Fiberglass repair problems- little help here!!

[RMabus]

Hello all. Let me preface this. I am not a professional. The boat I am working on is my first one to dig into. We have restored cars, but not boats. So...

I replaced the seating compartment flooring on our bass boat(92 Blazer). I put in new plywood and then put one coat of fiberglass on it. It cured nicely and was effective but it was not totally solid as the wood of the plywood was a little thin and it hit the stringers all the way. That should have hit me first but it didn't. The good news is the plywood area is smaller than the floor. Anyway I went to add a new later of fiberglass and think I mistakenly mixed to little hardener. In that spirit I went about spraying some hardener on it last night. It was better this morning but still a little soft. It was cold last night. Today it is going to get above 70, so that might help. Anyway I really don't want to have to scrape this off and start over. Anyway anyone have any tricks for getting this to harden, other than I start over. I am of the impression that time will cure this but I sure would like to put the carpet down!!

[OkieLure]

Put a space heater or shop heater on it. Cure time should speed up.

[Hawg]

Needs heat and time as mentioned above.

[RMabus]

I think I may have really messed this up. It has been cold but this resin has been on our boat now for 4 or 5 days. I put my cover on it and I stuck a space heater under the cover with it. Pulled it this morning and it is a little better, but I then went to hit it with a heat gun pretty high. I could almost see it bubbling some but it still refuses to truly harden. I have read where some suggest adding one more later of resin with a little extra hardener. That seams like a good idea but I am skeptical that this will only put a hard later on top of a soft later and it will not truly adhere. This is pretty bad. Anyone had similar experiences. I really dont what to rip all this out.

EDIT: I went ahead and did it. I mixed a good bit of hardener in it and applied last night. 4 hours or so later it was hard and not sticky. I can see air bubble which has me a little bit concerned but this is in teh footwell drivers compartment. So structurally this is important but not critical. I hope this worked. I put my cover back on and put the space heater on it. I am going to let it sit for 6 hours or so and see what I get out of it. I will post up more later.

[paulrodbender]

Did you sand/grind the layer of fiberglass before adding another layer?

[RMabus]

I did not simply because it was still basically a gel.

[paulrodbender]

I was just wondering if you used resin with wax and it's causing problems with another layer on top......

[vafishing]

I was just wondering if you used resin with wax and it's causing problems with another layer on top......

I was going to ask the same, wondering if you used a laminating polyester resin with no wax or a finish Polyester resin with wax or are you using an epoxy resin?

[seance]

Mix up a HOT batch of resin and hardener (more hardener) If your hardener is old, then buy new. The night before you are going to mix up a HOT batch, keep your hardener and resin warm inside the house.