: Any thoughts on whether I do a precoat before filling some minor cracks and
: spaces, or fill and then precoat?

This is what I did on my Outer Island.

I tried filling gaps with slivers of wood, but I didn't like the result. Despite my best efforts, I didn't like the color match and it was a pain to make the slivers of wood. The end result looked like ... a sliver-o-wood stuck in a crack. So ...

I used a mixture of epoxy, cabosil and wood flour. I filled on bare wood but it would have been just as easy after the seal coat. I masked off the areas I wanted to fill ... tight to the edges of the void ... not a sloppy 1/4" away. This prevents blotches in the surrounding wood ... you want to fill the void, not smear filler on the surface. Next I slapped some epoxy on a scrap strip to get an idea of what the color of the filler should be ... idealy the filler should match the color of the epoxy/glass coated wood surrounding the void. A perfect color match is not possible ... make sure the filler is DARKER than the field ... it will look better against the field than a lighter colored filler. In my case the field was light colored WRC so I used an amber colored filler that was slightly darker and a close match to my epoxy colored scrap strip. I then spread the filler into the voids, smoothed out the surface and immediately pulled the tape. The result ... no blotches, absolute minimal sanding and good looks!

Ken