PATIENCE. Let me repeat, Patience, Patience, Patience.

Did I mention patience?

Don't try to do this on a Thursday night after work. Don't start it when you've got somewhere to go in a couple of hours. Don't try to beat the weather. Don't try to rationalize that the wind has died down enough. Don't don't dont!

When you've got a good weekend, with the weather being fine and no plans, that's when you go for it.

Get the boat out, get everything set up. Nice and neat and organized. Have a clean up station ready as well. If you need to clean up a roller, you want to be able and ready to.

Have a couple of backups and alternatives and such set up and ready to go. As in a squeegee set, _and_ a roller. *Lots* of cups and stir sticks. Nice clean smooth weights (old text books are great) and such for holding loose sheets of fiberglass down, etc. And lots and lots of rubber gloves. Trashcan nearby is good too.

I personally suggest a slow cure hardener. This gives you lots of time to fix things, like puckers in the cloth, air bubbles, etc. And allows you to work very smoothly and relaxed. If you rush, you *will* screw up. Remember what I said about patience?

You're going to waste epoxy. And glass, and, gloves, and and and. Treat it like a lesson in zen. You don't need, or probably want, to mix up a quart of epoxy at a time and dump it on the boat. But you don't want to mix up a teaspoon at a time either. This is why I think slow cure is important. You can mix up smaller batches and blend them together nicely, or mix up larger batches and work them longer, leaving some in the pot, or puddling on top as you go along the boat length. When the gloves get sticky, strip them off and put on a new set. You don't want to be sticking to things, and you certainly don't want to be dropping off little chunks of partially cured epoxy onto the glass as you go.

It will probably take you a whole lot less time then you expect, but plan on it being a long long job. Maintain the attitude that it isn't work, it's a labor of love.

And don't wear lose fitting clothing. Anything that can fall into wet epoxy will. Any part of your body that has wet epoxy on it will also be used to rub an itch on your face, or to brush back your hair. I agree with the recommendation of a cap of some sort to hold your hair back and protect it from you.

Having made the mistake of rubbing my mouth with the back of my epoxy covered hand, I have learned that vineger is very good at getting epoxy off of mucous membranes. It'll also make your eyes cross and ears ring out as you gargle with it. But hopefully it killed germs as well as Listerine.

For what it's worth, when I did mine (a first), I was done in about 2 hours. And it was as close to flawless as a human can get. Mine was/is a flatbottom plywood Millcreek. I did it in the waining afternoon of a 70'ish degree day, to get the benefit of the suction of cooling wood. I laid the entire cloth over the boat, then battled it a bit with weights and pvc clamps (loose cloth is very sensitive to the slightest breeze). I mixed up my first batch of epoxy in a sour cream tub, and poured it in an oblong puddle right in the middle. I'm a squeegee fella, and simply worked it out from the center like it was fudge. It went far far easier then any small pieces of glass I'd ever worked with before in my life, and I've worked with quite a few littler pieces. Mix, pour, spread. It went down the sides just as easily. Yes, I dribbled, but I really didn't lose that much. Got the ends, and just as I had been told, the glass had gradually flexed itself along the length of the boat until I barely needed to make a cut. Which I did, and which I simply overlapped. The barest of a puckering arguement at the bottom of the slit. I was quite well able to easily work the very few air bubles I caught. A couple of areas didn't want to wet out as much, but since I was using a slow cure, in about 10 minutes they were completely saturated, and the one time I puckered the cloth I was able to lift, pull and set back down without any problems. The only negative surprise I had was squeegee wear. Luckily, I had some other squeegees. Next time, I'll get several and have them ready. Before I knew it, I had a beautifully glassed boat. It went so smoothly and simply that I was somewhat disapointed it was over and that I didn't have problems. For like you, I had built up my worries to a near fever pitch.

> I am a couple of days away from fiberglassing my kayak. Never having done
> this before, I am a little aprehensive. I searched the archives and mainly
> found threads on how to fix fiberglassing srew-ups (didn't do a whole lot
> for my confidence). I was wonder if some of you could offer some tips,
> helpful hints, things to watch out for, etc. as regards to fiberglassing a
> kayak.

> Thanks, Ralph Wight