r/fiberglass

Having a brain fart over here what is the shelf life of resin and gel coat once it’s been opened? Currently fixing the bedsides on my bosses prerunner and trying to have some materials left over when I redo my boat this winter but I also don’t want to get stuck with resin that might go bad before I use it in about 5 months.

Hello Reddit, I picked up a canoe for the right price recently and I do have a bit of time on my hands and have a little experience working in auto body repair and wanted to give this a try. I’m not too Knolage able about things that go in the water so help would be appreciated. The canoe is fibreglass and already has a repair but the repair is failing and started to leak so I wanted to give it a fresh repair. The current repair goes about two feet back and right up the front of the boat and the patch has started to form holes and cracks that leak. My plan was I would remove and put on a full new patch to the best of my abilities. I’m told this isn’t much different then putting on fibreglass mesh and bondo on but a canoe is a bit different then a truck. Info on this specific thing has been hard to find or at least fully understand but the amount I understand goes as:

First with a chisel and high grit sand paper and break away the old repair and work on getting the old mesh off. Any tips would be appreciated.

Second with a high grit wet sand paper I’ll sand right up to the base material getting out high spots, making it smooth and getting off the last of the adhesive also making the material prepped for the adhesive.

Third I’ll prep my mesh by just forming it to the general shape of the boat. And I should take note to reinforce the front bottom for anything I might hit in the water like a rock or land.

Fourth I’ll lay down a good layer of adhesive (adhesive recommendations would be appreciated) then press the mesh fully in to the adhesive and let dry for 20 minutes.

Fifth I’ll lay down another coat of adhesive and work to blend the edges to the base material to maximize how well the boat moves through water.

Then last is part of just a service I want to apply a polish to the boat and properly get it ready to take on to the water.