Post #654692 by Alii Tiki on Sat, Oct 6, 2012 9:12 PM

On 2012-10-06 20:22, nui 'umi 'umi wrote:
A T, What a great find! I would not hesitate to ask Leroy at O. A.
I'd be careful with the insulating foams. They expand pretty quick and you just don't know how frail the interior of that beauty is. You could also ask the workers at a museum that currently has an exhibition featuring carved wood whatever. My 2 cents.
Cheers

Leroy is a definite on my list of calls, spoke with an old surfboard shaper/boat builder that I know locally and he seemed to think my approach would achieve good results. His suggestion is a 50/50% laminating resin and styrene blend, injected via syringe and tubing into predilled holes in key areas and done in phases to allow a good saturation rate without having too much heat trapped inside at any one time. He also mentioned covering the exterior surface with wax paper to keep any spillage from becoming a permanent feature.
Sounds like a pretty straight forward job - now it's up to me to NOT F*#-KITUP !!!
***Actually the Tahitian pole visible behind this one I'm gonna try the expanding foam with a pole run through (like 8ftTiki) as it's completely cored out and hopefully the foam will choose the path of least resistance, but that's another project in the works for another day. ;}