DIY Longboard Renovation

Hello all! CoolRextreme here with my first instructable on how I went about renovating an old longboard; How I designed my own deck, from bottom graphics to the grip tape design.
It was a pretty fun process, though I didn't think about making it an instructable till the very middle. Sorry about the lack of before-hand pictures! :)

I hope you enjoy reading about my project as much as I enjoyed renovating this longboard!

Who should read this?

1. Anyone who wants to renovate their own longboard/skateboard.

2. Anyone who wants to read about the renovation of longboard.

Why should you read this?

1. Detailed List of supplies used

2. Tips and warnings (Learn from my mistakes ;) )

3. See the outcome (Really, its pretty good)

Welp, if you have gotten this far, you probably want to read more. Go ahead, there is plenty for all. And don't forget:

Happy renovating!

-C.R

Once Again, CoolRextreme here with my first instructable, or more like quick journal, on how I went about renovating an old longboard.

First of all I wanted to give a shout out to my fellow instructables, and inspirations!

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"Painting Your Skateboard 101" by CraigSnedeker

Craig has done an amazing job of giving detailed step by step instructions on skateboard re-painting. Without him I would have had to learn a few thing the hard way ;) Million thanks Craig!

Check out his instructable here!

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"How to make an old skateboard into a mini cruiser (spray paint style)" by corimon

'Every artist needs an inspiration' my painting teacher once told me, and that is SO true!

Enter corimon. Now I really didn't do much with my spraypaint besides background colors, I found her mini cruiser piece really inspiring. I mean seriously, take a look at that thing. Mixes beauty with pure custom awesomeness you can't order off of online!

Amazing work corimon! (and by the way, you rock that hat and shades combo!)

Check out her build here!

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"Give a new life of an used longboard." by MrLuca

While MrLuca was not an inspiration for this build (He uploaded his post after I did mine) He did a really good job on his board!

Check out his build here!

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Alright! Now for the quick overview.

This is a quick journal/instructable on how a renovated an old longboard I got from a garage sale!

I actually did not think about making an instructable for this project till I was well underway. Infact I didn't even take pictures until I started my main painting piece on it, so you will have to imagine the old, cracked, dirty, and weathered longboard I started out with. Sorry about that!

Now with that over with, Lets get renovating!!!

1. Longboard parts

1. Old Longboard (Deck/Trucks/Wheels) (This cost me $15 at a garage sale)
2. New M.O.B griptape $6
3. New 90mm Big Foot Wheels and Paris 180 Trucks combo $60 (Ebay)

Total Longboard cost: $81

2. Paints supplies

1. Spray Paint (I used Rustoleum Protective Enamle spray paint in these colors)
2. Black Primer $3.76
3. Gloss Black $3.76
4. Flat Black $3.76
5. Gloss Grey $3.76
6. Flat Brown Unknown*
7. Gloss Clear $3.76

Total Spray Painting supplies cost: $18.80

b. Acrylic Paint (I used Liquitex Acrylic paints in these colors. They cost anywhere between 8-20$)

1. Titainium White
2. Cadmium Red Medium Hue
3. Cadmium Yellow Light Hue
4. Light Blue Permanent
5. Ivory Black

Total Acrylic Paint supplies cost: Unknown**

3. Painting tools

1. Painter's Tape
2. Normal Printer Paper (any will do)
3. Cheap plastic plates
4. Royal & Langnickel #4 Shader Acrylic brush (about $3)
5. Royal & Langnickel 20/0 Round Acrylic brush (about $3)
6. Royal & Langnickel .31 cm Angular Acrylic brush (about $3)
7. Small 1-2 gallon bucket

4. Misc Tools and Supplies

1. 5 gallon bucket
2. Hair Dryer
3. Work table
4. Comfy chair
5. Random Tape
6. 2-sided tape
7. Normal Printer paper
8. Wrenches (for trucks/wheels)
9. Screwdriver (for trucks)
10. Wax Paper
11. Razor Blade
12. Scissors (Junky, as they will be cutting Griptape)
13. Sander + Sand paper
14. Inspirations
15. Music (For long hours of painting and inspiration)
16. Good attitude
17. And the big one: Time!

*Already Had Flat Brown Spray paint from previous project

**Already had Acrylic paints from previous projects

So one day I happened upon a old longboard at some garage sale (Gotta love garage sales!)

They where asking 20 bucks, but they knew me so they let me have it for $15!

Then it all started...

