: OK, FINALLY getting close to fiberglassing. I've read many, many things over
: the past year or two.

Hi Patsy, glad to hear you are back in business building "the gift". I remember being pretty nervous with glassing my first boat... chances are you already know the key points and, what is left to do is, relax and have fun. You could even do a test swatch to get a feel for it.

You already know to start when the sun has dropped below the horizon, that using a small roller can help keep the fabric from floating off the surface of the boat... to have plenty of extra brushes, rollers and other supplies on hand (return what you don't use). You can use a spreader/squeegee to help move epoxy around but the excess gunk that you squeegee off will have started to catalyze and it's not worth putting that back on the boat; it won't wet out the fiberglass very well. Stop squeegeeing if the fabric starts to turn whitish. Don't fret if the fabric gets a little wrinkled or off-kilter; it doesn't matter much... you can cut a dart in it with scissors or squeegee in the opposite direction or even lift sections of the fabric to reposition it. Don't worry too much about bubbles: you will get bubbles in any low spots or voids that the fabric wants to bridge. Simply do your best with the squeegee and you should be fine. You probably don't have to worry about resin/hardener being too cold.

Good luck with it,
www.ChipSandresky.com