but thanks for making me seem like I'm not completely off-base.
I used that, coupled with a MinWax Polycrylic applied with a spray gun on mine - sprayed a light coat, sprinkled, sprayed, sprinkled where I missed, sprayed x 6...
Turned out nice and smooth, semi-gloss finish, been riding it for 2.5 years, and it's finally needing a touchup this year. I don't ride barefoot, and it didn't destroy my shoes in any way (even my old Cons...)
The 10Kg bag of glass was under $10, the poly was about $13, bonus, the glass was made from recycled glass.
The only thing I'd look at changing is the latex-based poly - I think pinholes/missed spots may sightly contribute to the loss of grip over the years....
The only drawback in the re-application is if you had a custom painted design on top (I just have green-stained wood) - I imagine that you'd need to scrape and sand carefully, as paint remover/stripper would remove the design ;)