On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 07:09:47 +0000, 1088 wrote:

Day of sun, day of rain, day of sun, day of rain,.. I'm back inside
the breathtakingly spacious cabin of my 23' yacht with it's many
luxury appointments getting ready to stick up some stained plywood
panels I made. It's 3mil 1088 Okume ply. (hence the rakish moniker for
this phase of my "refit".)
The back of the old stuff was just smeared in a haphazard pattern with
a pale yellow paste that dried hard as iron and has to be ground off
with diligence and firm language wearing haz-mat headgear. The boat
was built at Cowes.
So,.. I'm gluing plywood to rough, scabby old fiberglass. What would
be easy to apply for a person working alone? I use telescoping plastic
shower curtain rods for clamps, or I guess it would be the reverse of
clamps. Liquid nails? 5200, 4200, sikoflex 216, 61a? Cheap, good and
readily available would be great but if anything buzzes or rattles
when the engine runs I will jump overboard.
Ok, the spell check is complete, I had 6 errors.

Just how rough is this surface? Could you conceivably fair it first, then
use contact cement? This would make clamping a lot easier. You will
need an organic vapor respirator for the job. Or a positive pressure
haz-mat suit. ;-) With the contact cement, after applying it to both
surfaces and letting it dry for a while, you would just have to apply firm
pressure for a minute or so and you'd be done.

If you are not going to fair the surface first, then maybe a silicone
sealant? Or maybe you could still use contact cement. I can't promise it
won't rattle, though. Hey, maybe you could glue up some foam first,
instead of fairing, then glue up the wood. You could either use contact
cement, or that super strong 3M spray adhesive. What is it? 3M 77 or
something. You will still want the respirator.

As another poster said, I would definitely not use anything that cures
slowly (e.g., 5200).

--Mac