Michiel,

I am and on the wrong side of century, allow me to give advice based on
some hard won experience.

Polyester is cheaper
is more available?

Epoxy is expensive
has to be ordered

There is little difference in the actual mechanical properties (has
matter relative to the glass) = it will not be any stiffer, you can not
use mat because epoxy does not disolve the binder.

Get someone's good epoxy and pump set and sleep well.

If you want maximum stiffness with an un-cored structure, get as much
glass (or kevlar/carbon) into it as you can and learn to do vacuum
laminating (bagging).

I worked polyester resins for years. I went to epoxy about just over 25
years and 50+ gallons ago and have never though about going back.

If you want to know all about re-laminating a cored deck from the
underside- say so I'm here a pretty often.

Matt Colie


Michiel wrote:

Hello,

I'm going to need to do some work with polyester and fiberglass. I
will probably be replacing the core in my deck with solid fiberglass.

I've previously only worked with epoxy. It seems that this should be
straightforward?

Polyester resin and fiberglass cloth are available everywhere. Are
there any important differences in quality/properties or could I just
get the stuff sold at Home Depot (Evercoat, I think) and work with
that?

Also, does anyone have data such as:

- how do you get maximum stiffness, and how stiff will 1/4" be?
- how much resin and mat does it takes to build up a certain
thickness, say 1/4" or 1/2".
- and then of course, where to get resin and mat inexpensively.

Thank you,

Michiel