Questions: P Tex, Wax-

So if have a Sims Electric Shock 09/10. It has a black base *more or less* Im planning on repairing my snowboard over the spring, and im wonder does color of the P-Tex rod matter? If i have a black base do i need to get a black P-Tex rod, or could i just use white ones?

Also i was wondering, if i have a normal house hold iron that dosent state the temp, can i still apply was? Also what wax is ideal for mu situation? My board is scratched up and id dry in certain spots.

-Thanks!

functionally ptex is pretty much the same, black on a black base just looks better if you're worried about that kinda thing. The best cheap way I've found to put it on if you're not using a drip candle is with a soldering iron, also if you haven't bought it yet string has a lower wax content then the rods so use then instead and your patch will last longer.

P-Tex candle/repair-sticks are a quick and easy, non-permanent, do-it-yourself repair.

It's been my experience that P-Tex repairs will usually last about a year or so before the P-Tex starts cracking and falling out.

As long as it's not a core shot, just filling in gouges with P-Tex is a very good option.

If it is a core shot, then you'll need to fix it ASAP before using it again or risk moisture getting into the core and causing damage.  You could P-Tex it immediately and just redo the P-Tex when it starts cracking/falling-out every so often or, if you wanted to do a more thorough fix, you would need to apply some epoxy to cover the core before initiating the P-Tex repair process.

Or for a completely permanent fix, you could have a repair shop base-weld it--which blends epoxy with P-Tex and will be even more durable than the original base material.

Drip in the P-Tex and scrape/shave it off with a metal scraper using short, choppy strokes pulling toward yourself until it's smooth/level with the rest of the base.

Apart from aesthetics, I don't think that there's any difference between black or clear P-Tex.

However, when clear P-Tex candles are burned, the dripping/flowing/fluid P-Tex will have black-colored carbon soot that doesn't look too nice but, with practice, this condition can be minimized...

As far as using normal irons for applying wax to skis/snowboards, I've never used one myself--only ski/snowboard-specific irons--but I've heard that, while they do work, their temperature control isn't as accurate as a more-specialized/higher-quality ski/snowboard-specific iron and, as a result, their temperature fluctuates through a larger range and are therefore more likely to smoke the wax and/or damage the snowboard.  I also don't know how all the holes in the bottom of a normal iron would affect things...

Rule of thumb is that you want the iron's temperature to be only just hot enough to melt the wax but not so hot as to also create smoke.

To keep things simple, I've pretty much always used all-temperature wax exclusively but, to see if there's actually a difference, I just acquired my first bit of Bluebird warm-temp wax earlier this season.  I was riding last weekend but was on all-temp wax.  I just picked-up a 2010 K2 Believer 157 and applied some warm-temp wax to it a couple of days ago but it looks like I won't be riding this weekend because (right now) I'm sick and don't feel up to it...

Thanks guys im gonna hit up mountain equp co next week, get some base cleaner, black p-tex rods and a scraper.

Im planning to go to like sports chek to get my board waxed for me like the week after.

Theres a few scratches in my board and it just pisses me off to see it. So im hoping p-tex can keep my board clean for at least 4 times on the mountain or more.

-Thanks again!