Most skateboards are made of layers of wood. There are exceptions. Plastic boards with metal reinforcement, aluminum boards, and even solid wood boards. But typically you’re looking at layers of wood glued together. The deck is then pressed into a shape. However, over the years, you’ll likely a damage your board. It’ll hit a curb hard and may split at those layers. To fix it, you’ll have to do a smaller version of the process that was used to make your board. Here’s how to get started.
Materials
- Wood Glue (I like Gorilla wood glue, it dries clear and has a flat nozzle)
- A clamp or clamps (make sure they have soft rubber or plastic ends)
- Paper towels
Optional:
- Wood filler, if there are splinters of your board missing
- You’ll also need sandpaper and likely paint/sealer for this.
- Color-matching glossy paint or clear sealer/paint
- Toothpicks or Q-Tips (for clean up and glue maneuvering)
- Rubbing alcohol for cleaning
The Process
This is actually pretty easy. Don’t worry if you’re not too handy. First, make sure the area is cleaned. You can brush this off or take a Q-tip or paper towel with a little rubbing alcohol to make sure it’s clean. If there’s dust or lint, you’re never going to get a perfect seal and you’ll have to do this all again eventually.
Next, squirt wood glue into the crack. You may need to pry it open slightly. If you have toothpicks, you can use them to gently hold open the delaminated area. But be careful! Too far and you’ll do more damage.
You want to make sure wood glue gets into the crack. You may find it helpful to position your board so you can pour down into the crack. If you have a wood glue with a thin, flat nozzle, you can often inject it into the crack.
Then, squeeze it together. You’ll have excess wood glue come out of the crack, but that’s okay. Use your finger, a paper towel, or a Q-tip to laminate it over the crack’s external portion. You can always sand down wood glue later, but this will help provide a seal as the wood dries.
Next, use your hand clamp to firmly clamp the crack, but don’t squeeze hard enough to damage the wood. You want a very firm clamp though, and your board can take a lot if it’s not water damaged. I recommend one with rubber ends, as to not damage your board. If you don’t have this, you can use some scrap cloth to make a soft surface. However, this will also stick to the glue. That’s why the best solution is rubber ends on your clamps.
If you’re having trouble getting excess glue off, use a lightly damp cloth or paper towel. This will remove the excess glue more easily. Just be sure to do this after you’ve clamped, so you’re not wiping away glue you’ll need or introducing more moisture into the crack.
Let that sit overnight, clamped. By the morning, your board will look almost like new!
If you had pieces of your board missing, you can now add wood filler. Allow that to dry for a few hours, then sand it down with sandpaper or some spare grip tape. Then you can paint it or apply a clear coat of sealer or paint. This only works for small fixes though, don’t expect to rebuild large parts of your board with wood filler.
I did this recently for a board that sits on one end frequently and had previous damage in that area. You can still see the initial damage in the fixed photo below, but the part that was becoming delaminated is now firmly in place. I was lucky, it was the last layer before the grip tape, and the grip tape also helped hold it together.
Damaging a formerly pristine board can be a bit of a downer. But remember, these things are going to get beat up. There’s a reason you likely own an entire quiver of boards. Your board will see rocks, spills, speed bumps, and surprise potholes. It’s all going to mess up your board, even if you’re not doing tricks. Nothing lasts forever, even cool and pretty boards. Now you know how to fix them!
tl;dr:
Too many words? I did a rough sketch for this article instead of the usual outline I do for articles. Here it is!