Being my first longboard ever I immediately set to watching youtube, and learning to ride the thing. (still learning today) Somehow I have never fallen off the longboard, and that record holds up to today (Ill let you know when I finally do fall!)

Remember! Always wear your helmet. I do. It may not be the 'coolest' thing to do, and granted, watching brains slowly slip down the front of your face would probably be pretty cool, just don't do it. WEAR A HELMET. You wont regret it :)

After a while of playing with my new, old longboard. I quickly got tired of the faded and dirty blue/white Hawaiian flower design on the bottom of the deck. The top of the deck was not much better either. The griptape design was two gaps, one running down the left side of the board, and the other, larger gap, running across, intersecting about halfway down. The griptape was wearing off, and the naked deck wood underneath was that lovely grey/grown of old weathered wood.

But at least it rolled!

It was about the third week in July (2015) That I decided to put my artistic skills, DIY interest, and Instructable reading to a good ol' end-of-summer project!

I started off witht he obvious Taking off the old trucks and wheels, and giving them a through cleaning as the bolts and nuts had acquired a good amount of rust. I used some WD-40 for those, and some soap and water for the wheels.

I then started on the deck its self. I began with the griptape. The best way to get griptape off a deck is with heat. I found an old hair dryer I used for earlier paintings, and with the heat setting all the way up, proceeded to pour hot air onto the upper edge of the deck, heating it up pretty well. In fact, that hair dyer was so effective at heating, I had to use pliers and work gloves to slowly pull the tape off, and still I could really feel the heat through those gloves and still had to give my fingers breaks.

Seriously! How do girls use these things on their HEAD!?!? That thing could roast a finger or two...

Despite the pain, I managed to slowly get that griptape off the top of the deck. However I was concerned about the layer purple-colored stuff it left behind on the wood. I tried sanding it off, but it seemed to have imbedded it's self into the actual deck. Oh well. After multiple sanding sessions I decided to just let it go, after all it wasn't hurting anything. I just hoped it wouldn't mess with the paint I would apply to the top of the deck later.

I then began on the faded Hawaiian flowers on the bottom of the deck. Besides being faded and worn (you could see wood through some parts) It was, in my opinion, pretty ugly. It needed to go. So without remorse, I began sanding, and sanding, and sanding, and sanding. It took a while to get the entire thing off, as it had also imbedded it's self into the wood slightly, but I did it.

For the last bit of preparing, I sanded off the edges, which, because of exposed layers, had began to crack, chip, and wear. I had to fill in some major cracks and nicks with Epoxy before sanding to give the board that nice smooth, new like look.

Finally, it was ready, to be painted.

First, let me tell you this was the longest part of the whole project. Not because I was being so careful, )which I was) But because, at least in California, you gotta be 18+ in age to buy the spray paint. (thank you random teens who somehow inhale toxic gasses from spray cans without coating their entire mouth with spraypaint. Your addiction has successfully ground my DIY project to a halt!)....

And I didn't QUITE make the age cut. Like, barley....

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6 days later.

Hooray! Dad FINALLY gets some Black Primer, and Grey and Flat-Black Rustoleum Spraypaint from Home Depot. Now what where we going to use it for?. Oh right, that piece of wood resting in the garage. I forgot.

heh.

Anyway, Now it's time to do some serious re-painting.

It almost seemed a shame to once again cover that wood deck. After all, It looked really pretty decent, being that I had sanded it smooth, with all the grey stuff no where to be seen, But I had painting to do.

I hauled it out to the back yard with a 5 gallon bucket to rest it on. I then coated the top and edges 3 times with the primer.

Note: I am REALLY excessive with the paint coatings. Its probably ok if you don't coat it near as much as I do ;)

I then flipped it over and sprayed the bottom and edges (again, as edges will see the most likely see the most wear of all paint being a beginner's ride)

Of course I waited about 20 min between each paint coat.

Next I covered the entire board in another three coats of Grey Spray paint, especially the edges.

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I then made my first mistake. (Warning, don't do this if you are looking for really professional looks)

Mistake #1

I found some random tape (some yellow/tan packaging tape I think) and taped off the edges.

While this was not a major blunder, I will warn you, painting tape is designed so that it's edges seal well with the painting surface. Because I didn't use painter's tape, in some areas around the more curved edges, I got a bit of spatter from spray paint seeping in on the 'covered' edge. Its actually not that bad, and I kinda like it now. But if you want a clean edge, use painter's tape.

