I didn't think his was damaged in a place that is backed by a metal plate, but I could be wrong I guess.

 

Maybe not, but if the plates are anywhere near you need to remove them to get it all cleaned up for repair. My son's was broken along the front edge at both corners of each footwell. I guess I was thinking his was like that but I must be wrong.

 

I just wanted to add some more info to the messy part.

Maybe I am just a slob.
I ended up with resin everywhere when I built things with glass. little drops here and there.

I would use the blue rubber gloves that are stronger then the white ones that like to tear.

I would wear old clothes. Pants, long sleeves.
old shoes.

cover everything you want to keep resin off of. I would cover the entire interior. one slip and you can dump it all over. cover everything you will walk by/lean over make sure you cant tear through your protective covering.
Cover the ground
cover the door, and cover the door sill.

depending on how far along you are with your interior, maybe you can mix it up in the floor board area to minimize accidents.

When sanding use a shop vac to vacuum dust, and get some goggles and a good mask. if you are irritated by glass you will find out quick by not wearing this stuff.

reson stinks. do it in the garage and it will stink for a while.
do it outside and the nieghbors will wonder what smells so good.

I was wondering what working like glass was like on my first project and no one told me... it is kind of just do it and see how bad you are at it. then learn from there.

I have been thinking about how to describe it.... drippy, gooey, messy, smelly, sticky art.

Imagine trying to sarturate a paper towel with syrup, then moving the paper town into a bowl and smoothing out the wrinkles with your hands. it sticks you you more then the bowl and constantly needs adjusting. the more you play with it, the more the paper towel breaks down, stretches and falls apart.

Glass is similar. you lay it down and it looks good there. but it just needs a little adjusting. so you move it, and it sticks to you and moves more. you try to level it out, and glass strands poke/pop out it wrinkles and streches. soon the resin starts to set, and you are still playing with it and it is sticking to your hands more then the project. you get it in place and it dries, but strand are hanging out and are rock hard like thorns on a rose bush, those wrinkles are solid.

so it didnt go in perfectly as planned, well the next part of the art project is sculpting. take the sander, knock it into shape, back to glass then repeat, repeat, repeat.

as you go it will get easier. you will learn what it likes and find way to avoid having to sand it down for hours.

 

This is a good simple project to get your feet wet.

"Man don't ever buy a boat that needs to be restored!!!"

 

bill mcdonald, such experiences as yours are why I advocate using very small pieces of mat to avoid the need to adjust them or touch them at all once there is resin on them.

 

I will take pictures of the damage and post. Then I would like your opinions on the right way to go about it!