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Thickness
I am trying to remember I think we had an initial gel coat layer a layer of random chopped strand, an impregnated layer of a cloth sponge (i forget the name of this material) it adds thickness and soaks resin in, it equalls about 2 laminations of random mat a further layer of random mat all impregnated with resin, a final paint thickness of flow coat on the inside, when the bases were cut off the seat towers the total thickness was about 5mm , in our case we reinforced the back corners of the seats to take rests if required, but moreso than the thickness its the shape that gave the seats their strength.In our console I remember from cutting holes for gauges etc, there is plywood used in the construction, it is not a complete grp console, the top of it is grp, but its uprights etc are ply coated in grp.It is a heavy moulding and needs this internal wood for the strength it has.Our seats have been well and truly tested I would think 5 or 6 mm is thick enough but a console needs to have wood, think of the stress it is under, with steering wheel mounts, hand holds and wind resistance.If I had to build a console I would use half inch marine ply in the construction and coat this in grp and then gelcoat.It would be worth dropping Tim a pm or email, he has done a lot of work with fiberglass, he knows a few tricks and the chemicials that are used, one big project he worked on involved a lot of moulding and building stuff from fiberglass for a Trimaran , multihull sail boat, after its refit it completed a trip from Ireland to Tahiti.
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