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Originally Posted by Ntrprise
I understand that the shelf life for some of these materials is 6-12 months....
.... I have had them for 3 years..... and they have been in the loft of my garage... so have had some reasonably cold conditions....
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My car has a fibreglass body and I've been making a remaking bits for it for years and have used materials of many different ages. First thing is that the matting isn't a problem so long as its been kept reasonably dry and it doesn't fall apart when you handle it (the bonding agent dissolves when you lay it up anyway). Next the lay up resin - this does age, but so long as its been kept in a moisture proof container in the dark it should be fine. The darkness thing is because uv light (also given off by flourescents) will eventually cause it to cure. You should be able to tell if your resin is still usable by pouring a little into a container. If it still flows freely (ie quite runny) then it should be fine. If its started to thicken though (say more like maple syrup) then you'll have problems getting to to wet the mat properly and get rid of bubbles. In this case you'd need to buy new. Lastly the gel goat resin. This seems to be the most sensitive and there isn't an easy way to tell if its ok without making up a small batch and seeing what happens. I had some in a sealed tin for a couple of years and when I went to use it, it looked fine but just didn't set at all :-(.