bilge help

[cboham30]

i cut out the floor on my 69 fb. just in the bilge area as i could see someone cut a hole in one of the stringers when they put a new floor in( which by the way is wood :cry: , but  has resin over the wood so i am going to leave the floor as the stringers are in remarkable shape .)i pulled alittle foam from were the hole was cut looks like it was done a while ago and the foam inside looked brand new. it was nice and white. anyway ,what i was wondering is that the area looks like crap. someone put bondo and who knows what down there, it was peeling up, so i took my grinder and went to work. now that i have all the old stuff out , the bilge  is not even and i want to reglass the whole bilge agin. question is should i use a a filler with strands of fiberglass to smooth it out first or shold i lay glass first then smooth it out?....oh by the way what do you guys do when you fell like saying screw it this isn't worth it :x .thanks

[JimCt]

Stick with it!  Get someone to work with you if you can...

Glass cloth or whatever you lay in there will have limited leveling capability without leaving air pockets.  Grind the surface as smooth as you can and fair with glass putty then lay in the cloth or mat.

Stupid questions: Why does the bilge have to be that smooth anyway?  Did you take up the deck (floor) because it was soft?  Reason I'm asking is to see if maybe you are doing more than you need to.

[cboham30]

it's just a beat up from the grinder, i don't want it to be perfect, just somewhat smooth

i cut a 3x4' area of deck out because i wanted to seal the holes that were cut in the stringer as it was inthe bilge

i gets to be a little overwhelming at times. this is the first rebuild i've done so figuring were to start and were to go next has been tough. i've trying to see if i should do the outside first or start at the bottom of the inside. pretty frustrating , all i can think about is getting that thing in the water for the first time.....thanks for response