Fairly new board turning yellow already?
Is it like that for the entire length of the rail?
My firewire has yellowed from the nose to about 1/3 of the way down. It's pretty old, going on 3 years now but still in great condition. My board sits year round in the car (in a cover- creatures slim fit) and experiences I suppose pretty big temperature fluctuations, negatives in winter and Queensland temps in summer. I'm pretty slack when it comes to taking care of boards and leave at least 3 in the car year round.
I'm putting the yellowing down to heat but seems quite unusual for it to get that way so soon.
By the way, interestingly, under the wax, the board remains white which I've noticed when I changed the wax (once- ha ha).
Has the board ever been dinged and repaired on that side? sometimes the smallest amount of moisture that has been patched over can turn yellow, even fluro yellow especially with excessive heat. Maybe it got a bit wet somehow before being glassed?
is it just the wood in the rail that's yellowed or is it more widespread than that? bit hard to tell from the photo
f'me 44c!...your office sounds fun :)
No dings, cracks, dents or fractures at all on the board, it's only on the left hand side of the rail, starts near the tail pad and goes right up to about 10cm from the nose, I've contacted firewire to see what they say.. Guess I'll just have to live with it as the board still surfs as if it was new, just doesn't look as pretty with a yellow rail.
Might even paint the rails haha
It only got so hot in the room that day as it was around 35c outside temp and our aircon was broken that day.. Our house has very poor ventilation, stinking hot in summer and freezing cold in winter.
Still seems a shame that its started to yellow already after owning the board since November last year.
It looks like a UV problem.....not enough UV inhibitor in the resin.
I know Firewire changed resins last year and starting using a Bio resin.....and there was a fair bit of yellowing on new firewires in Japan when I was there in Nov....
heat can't yellow a board...its UV light that beaks down the resins to a yellow color.......if you lightly sand the rail of the bd....it should go whiter...which proves its the resin!
Could I wet and dry the deck of my 3 year old firewire to whiten it up a bit Brutus?
zen....would be interesting to do...use a 400 Wet and dry paper...but sand it in area ,such as the nose first and see if its just the fillacoat that's yellowed or also the glass......nothing to lose from a tech/strength point of view!!
Hey guys, thanks for the response's.
I'll try the sanding trick, Also I should note, The left side of the board does not see any sun light where it is stored, The right hand side does how ever.
Summary: Left = Yellow, Right = Normal.
Is one rail softer than the other??
Both are hard with no squishy places
Ahhh Firewire hey - heard nothing but bad things with them and the heat.
My mate bought one recently, the Potato-nator, rode it once, had it sitting in a sock cover under the pergola in his backyard and next time he checked it he found it had completely de-laminated from the tail to just under ya chest. Looks like a giant blister. Board now un-rideable.
For the weeks leading up to it the temperature had never gotten above 28 degrees C.
Now he's jumping thru hoops trying to get his money back.
brutus wrote:It looks like a UV problem.....not enough UV inhibitor in the resin.
I know Firewire changed resins last year and starting using a Bio resin.....and there was a fair bit of yellowing on new firewires in Japan when I was there in Nov....
heat can't yellow a board...its UV light that beaks down the resins to a yellow color.......if you lightly sand the rail of the bd....it should go whiter...which proves its the resin!
Would dispute that heat can't yellow a board Brutus. I had my board in it's cover off and on at Cactus for a week (when I wasn't riding it) and it went yellow. Not the entire board but a fair percentage. Mind you at some stage during that week it was 44 degrees in the shade.
nope uv.as brutus said,some where there's been exposure.Ask an industrial chemist who makes the stuff! uv is the enemy of epoxy.
Spidermonkey, epoxy finishes on boats seem to last way longer than a surfboard before yellowing or breaking down and when it does theres a heap of rejuvate products avail to bring back the finish, [vivilon]would something like that work on a firewire or is it the clear fillercoat that yellows ? is it a different type of epoxy they use in boat construction or just the gel coat with large amount of U.V. inhibitor.
Surftech epoxy technology seems pretty good,the finish does not go chalky, even 10 yr old boards look good after years in the sun.
maddogmorley wrote:brutus wrote:It looks like a UV problem.....not enough UV inhibitor in the resin.
I know Firewire changed resins last year and starting using a Bio resin.....and there was a fair bit of yellowing on new firewires in Japan when I was there in Nov....
heat can't yellow a board...its UV light that beaks down the resins to a yellow color.......if you lightly sand the rail of the bd....it should go whiter...which proves its the resin!
Would dispute that heat can't yellow a board Brutus. I had my board in it's cover off and on at Cactus for a week (when I wasn't riding it) and it went yellow. Not the entire board but a fair percentage. Mind you at some stage during that week it was 44 degrees in the shade.
has your board cover got 100% UV protection?? when there is heat there is usually a lot of UV around....another possibility is that if your bd was not cured at a high Temp...the UV protection might only work up to the temp it was made at.......curing a s/bd @ 50 degrees plus usually slows down the yellowing process.....if ya bd was cured @ a low temp say 25 ...as soon as the temp reaches 26 starts to yellow........that's why a post cure is imperative for all bds....
brutus wrote:maddogmorley wrote:brutus wrote:It looks like a UV problem.....not enough UV inhibitor in the resin.
I know Firewire changed resins last year and starting using a Bio resin.....and there was a fair bit of yellowing on new firewires in Japan when I was there in Nov....
heat can't yellow a board...its UV light that beaks down the resins to a yellow color.......if you lightly sand the rail of the bd....it should go whiter...which proves its the resin!