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After taping the edges off with the wrong tape. I proceeded to cover the entire top of the board with paper, which was taped down to the tape which taped off the edges of the board.

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Hint: When covering off areas you don't want to get spray painted. I advise you to use this trick. Tape off the outline of the area your going to spray paint with painter's tape. Then cover the rest of the area you DONT want spray painted with random paper. (any will do as long as the spray paint wont seep through) Then, tape that paper down with tape, OVER the tape that outlines where you want painted. That way, when your done, you can peel off the paper and tape that kept the paper down, and be left with the tape that you used to outline your design. You can then proceed to carefully peel THAT tape off, without having to deal with random paper.

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After taping off the edges,

And covering the top of the board, I sprayed the entire bottom with three coats of Flat Black paint. After a while I decided it was slightly to Flat, and repainted it with Gloss black, which I figured would let my future acrylic embellishment ‘pop out’ better. (Which it did, I think)

And yes, 4 days later, dad got around to picking up some Gloss Black from Home Depot.

Thanks Dad!

After that last coat of spray paint, I decided it was time for the major artwork to begin…

Enter, ZOMBIECORN

Before any of this had ever started, I had sketched out a creature I dubbed, the "Zombiecorn"

Yes, Zombiecorn.

No, its not Zombie Corn, its Zombiecorn, as in a Zombie Unicorn.

Why did I draw that? Cause I was bored.

Why did I decided to paint it on my skateboard?

Well, first off all I wanted something that would look clearly custom made/thought up. And I didn't want hawiian flowers either.

True, I could have painted any of my other pretty unicorns on the board (or anything NOT unicorn for that matter; Aliens, Spaceships, ect.), but I wanted something different: a unicorn. Don't see those on a board everyday. Plus some coolness: Enter zombie.

Plus she looked rather, cute. (use your imagination, she DOSE have a kinda cute pose.)

I had emailed a friend for a name idea, and he had suggested Phantom Lace.

BAM. I mean, He really nailed that one! I could never have thought of a name like that. It mixes the scariness of a phantom, and delicateness of lace into one name. Exactly what I was looking for, and exactly how I would describe her. So, without further ado, she was named, Phantom Lace.

And yes, I did draw her a male Zombiecorn friend, but Ill leave him for some other topic/DIY project.

I had also scaned my sketch into the computer and proceded to color her digitaly using GIMP (Free image editing program) and a Wacom Bamboo Tablet (First time actually USING it) I could now look at my digital version and be able to color/shade her well!

I laid my deck, bottom up, on a makeshift worktable, and set out my painting supplies.

Paints,

Brushes

Plates (any really. They are just going to be pallets. I got my plastic plates from Walmart. Just grab some cheap ones that wont let paint soak through.)

1-2 gallon bucket of water (for washing brushes in between colors)

Inspirations: My sketch and digital version of Phantom Lace.

Suddenly it occurred to me I had no way to get my sketch onto the board. I didn't have a light projector I could use, and I didn't want to blind sketch it again onto the board, so I had to do quite a bit of thinking. Long story short, I figured out a way. (WARNING, READ THROUGH BEFORE RUNNING OFF AND ATTEMPTING YOURSELF)

I took my scanned-in digital copy of the original sketch, and using the Brightness/contrast tool in GIMP I increased the darkness of the lines. I then printed the highly contrasted sketch and laid it on the board. (Luckily it was sized perfectly as-was and did not need any adjusting) Using some random tape I taped it down, printed side up, where I wanted it to be, then came the trick.

Using a Blue Sharpie marker, I traced the design on the paper, making sure to press firmly so that some sharpie ink would bleed through. You see, For some reason, the sharpie ink left this silver/redish glitter residue on the board, through the paper. What I didn't realize was that sharpies live to bleed.

This is also where I realized I should make an instructable from this project. Cue camera/pictures!

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WARNING: Sharpie bleed through anything anytime anywhere (almost)

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After peeling away the paper, I was left with a very faint, but pretty decent rough outline of the major features.

I then began to paint over it. That's where the trouble began.

Mistake #2

Sharpie bleeds through everything. and it bled through the paint I was applying to the board!

I had to give the entire piece 4+ layers of paint to stop most of the bleeding. Luckily you can hardly see any of it now, and where it dose barley appear, it looks pretty cool (as it bled through in a green like color) It gives little highlights around the mane in some spots. Not bad!

The rest I was able to cover up with the darker colored mixes I used to paint the shading, as that was where most of the sharpie was. Lesson learned. But it was worth it, and yes, I would do it over again, probably. I would still rather have a projector so I could pencil trace the design right on the board.

