OK, that's what I needed to know. I thought that if you sanded, you could then epoxy over it any time. I thought the sanding was just to rough it up so it had "grip holds." So when I get ready to put tape down over those fillets, I need to sand them again right before I do it to ensure the best bond.

Hopefully the mistakes I've already made won't come back to haunt me. I've been doing the fillets in stages with lots of time between stages. I tabbed the fillets, pulled wires, filled in the tabs, found missed gaps later and filled them in, put additonal fillets over sagged spots, etc. All without sanding and with many days between. I reckon by the time it's all done on the inside, it will be encased in enough layers to keep it all together though. Live and learn.

: Patsy,

: I am of the opinion and experience that if you exceed 6-12 hours between
: coats of epoxy, you need to sand the surface. This opens chemical bonding
: sites on the previous epoxy, so once you sand you should epoxy right away
: (or at least before 6 hours).

: If you do not sand (I didn't around my kayak cockpit opening when I glassed
: the rim) you may find you have a thin feathered layer of epoxy which looks
: good until something knocks it or you sand it. Then you will find that the
: two coats did not adhere to one another. This will happen with both
: non-blushing epoxy and normal epoxy.