Hi everybody,
Just completed the shaping phase of my first board, and I’m absolutely amped.
Prepairing to glass tommorow, gonna be using epoxy resin but I have a few questions.
How to you go about free lapping, do you apply a filler coat after glassing to sand or just sand away?
Cut lapping, whats the time with epoxy? I havn’t decided wich one to use.
I really just want info on how to sand the rails after glassing.
And will a credit card do as a squeegee? 
All Advise and critisicm appreciated.
For epoxy most glassers use the yellow plastic spreaders, often sold in home improvement and auto parts stores next to the bondo and other body fillers. Actually, if you bought your epoxy from a storefront they probably also sell the squeegees.
With your shape it might be a good use of your time to continue refining it. Your stringer is high (harder to glass and guaranteed to be the starting point for cracking after you start surfing it. You want that stringer to be completely flush or even slightly countersunk relative to the surrounding foam. Same on the bottom if that stringer is high.
Run your planer down the stringer and then finish with a light sand on the surrounding foam. A sanding block could be a good thing for you - if you don’t have something for that just using a 10" length of 2x4 or 1x4 with the corners rounded would be better than nothing.
For that design the rail at the nose would normally have some belly (convex contour across the bottom or at least some roll near the rails, and the rails themselves would normally turn up (like a downrail you would use in the tail, only reversed).
You’ve already spent a lot of time and effort to get your shape where it is right now, and you’ll spend even more time in glassing. Work clean on the shape to get clean results in the glassing. Better to spend several additional hours on the shape if need be than to rush a “rough” shape into glassing and being forced to spend the extra time there.
The pros get it done in an hour or two, but neither you nor I have those skills. So for us it takes as long as it takes.
Some great advice there 
I’ve just finished my 1st surfboard and maybe not as expert as most and im stoked with it. but I watched endless videos on YouTube and one video was mega useful by John carper called 101 shaping John carper. It’s a long video but you get it explained in great detail. Good luck
