: I think this might be a better idea than Bondo. Mixing up a thickend epoxy
: should give you something more durable and compatible. If you can get
: microballoons you'll have a lightweight filler material. Otherwise, try
: mixing a sample of epoxy with finely chopped foamed styrene (the
: insulating boards sold under the name of Styrofoam would be suitable, as
: would similar products) How you would turn this stuff into a fine powder
: may be a problem, but one you should be able to solve. One ides: feed the
: edge of a sheet of foamed plastic against a belt sander loaded with coarse
: grit sanding belt.

: Add some glass cloth threads to the mix for strength and to resist cracking.
: Cut a strip of glass cloth an inch wide and pull out the long pieces so
: you get a pile of 1 inch pieces of glass fibers.

: You want a material that is mostly light weight filler and that is held
: together with a minimum of resin. When you get the shape right, cover the
: thing with layers of glss cloth and resin for added strength.

: PGJ

Ken, Paul, thicken resin is an idea. I think it would take more then one wiping because the top rounded part wants to sink with gravity and so you would have to let the first wipe set some and then wipe again, and maybe a third time. To eliminate a second wipe or a third, you might make two wiping guages, one with a higher then wanted radius to add extra thicken epoxy and then one with the real radius you want to finish up with. As you wipe you must try to keep you guage clean so the excess doesn't drag and distort the model too much, but it is really the last wipe that is most important. I used a squeegy to cut my guage from. The model doesn't have to be perfect because it can be dressed up. To make the process easier you will notice I set the bottom of the mold on edge so it would be a V shape and the plastic would keep flowing into these areas by gravity and would form themselves without a lot of messing around. An idea, epoxy will soften and can be bent after it has set up, so maybe the whole straight model could be heated and layed around the cockpit and as it cooled it would take on the new shape. Another idea, you can have a company that does extruding work, make and extrude a rubber type shape that could be sold by the foot just for coamings. The unknown is, would the coaming keep it's shape pretty good as it rounded corners or would it distort too much. I think it would be ok on the big front radius part of the cockpit on my boat but might not work so well on the two sharper curves on back of the cockpit.

John