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Hint: When you have to mix the perfect color paint, try and make a bit more then you think you need. This way you wont run out of your mixed color, and have to mix up another batch of your desired color (Which will not turn out perfectly the same, unless your a pro) Luckily I did this for the mane and skin colors, so I had plenty of both colors to keep adding layers without running out.

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Well that all took up the first night (started around 5:00PM Got to bed at around 11:30PM)

I was able to cover most of the sharpie, (though you can still see some, mostly in the mane)

I also got the basic main 2 colors down. Grey and a yellow-tan. To this day I CANT figure out how to mix a perfect sand tan without a tube of brown paint >.< I managed with some yellow, red, and white, and a hint of light blue.

Oh well close enough, and I was tired. Took some pictures, then headed to bed.

Didn't start till the next afternoon in hopes the sharpie would have dried out well.

It didn't. It still bled through the colors, albeit fainter and fainter.

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Hint: If you want to store paint over night without it getting dry (Helpful for when you have mixed the perfect hue/color) Cover it as best you can (I used a bit of plastic wrap) And stick it in the refrigerator. I have kept paint good for weeks this way!

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I finally won the war with 2 more coats of tan and grey paint. I could now just BARLEY see it through the paint, which was good with me cause I still needed some. FINALLY!

I began with the mouth, experimenting with different colors for the jawbone/teeth.

I had gotten a little polaroid tablet from, ironically, the same garage sale I had gotten the board. I use it as a digital 'art binder', storing all my artwork, and any inspirational artwork or concept ideas on it. Yes, the batter is junk, but it works pretty well, as I don't have a smartphone to put my artwork on.

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Hint: If you are an up and coming artist (as we all are) I suggest getting some sort of digital device that you can upload/take pictures of your artwork with. That way you can show people your art out and about. Trust me, you never know who you may meet. They may love your artwork, ask for a commission, want to buy it, ect. ;) And if not? Some people will be generally interested in your art, and want to see more. And if you have all your work with you... Wala! High-tech (or in my case,) Low-tech portfolio. People WANT to see your work, don't hold it back!

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Anyway, I referred to my digital version of Phantom Lace on my Polarioid tablet, and my original sketch. Between the two I found what needed shading and where, and roughly what colors. I finished the face with the eye. I fought with the idea of adding the glare like in the digital version, but decided I was in no way talented to pull that off. Plus, she looked good with out it. So, without further ado, I added a bit of dried blood (zombiecorn, remember?) cuts, and generally roughed up fur texture to finish her off!

What a relief! But my journey wasn't done yet...

I knew I wanted a color that was not grey or black on my board.

I also knew I had brown spray paint from making marshmallow guns years ago. (seriously, I was about 8-10)

I decided to add a bit more over-all color before pronouncing the board finished.

I taped off a large X with one line going from top to bottom, and one fat line going side to side right under my acrylic painting. (all with painter's tape)

Suddenly it occurred to me, There where no letters on my board! Something had to be written somewhere.

I decided I would write Phantom Lace's name.

First I added a strip of painter's tape going across the top middle of the fat strip that was going to go across the board. I then covered everything else (including Phantom Lace herself) in a protective sheet of paper, and gave 3 coats of brown spray paint. (I just love three coats of anything ;) )

However, my troubles began when un-taping the main tape-off tape. After getting the paper out, I began slowly and gently peeling off the painter's tape, but to my horror, I found that in the area where her name was going to go, The Gloss Black spray paint had separated form the under layer of Flat Black spraypaint and was peeling up with the tape.

Darn.

But being the guy I am, I cut around the tape, so minimal damage ocured. However I was left with flat black in the name area. Luckily it didn't look half bad with the brown spray paint around it, and with a few jagged edges of gloss spraypaint left in the name area, I decided it should stay, cause it looked good. I then proceeded to start with the name.

I knew I wanted some type of 'fancy handwriting' (One that I am not capable of producing from hand naturally)

I decided I would risk it, so I ran in the house to try and find some sort of white marker/pen I could use.

Unfortunatly I had none. So, I had to go to plan B.

Very, Careful, Slow, Hand, Painting, Letters, In, Thin, White, Acrylic, Lines.

Yikes.

Luckily I had not used my .31 cm Angular Acrylic brush, so it was good as new and ready to go.

I began with a quick sketch of the name on a piece of paper, for sizing and look. Once happy with that I blind traced it on the board. With that over, I began the tedious task of writing in acrylic.

