Re: 1980 Tidecraft Bass Boat Restoration
The mat attached to the 1708 will work with epoxy, the issue is there is no need for it, it adds weight and cost with little to no benefit. You create a heavier, more costly laminate that offers little more strength, if you want it stronger use another layer of 1200 or 1700 and skip the mat. Whether it will work is irrelevant, there are very few situations where mat is needed when using epoxy. When using 1700 you get a 50+% glass content, mat will be at around 30% glass, the glass fibers are where the strength is at. So mat sucks up epoxy with a low glass content resulting in lower strength.
The reason for mat when using polyester is the resin itself is rather week and brittle compared to epoxy, it relies more on the fibers to do the work. Mat is used as a first layer, and in-between layers to help eliminate the resin rich (or resin only) layer between each woven or stitched layer of fabric. The random fibers in mat fill the areas where there would otherwise be no glass, without glass this would be a very weak point in the laminate. Epoxy is strong enough to not need this help, it will be stiffer with mat due to being thicker, but the strength will not increase proportionally as it would with more stitched fabric. If you chose to use it, that’s fine, you just need to understand what it may or may not due to help your cause.
