I tried both. It's definitely messy either way.

I started by painting the painters tape with resin, apply mat, then paint on top. The brush was making a mess of the mat. (The key is dabbing.. but when trying to apply resin vertically, it's almost impossible)

After awhile, I was laying the fiberglass flat on the board, pouring a thick line across it, brush it while flat, then picked up and moved to where I wanted it. This was great until the gloves started to disintegrate and the resin stared to get tacky. (It preferred sticking to the gloves rather than tape).

At one point.. I gave up on the brush was was just scooping it with glove onto the mat. (hence the messy backside) lol.

It's a crap job really. Worst fiberglass experience ever. but now that the basic shape is there, I'm hoping to have a little more success tonight adding some more strength. I added a little fiberglass bondo inside for rigidity while out of the car. That caused a whole bunch of extra work due to loose strands in the original fiberglass job.

When they say 1 gallon of resin, that is not enough for the size of this thing >.< I used 1 full 8sqft mat for that basic shape. and they want me to make it 5 layers? This is gonna get expensive quick.

100$ in resin and 100$ in Mat. >.>