I have not held my breath like that for a long time. I dipped the brush in white paint, then traced a bit, dipped again, traced a bit more. Over and over. It took a while, but it was worth it because I got pretty fair results. Not perfect by any means, but pretty good.

YAY! NO MORE PAINTING!!

Wait what?

Protection?

Yes, I needed to protect my beautiful board. How?

Enter Clear Gloss Spray paint...

After peeling the paper of the top of the board, and the wrong type of tape from the edges, I was left with an amazing looking deck.

Grey Gloss on the top and edges, And a beautiful design on the bottom. But in order for it to stay beautiful for longer, I needed some protection.

After waiting a few agonizing days dad grabbed me some clear gloss spray paint from Home Depot (Bless that place, and Dad) I then proceeded out to the back yard to my 5 Gallon bucket and sprayed 4+ coats on the bottom of the board. Then I did the same with the top.

HOWEVER.

Mistake # 3

Im really sure it was all dry, (I had gone in to eat dinner after spraying the bottom, leaving the board bottom side up to dry. After eating/cleaning up (about an hour?) I got back out to spray the other (top) side of the board.)

But after I did the three clear coats on the top, I found that in the time it sat on the edge of the bucket, the rim had sunk into the board's bottom clear-coat and made a slight dent.

Its nothing horrible, but I was slightly disappointed. Oh well, lesson learned. When placing a board with a clear enamel covering on a surface, make sure the surface is smooth/clean, so it wont dig into the clear-coat.

Also just to be clear. This clear coat protection dose NOT protect from grinding and slides. It simply protects your artwork from UV radiation and minor nicks and scrapes!

Update: The day after my board was completely finished I was carrying it, when I found that I had been gripping it tightly for a while, resulting in some (hardly noticeable, but there) finger prints rear the edge on the bottom of te board. I am not quite sure about this Clear coat stuff, Ill give you further notice if the clear coat hardens better or not!

FINALLY! ALL DONE (With the painting)

Well, the hard part was over (so I thought)

But really, It took quite a bit of time and searching for ideas for the perfect Grip tape design.

I didn't want to spoil the wow factor of the bottom with a plain layer of griptape on top. If I was gonna custom my board, I was gonna custom ALL my board.

Plus Zumies (the skateboard store where I got my M.O.B griptape) didn't have a long enough length of tape to cover my entire board in one go.

After a bunch of searching online for other griptape ideas (most of which where so complicated/time consuming that I really didn't want to do (plus didn't complement the over all design) I found a picture of a design that struck me as particularly cool, would go with my over all design thought, AND would solve the length problem. It was a sort of ribbed pattern. Consisting off a single gap going down the middle, with smaller gap curving off it. It reminded me of ribs (ZOMBIECORNS!) or of fish (Hey, this deck IS called a Fishtail deck, right?)

Even more reason to choose it.

So without further ado, based off this one picture, I began to design.

First I taped together a length of about 5 pieces of paper, which I laid and taped over the top of my board.

Unfortunately first day of college came by, and I just had the paper taped over the top of the board. So, I took it to College with me.

I have a break between classes (about 1.5 hours) So I took a pencil, tape, spare paper, and laptop with me for the break. I sat in the break lobby room, catching strange stares from passing college students, and tracing my design on the paper taped over the top of my board. Yes, I DID forget to bring a ruler, and scissors. I ended up using the strip of griptape to get the two straight lines down the middle of the paper for the main line.

Then, using some marks I made on a random piece of paper, I spaced out the smaller rib gaps. (Hey, make-shift ruler you can write notes on, it worked to!) I then had to figure out how to make the curvature for each one the same (or similar)

I ended up sketching a curve on a corner of another piece of paper, then, because I didn't have scissors to cut on the curve, I carefully tore and folded along the curve. Good enough.

I used the folded/curved edge of the paper to trace onto the paper design on my board.

When it was all said and done, I had the design drawn on the paper taped to my board. Simple but time consuming, and as they don't allow razorblades on college campus, I could go no farther till I got home.

Once home I un-taped my design from the skateboard, and using a make-shift light box (From a flashlight and large clear bin) I traced each of the grip tape sections onto some other separate pieces of paper, being sure to label each one so I would know where it went on the board from front to back, as if I where oriented from the back looking towards the front. L1 (Left 1) R1 (Right 1) L2, R2, L3, R3, ect. The higher numbers getting closer to the back. I decided, unlike the inspirational picture, I would go all the way back to the tail with the griptape for further grip/protection of paint.

