I am working on re-fiberglassing a wood and fiberglass boat and I am using 5 minuete epoxy to adhere the fiberglass to the boat. My Problem is that the epoxy hardens as I am mixing it. At first I used a cup to mix in then I switched to a piece of tin foil but the results remained the same. The epoxy began to heat up and cure as I was mixing and was beyond workable in about 30 seconds and solid with in a few more minuets. The package said I had 5 to 10 minuets working time. I am curious if anybody else has experienced a similar problem and if they could help me with a solution. I figure with as much time as we rodbuilders spend with epoxy someone out there must have dealt with somthing similar.

Get an epoxy that has longer working time, there are some out there that are 60-90 minutes.

You should be using fiberglass resin instead of epoxy to bond your fiberglass mat assuming that's what you're doing.

agreed you should use resin instead of epoxy

Hi John! you want to use west system epoxy resin.use the 105 resin and the 206 slow hardener.it will give you a pot life of 20=25 min. the 209 hardener will give you even greater working time. it is likely the finest epoxy resin for boat building and repair anywhere.i have used it for over 20 years.i just restored a 1957 peterborough cedar strip 16 ft. boat.west system epoxy is the only epoxy resin i will use on boats.i have tried most of them.hope this is of some help john.cheers ,wayne diduch

Thanks for the tips. I switched to the resin and it workedout. I am trying to repair a boat my Grandpa built in 1964 so I don't want to screw it up.

ahh thats great im glad you switched because with the resin its a much better way and thats what the pros use

Personally I would use another type of epoxy, with maybe a filler, for boat repair.

For excellent advice on this topic get the book, "BOOK FIBERGLASS BOAT REPAIR" by Gougeon Brothers. it costs less than five bucks ($5) and is well worth it. It will cover most all topics and projects you might encounter along with materials, characteristics, etc. In it you might also find some ideas in it that will directly apply to rod building. ;-)

Lou