Never used epoxy resin before, but bought a West 'junior' kit yesterday, ready to repair the cracks in my carlins (? the inside edge of the deck) where the 20yr old cascamite has given up.

Is there any sage advice you can give me, which isn't written on the tiny leaflet in the packet? Also, how the hell do I bodge up a clamp to hold the curved vertical face both in the outboard and upwards direction?!

Clamping- plenty of duct tape stretched well. Make sure that you have removed all the old cascamite - easiest way to do it is a piece of 80 grade sand paper slid in the gap and moved bakck and to.

Large hacksaw blade does it for me too

If you have access to disposable plastic Pasteur pipettes (email me and I can send you some) they are great for squeezing the epoxy into the joints.  Also heating the joint - gently - with a hot air gun before putting the epoxy in helps to make it more runny and seems to draw it into the wood which is what you are trying to achieve.  Make sure that anywhere the glue might drip you have newspaper down to stop it getting onto an area you don't want it.  Any specific questions mail me.

Garry

old, clean feeler guages (remember them from your Ford Anglia mending days?) are great for getting the bog right into the ends of the joint..

As for the clamping, if all other things fail, use screws.  You can always take them out afterwards or countersink them down and fill over the heads.

From experience - NEVER start mixing the epoxy before you are entirely sure you have sorted out how you are going to get it into the joint and clamp it up, always do a dry run!!

Make sure you use neat resing first before you add the resin/fillers mixture. Alternatively, there are a couple of very good polyurethane glues (balcotan?) that come in a tube and can be used with a standard cartridge gun with the nozzle cut to deliver the correct size bead. The glue also expands into any thin cracks.

You can never have too many "sundries", i.e. kitchen roll, mixing sticks, mixing pots, duct tape, etc, etc. Good substitute for pots are plastic barbecue bowls that Sainsbriz/Tescos (can't remember which) do in a fairly lurid blue or green-unbreakable and epoxy won't adhere to them, so set epoxy can be cracked out of them by flexing the bowl.

If you are mixing up a small amount of epoxy for a repair then I have found that the disposable plastic clear drinking cups found at every drinking fountain nowadays are ideal.  They also have little ribs on the outside so these can be pretty much used as graduation marks for measuring as well. Epoxy doesn't attack the plastic.   Once used - chuck them.  They can also be used for measuring out Eposeal/SP320 and Ultrovar components (but be quick with the Eposeal as they will dissolve) - but yes they are cheap measurers!!

Do you intend to do the repair yourself or someone to help you?
Tools  Mixing ,tongue depressors from chemist, £1.20 per 100 Wax cups .Sainsburys. Free Use wax cups as these are safer and dont melt. Measuring epoxy ,digital food scales Argos £14.99
Cleaning ,Acetone or nail varnish remover.5ltr £10.00 Masking tape .If you need to clamp it together without marking it then staple it and let it set.You will need to make up some strips for the staples ,easier to pull out without marking the wood .Once dry take staples out and finish, if you need to get thin viscosity with epoxy then heat it up ,it shouldnt need it with this hot weather though .If you want  to thicken the epoxy use microfibres .

Enjoy

Think laterally on the clamping - all that clamping does is put pressure on the gap so if you think about this, you may be able to do this in other ways.

For example, using something (eg a jack) to increase pressure between carlin and a fixed point eg garage wall or roof.

Mags,
Having just had exactly the same repair to do on "Panatella", i can say that duct tape does work. The first strip doesn't , but as you add more and more strips, the tension builds up and draws the joint together. Don't cover the joint completely with tape, then you can moniter the gap. Use longish strips that go right across the sidedeck, so they clear any excess epoxy and don't lose their grip.

Sorry, should also have said to stick the tape from under the sidedeck, round the carlin, then across the top of the deck. This then lifts the carlin and pulls it in against the ply deck. Don't worry if it lifts the carlin fractionally above the ply, you can sand it down to match. What you can't do is sand the ply down to match the carlin-you'll go through the top veneer. 
Don't stretch the tape from the inside hull surface, over the carlin, then over the top of the deck, as this will pull it in against the ply, but will also tend to pull it down as well. Hope that makes sense!

in my experience, wearing disposable gloves is a must.especially when doing anything internal.

Oooh baby!

Wear gloves you can develop a reaction to epoxy which is not nice. Stir it well I use Mc Donalds style stirrers in a pillar drill. This is how they do it at Glider factories. Warm it slightly not too much or it will set too quick. At the moment it is hot enough in the afternoon not to bother. Do not do it when it is humid as epoxy absorbs water when setting.I would do it in a garage with a heater during the evening too avoid moisture. As said before get everithing to hand before mixing.

Hi mags I've been away & just got back and seen your post. Epoxy is the best option, most of the ideas presented are logical and will work, the only thing I didnt see was to take care and tape off the surrounding area which will minimise the refinishing you'll be left with. I've always used brown packing tape to mask off the adjacent areas. You might prefer to do a pre job experiment to check your skills & colour mixing(micro ballons etc) Syringes are great for small quantities both mixing & applying ,digital scales for larger amounts, but don,t let the 'cook' spot you!
Good luck,  Barry