Starting with the skis, all my restorations get a new pair of Barrie Graham's skis. There is no doubt that the skis he makes are the best of quality and the exact reproduction of the original Diablo skis.
To improve on an already great product, I add Durasurf Wear Skins to the bottom sides of the skis. The Durasurf material and special adhesive are products I purchase in bulk from Crown Plastics in Ohio. The combination of the treated Durasurf and adhesive make it possible to attach the wear skins to the wooden ski. Then with weight and almost every clamp I have, I adhere the Durasurf to the bottom of the skis.
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The Durasurf has proven very effective. We have been putting it on skis since 2010 and I've never heard of a pair of skis wearing through or cracking.
Prepare the runners. The original material is a 1"x1/4" half oval steel. I drill the hole pattern based on the spacing of an original ski. If you don't have a runner to copy, the most important measurement is where the 5/16" hole for the seat spring retainer bracket is placed. This is 27" down from the front tip of the runner. In addition to that hole, drill another 5 holes per runner and countersink the holes so the head of the fastener is down into the runner.
Once drilled, bend the runner to match the curve of the ski tip. When you put the runner on the ski, place the front tip of the runner 4" from the front tip of the ski.
I use 5 rivets to attached the skis to the runner. My rivets are solid but a hollow ended rivet would work too. Not a "pop" rivet though.
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Drill the rest of your mounting holes. If you are using the Durasurf materials along with the large head elevator bolts with the square on the fastener, oversize the hole in the Durasurf otherwise the Durasurf can be so hard that it becomes difficult to pull the square of the fastener into the material. Drill it to 3/8". If you plan to use solid rivets, then also drill the holes in the skis slightly larger than 3/16" so the expanding solid rivet does not expand and split the skis.
Painting skis is always a topic of conversation. I have tried stains, paints, paints with primers and quite honestly, they never seem to turn out that nice semi-gloss black that original NOS skis look like. These batch of skis I sprayed with an acrylic enamel and so far, they look good.
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Ski hardware includes:
- Rivets 3/16" x 1-1/4" long
- 3/16" washers used with the rivets on the wood side of the ski
- Elevator bolts 5/16" x 1-1/2" long
- Ski retainer plate center bolt 5/16" x 2" long
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