I then cut each of those pieces out and using double sided tape, positioned them on the back my strip of Griptape. They all fitted on well, with some space left over!

I then proceeded to cut them all out using a junky pair of scissors.

After cutting out all the pieces I laid it out on the top of my board to make any final adjustments before peeling and sticking. Among some minor cutting in some places, I decided to get rid of the last 2 small pieces that would go on the tip of the back of the board. (L8, R8) I just quickly traced a single patch for the last part on a spare piece of paper, cut it out, and pasted it on the last bit of grip-tape. I then cut that piece out, and I was ready to stick.

The rest was pretty simple, but I had to be careful to position them just right. Took me a while, but it was worth it. I now have a really awesome design. And while not perfect, Its amazing I could actually pull it off!

Deck, Check!

Now I just had one last thing to do.

Give this thing some new wheels/trucks!

While the old ones worked great I wanted to get some more height on the board. So I bought a package of 90mm Bigfoot Wheels and Paris Trucks from Ebay. I needed that extra height.

Why?

You'll see later, I think.

Unfortunately It was either yellow wheel, or purple wheels, nether of which fit my board's over all design. I decided to go with the yellow, the lesser of two evils you might say. (Though, in fact, purple is my favorite color)

Anyway, I threaded the bolts, but before throwing on the spacer, I grabbed some wax paper from the kitchen. I threaded the bolts through this, and then put on the spacers and trucks. I then, ever so gently, cut the showing wax paper away from the edge of the spacer with a razorblade.

Im hoping this will help protect that clear-coat, and prevent any more marring from occurring from the spacers (Refer to mistake #3 concerning clear-coat)

And with that, we are ready to roll!

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That moment of silence, when you put down the screwdriver and wrench. When you look down and see the trucks, firmly in place. When you get up off the chair, and set the your board down as if it where a baby. You stand back up and look down at it. Hours of hard work.

Memories. The pain from really hot hair dryers, the back breaking work of constant sanding, the decision making on what colors to use. What your theme will be. How to Spray paint it right. The hours you spent carefully hand painting that design on the bottom, the aches of repainting over persistent sharpie. The breath-holding precision of painting letters. The designing of the griptape. The cutting of the griptape, the careful application of the griptape.

It all comes to this. You look at your finished project. Despite it's little flaws, its beautiful. It represents you, and what you stand for: Creating.

You smile, Grab your helmet, Headphones, and your dogs leash. Soon your flying down the road. You stop at the dead end and look over the dry field at the setting sun. Suddenly you start jumping up and down, your hand raised to the sky, shouting "Yes! Yesssss! YESSSSS!!"

You just finished a project.

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Alright, maybe it WAS in the afternoon, no setting sun. But you get the idea right?

It was an awesome build, and I got memories in this thing. I cant wait to take it to work, or college, and show all my friends and other random people.

I really like my board and design.

In fact, to quote Ronald McDonald:

"Im Lovin it!"

Seriously though, it is awesome. Now I really want to go out and find another old board that needs help, buy it cheap, and using the supplies I have acquired, give it a new life as well. But for now, what do you think?

I hope I inspired you in your own build/renovation, and I would LOVE to see your designs as well!

Remember to leave a comment, and feel free to ask questions!

.

See you DIYers!
TIll next time.

-C.R

Wait what? What do you mean "Or is it?" Isn't this instructable over? Are you going to do something more?

Thanks for asking, and I can tell you now.

Hint: Check out the board's back right wheel. Also, you might want to re-check some of those pictures of the board in progress. I left some hints in the background. See if you can spot em ;)*Insert epic dramatic music here*

See my very end product HERE

1: I think the clear coat has hardened, I have not been able to put another pair of finger prints on the board, and the previous ones have disappeared, I think. I cant see them near as well anymore.

Lesson learned: Let the clear coat dry really well!

2: While doing some simple tricks, I accidently ground the bottom of my board on a curb. Nothing serious, just a nice black gash about 3 inches from he bottom of the large side-to-side brown line.

Remember kids! Clear coat dose NOT protect against grinds. Ask your local skateboard professional if you plan to do any grinding with your board. There is a special coat off stuff they put on those kind of boards!

3: One of the inside corners of the grip tape pieces is peeling up. I did a quick fix with glue, but it didn't stay. I have been told there is a spray I can put on to help the grip tape seal down better, Will look into this later!