Fibreglassing the dome

I managed to source all my fibreglass needs from a local supplier. Money was saved by going directly to a supplier who nearly exclusively supplies, but doesn't do much else. There are a lot of businesses that use glass for their product or service but will charge a little more for supply from their stock. Make sure you take a sample of what you are going to coat in to the supplier as this can be a great help. A picture of your dome is also helpful.

I got the glass mat, (the medium one as the heavy sucks up too much resin and is not necessary) all the resins, thinners, acetone, and hardener and rollers from the one place. Grab a few ice-cream containers too. I bought a measuring cup set and funnel set from the local grocery store real cheap

For safety, grab yourself some kitchen or even surgical gloves and wear eye protection!.

Start with a resin mix of about 2 percent catalyst to the resin. Give or take a percent for cold and hot days. Less for hot. Try to do this in the shade if you can. Basic procedure is do a meter at a time, paint on the resin, lay on the mat, then paint over the mat with more resin. Don't be shy using lots of resin. The mat will soak up a lot and if you don't get it wet enough, it will fluff up and bubble, lift and otherwise give you grief. ALWAYS OVERESTIMATE your resin purchase. It never hurts to have too much, but can ruin everything if you don't have enough.

You will learn a lot as you go. I did.

Make sure you wet down and roll down any bits that poke up. Once it has set, lightly sand off any high points and spiky bits, then apply flow coat. Flow coat is just resin with a UV protector in it and a colour tint of your choice.

Make sure you wear protective clothing, mask and eye protection when sanding or cutting fibreglass. It gets in everything, is very itchy and irritates everything........and I mean..EVERYTHING!