Jim Davidson Window Board
I was trying to get the look of a jet motor, and multi-levels but still surfboard style.
I cut the windows out at the shaping stage, it might have been more sensible to do it after glassing it, the windows posed a big problem, I shaped a rebate into the edges, but it filled in a bit with the glass job … by my old mate GRAHAM “BLACKIE” BLACK, that stumped me a bit … and it got shelved for a few years …. glassed and fillered
around the tail, i shaped a reverse rail between the flyers, that is a concave rail !!! and the tail is square rails.
so …. further to the rebate on the edge of the windows, when we filler coated it, they filled in a little more, MARTIN WRIGHT got to sanding it, and the rebates just didn’t work, while it sat around, the foam yellowed, so I re-painted it on the glass … enter STEVE BARBER a few years later, he saw it and offered to “fix it up”, I was stoked, it was back on the racks ….
the fins … as sharp as, I have already stabbed myself once … I am guessing a bit, but I think MARTIN WRIGHT made them, under my strict instructions! somehow they have followed the board for at least 20 years … as I am typing I am astounded with how long this thing took … !
STEVE BARBER had the board for a good few years, that wasn’t a problem, really, I was having a marriage split and raising my kids, busy, busy … I crossed steve’s path later in the ’90s or even early 2000s, we agreed it was time to do somethin’, steve nutted out the rebates and perspex using all the skills a surfboard builder can muster, plus a bit … but he had to sand the paint job ….
fitting the perspex was thought about for at least 20 years, ha ha ha ha, or every time I looked at it … I had to cut new windows with my trusty angle grinder, somehow I didn’t slip … but dust and silicone, drilling small holes on the edges of the perspex, then enlarging halfway through, 1mm, in the perspex to house the head of the pins, applying the silicon so it didn’t squeeze into the clear space was also a challenge … all this happened and somehow finished off pretty neat … I suppose after all that time and thought, it should …. wipe me brow … phew! … it’s done.
the windows are 2mm perspex and are custom-fitted into the rebates, i have labored over them in the past month or so … and the result is quite good … a friend said, “by putting windows in the board i was getting a look into the soul of the wave ” … toooo f’n coool !!
the rails and the center bar have plenty of glass, and filler / q-cells / and chopped fiberglass, but it isn’t tested, and I feel like a prototype, it has no reference for strength and may not be strong enough to withstand a pounding by a wave … but can a surf be resisted ???? hmmmmm ??
the flyers have a deep channel in the blue area, and the next flyer curves up from the bottom of the board, obviously a funky new design concept back in time.
so …. I picked the board up and it came to my hose for a holiday, me thinkin’ …. “I gotta paint that dang thing again !!!!” it sat and sat and sat … I finally painted it again at least 10 years ago, it now needed new windows, they were scratched and misty ….