Also open to any tips and tricks. I plan on cleaning/ grinding the area to clean fiberglass,brush on a thin layer of resin over the area, let cure then more resin/cloth layer? Then paint.
The area is the forward part of the bilge but above the keel, my first layer of resin would be on top of the cement in the keel.
That is not the accepted method. Cured resin must be cleaned and sanded or the new resin will not adhere well. Even so, it will not cross link with the cured resin.
Normal technique would be:
*Grind until you get to solid substrate (glass or whatever)
*Wipe thoroughly with acetone
*Coat area with neat resin (this is too make sure the bond line is not starved)
*Immediately lay up cloth and resin in as many layers as needed
*Cover with peel ply -optional but will make a much neater job
*Let cure
*sand and paint.
If the layup is too thick (say more than 1/2") then you may have trouble keeping up and in hot weather it may exotherm. If you have to stop the layup, cover with peel ply, allow to cure until "green", pull the peel ply and continue.
If working in an area with limited access, you can cut the cloth to the size needed, wet it out on a sheet of plastic, lift it and place it on your layup. The really experienced guys will lay plastic on the repair and draw an outline with a Sharpie on the plastic. Then cut a piece of cloth larger than the outline, lay it on the plastic and wet it with a second sheet on top. You can squeege the cloth to the perfect resin ratio between the sheets with no mess at all. Cut the sandwich (plastic, fiberglass, plastic) along the line originally drawn, carry it to the repair, peel the second sheet of plastic, lay on the repair, peel the marked sheet. You can do multiple layers at once this way, up to about 4 or 5 layers of 18 oz.
