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anyone have any tips on where to start with glassing an entire console?

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Are you making a new console?

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Use epoxy resin.

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Yes we rebuilt an entire new console. How many layers does it take, is there a minimum or just preferance?

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If you are wrapping the console on your personal page you only need one layer of glass. It looks to have all the structural support it needs. Layers of glass add more strength than water proofing. I would probably do 2 layers around the edges and one on the large flat surfaces.

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Thanks thats what I was thinking, make sure the bottom is wrapped good. I just got 5 yards of glass and a gallon of resin hope to put up some pics of it all finished soon.

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I know the feeling of wanting to see it finished. I have my console raised and ready to wet sand and paint. I just wish I did not have so many chores.

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If that were my consol I would make sure the wood is extremely dry. Humidity and damp wood will kill this project. The company I work for made structural fiberglass coated plywood. in an extreme amount of trial and error and expence we found the need to get the wood moisture down to less than 4%. You wont get there without a vacuum oven so you need to get it as dry as you can and for your purpose your not glassing for structure. The first coat of resin you should thin to a runny consistancy and spread on all surfaces and let it soak in and cure. Then follow up with a thick coat of un-thinned resin and imbed the glass into it working out trapped air and bubbles with a laminating roller and rubber squeegees. Since you are using plywood really concentrate on your edges and where your glass overwraps will fall. You want the falling edges to be on the back sides as much as possible. I would also fillet all inside correner joints with thickened epoxy to at least 1/4" radius to help prevent cracking where 2 pannels meet. In my case I would use epoxy and tint it and I would also paint the final outcome with epoxy paint. As you are inexperienced ( MY assumption) the longer work time with the proper epoxy will be of great benefit but a whole lot more expensive. Polyester resin will work and will be more work if you decide to gelcoat when you get to final coating. If you are planning to Varnish over the the resin I would personally use epoxy so you can get a slow cure time and work out the bubbles. If you are going this route then pratice on a large piece of scrap use a relly slow cure epoxy and try a heat gun to break viscosity to release entrapped micro bubbles. This is an art not a just brush and go. Get it too hot and it will set-up and probably exotherm burning the resin.
Take your time prepping the raw fiberglass to lay where you want it so when you place it in resin and work it out you dont have to deal with a whole bunch of excess puckered up material that wont lay down properly.
Have fun.
Steve

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If you have little or no glassing experience you can`t learn how to do it from a few posts on a thread like this. Send for this DVD from Glen-L https://www.boatdesigns.com/prodinfo....r=16%2D100 Its not hard to do at all if you know how to do it, but then nothing is. One thing I can tell you, you need to round over all those hard corners on your console. The mat won`t go over a hard corner with out creating an air bubble. Also don`t work in the sun or the outside on a hot day.
Good luck on your project.

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thanks for all the advice, and i learned the hard way about the sharp egdes..... but live and learn right! I enlisted my friend who knows a lot more about glassing then I, so a case of beers and some BBQ sound like a good trade. i'll post some pics when done...

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good learning's. I tend to learn on the fly too.

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The West Systems website has some good info also.

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If the resin is cure you can always bevel the edges on the wood and go over it.