RE: Birth of a Dreamin' CS: How it's done
Once your have a even coat of resin covering the mold, time to pick up your mat and lay inside. Using your hands at first, position the mat so that you overlap the middle by 6" for this hull. Notice the torn edgs are INSIDE the hull? Using a trim roller and roller pan of resin, apply a generous amount of resin directly to the mat enough to soak and remove air bubbles. I start with the middle usually and work my way to the sides and up rolling in all directions once it's down, this helps break up the microscopic little strands creating a much stronger bond than just wetting out. You will use lots of resin with this step, I think almost 16 oz was used for the mat lay up. Mat is easy to work and tool around corners, can be stubborn sometimes, but usually a little more resin can convince the mat to listen. Again, watch for air bubbles, especially in the corners.
The third picture shows only 1/2 of the mat installed. The last 3 pictures shows that I overlapped my prevous layer creating 2 solid layers for structural strength of mat. Notice how quickly the roller wets out the fiberglass with just one pass. I'm using a 1/4 inch nap roller for this job.