[77newell]

Having messed about with epoxy-wood boats for several years here are a couple hints. From Richard's experience it appears that you don't need to wet-sand the initial coat of epoxy into the metal - but you may choose to do this for increased strength. W.E.S.T. the maker of Gflex also makes fillers that the epoxy can be mixed with, one of those is a fiber gap filler. If you have coated the surfaces with pure epoxy you can then slather on a mix of epoxy and fiber gap filler and the surfaces don't need to be perfect - as long as the gaps are filled you will be fine. Another aspect of epoxy is that you don't want to compress the joint during curing; the guidance from West was to just hold the parts together in a way that leaves the epoxy filling all the gap but minimizing squeezing out. If you have further questions the WEST website is full of great information.