Would dispute that heat can't yellow a board Brutus. I had my board in it's cover off and on at Cactus for a week (when I wasn't riding it) and it went yellow. Not the entire board but a fair percentage. Mind you at some stage during that week it was 44 degrees in the shade.
has your board cover got 100% UV protection?? when there is heat there is usually a lot of UV around....another possibility is that if your bd was not cured at a high Temp...the UV protection might only work up to the temp it was made at.......curing a s/bd @ 50 degrees plus usually slows down the yellowing process.....if ya bd was cured @ a low temp say 25 ...as soon as the temp reaches 26 starts to yellow........that's why a post cure is imperative for all bds....
No my board cover hasn't got 100% UV protection - I don't think so anyway.
Ahh makes sense re: where there is a lot of heat there is a lot of UV around - thanks Brutus.
epoxies are rarely used as topcoats except in industrial or specialist applications where chalking is not such an issue.epoxies on Boats are always topcoated with polyurathanes or other uv stabil coatings.I thought surftecs were coated with a poly u topcoat.Could be wrong.
Tried the sanding trick, didn't really do anything for me..
Currently in an email war with firewire Australia and they keep telling me it must be cracked..
It's not cracked, I've checked literally 10 times, even had friends look.
Any idea what paint is safe to use on epoxy boards?
Was the board in a rack facing a window in the shop ....where one rail could have got sunburnt and maybe you didn't notice the difference in rail colour until now ?
Any paint other than waterbased should be o.k. 2pac probably best ......just lightly sand to take the shine off to provide a key for the paint to stick and wipe down with wax and degreaser before you paint. ...
spidermonkey will know more on the best paint.
I find it extremely strange that the yellowing is ruler straight line on both sides with a wood grain-like appearance yet so starkly white on the other sides of those lines. I don't know much about epoxy's but I know that sun or heat damage to any surface would rarely ever be so uniform or defined an edge.
Where the yellowing stops is there a join [finger join]in the timber strip ? post another pic of where the colour change stop starts.
When the board was stored in that 44deg room was that area of darkened rail leaning on something that may have been hotter in the room ? the room was not your office but a different room?
Interlopr wrote:Tried the sanding trick, didn't really do anything for me..
Currently in an email war with firewire Australia and they keep telling me it must be cracked..
It's not cracked, I've checked literally 10 times, even had friends look.
Any idea what paint is safe to use on epoxy boards?
Maybe try a UV light to see if there is a crack, if there is it will pick up the moisture in it and show the crack. Doubt that it would be that though as the yellowing would have started from the crack.
Can you take it back to where you bought it from? Get the manager/owner of the shop to assess it and he can talk to Firewire , it's called customer service, look it up in a history book.
Very hard to tell from photos, just looks like different shade of wood?.
But epoxy boards do yellow more with time than Poly PU boards, it does kinda suck my first FW is a few years old now, only has one pressure ding on the bottom and never any open dings, but the deck has gone yellow, despite keeping in out of heat and in a board bag, IMO its the only negative of Epoxy, I've been hassling Firewire to do all board sprays so i can get a colour that doesn't look to bad as it ages, but no luck yet, even though i have connections that can pretty much get me a custom on any model.
It is do do with exposure to UV light as when i take my wax off, its more white, and you can't sand it out i think it goes pretty much through the glass.
I agree with comment above thats its likely its been sitting somewhere with exposure to UV light for some time, like close to a window at surf shop.
Surftek and epoxy boats are different, don't know what the deal is but its a much different finish/resin, not just in that it stays white, but its also different in that its very strong but also very brittle and possibly has less flex.
did the rail change color when you lightly sanded it...ie; did it go less yellow??
I don't think you can compare the new FW 's to the old ones.....the older ones were stronger but did yellow a fair bit.......the newer ones should not yellow as much.....where did you buy the board,as they should be the ones dealing with FW...
as far as surftech goes ...they use a 2 pak epoxy finish which is like a pigment coat....if you use this shit becareful ...its supa toxic and shoud only be used where there is good ventilation....and use a bloody good mask...
Sanding the board didn't really make a difference, Not enough to notice atleast.
Board still goes awesome, went for 2 surfs over the weekend.
Guess I'm just being a little anal because it's already started turning yellow after such a short period! I guess I could paint it and then I wouldn't see it.
The wood itself could have had a greater moisture content in one piece than the other, one piece has some fiddleback in it. I, not sure they re same timber. Similar looks in timbers are not always the same type...even if similar genus. Same tree can be yellower towards centre but..........it's all acadaemic or worse because none of that really helps the problem!... 'who know's what happened to the timber before being glassed-in...? and what yellowing process was on the way before or after.
One piece may have come say from Malaya and the other locally or elsewhere in the Pacific. There's only two real alternatives at the end of the day ...take it back and sort it out, or check it for absorbent cracks though I'd expect salt water to bleach the timber rather than yellow it.... persevere onwards. For me?....With such nice rails I'd be taking it back and saying 'please...I am really disappointed'.....and if you get some empathy, ask for a replacement with two really nice nice rails.
Hey all, have had my firewire spitfire maybe going on 3 months now and surfed literally 3 times, bought brand new and still looks new.. Apart from the fact that the left side of the board is starting to yellow?
I haven't surfed it in over a month but picked it up today to go for a surf and noticed it's starting to yellow on the left hand side, board sits inside my office of a day/night when not in use. I thought sun was what turned boards yellow, but the left side of the board doesn't actually see sun, only the right hand side. Can heat essentially turn a board yellow? As last week it got to around 44c inside the room it was stored in, your thoughts?
Here's some pictures,
Left hand side:
Right Hand Side:
