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FUNNY, it's almost as though building a boat and gelcoating and painting it is a complex process that requires a great deal of skill and planning. Who'd have thought. :) I sure bumbled into this, but it's been a great learning experience on a found boat. Nothing to lose and turning out a bit...

This boat is a beater, so a great boat to experiment on with glass and painting... Follow up question: can you do a two-part poly paint over a one-part?

Touche' :) Foam brush or bristle? Tried with nice angled bristle brush first, but that seemed to leave a lot of grain... haven't tried sponge yet. Follow up question: is it practical to do a two-part paint over a one-part?

What's the best technique you guys have found for getting 1-part poly smoothly painted into tight spaces, like foot wells in a surf ski or around hardware, where a roller won't fit?

Thanks for the info; it's a lot to process, but I'm learning, slowly! Do you get bitten by the "fiberglass bug"? I was dreading working with this stuff, but now I'm actually wanting to learn how to do it well and maybe build some things.

***Solved: turns out crappy Bondo fiberglass resin was the issue the whole time. No ingredients on the can, no specification of what type it was, not using it again. Bought some marine finishing resin and it works exactly the way you fellas say it should. Got dry enough to sand, then used some...

Very good to know. Is working in small sections with small patches the way most novices develop their skill? I tried larger pieces of CSM and it did not conform the way I'd hoped, even with time and rolling.

Thanks for the knowledge, and sorry to sound ignorant, but what is CSM? What kind of resin should I use with cloth?

What you're saying makes sense and coincides with what I"m seeing. The thinner areas are slower, thicker is faster curing. I learned a lot by making a lot of mistakes this time: Was trying to repair cracks in the bucket/seat of an old surf-ski... I learned: 1. I need smaller rollers to flatten...

Gotcha. I'll see how this thing pans out. Bondo is not listing any ingredients on the can, so apparently it's proprietary. Next time I use a marine finishing resin... My texture is awful right now, bad first go... so if I put finishing resin over it, it may all harden enough to sand down...

I will check it out. Bondo is the thing rednecks (like myself) historically use for one-step repairs, so I HOPE it has a wax... that said, now that I understand a little about finishing versus laminating resin, let's say for sake of argument this resin is still tacky because it's a laminating...

I will definitely do those things next time, except won't it start to gel/catalyze if I wait 10 minutes? The resin started to gel within about 10 minutes and became unusable by 15.

Do you think the tacky stuff is unhardened resin, or could be it be some residue of something else that won't go away soon? If there are still tacky spots in 24-48 hours, what should I do?

This... this is the part where I put my palm on my face, because this is going to sound stupid. I just grabbed Bondo fiberglass resin. Figured it would work... I can't tell if it has a wax or anything in it... This is probably an example of poor planning/ignorance... what SHOULD I get next...

That IS interesting. My brain is trying to use glue or paint logic with this, so I'm imagining thinner layup dries faster, but is there some kind of reaction in the resin/glass that means thicker actually heats up or something, hence curing faster?

Far as I know. Just the cheap, generic glass resin you pick up at any hardware store, with the MEKP hardener tube in the lid. Maybe I'll set it out in the sun tomorrow. With very high humidity should I use more hardener and work in smaller sections?

This is glass I put on today, but the cure time is supposed to be a few hours, and it's out to about 8 now. It's cured somewhat, just tacky in spots.... almost seems like any resin over-spread that's not directly on the glass fabric doesn't want to cure yet.

Have some fiberglass repairs that aren't curing well (living in 90%+ humidity everyday probably doesn't help) Was reading somewhere about diluting MEKP with ??? (forgot what) and spraying or brushing it over resin that's not curing fast enough to speed up the process. Am I mis-remembering...

I'm happy with the results, thanks to good advice here. It's not as good as it could be, but a learning experience. Due to humidity and being unsure of curing times I did minimal sanding between coats. Next painting I know some things to do better. Irony is, my buddy who got me into surf-skis...