Wiil gel coat bond to wood (pine) encased in fibergass resin without any glass mat?

I am making a little custom mouting brack out of wood for my dash and I want to have it gel coated to match my dash's existing (grey) gel coat.

Should I lay up glass mat over the wood, or is just a good coat of resin OK. The mat is kind of hard to work with and I would prefer to just give the thing a couple of coats of resin but don't know if the gel will stick to just resin.

Is this something that is going to sit on a desk or are you putting it back in the boat?

you could probably get away with only the gel for a while but eventually the thermal cycling of the wood will cause it to crack. a light layer of half oz. should do the trick but you will have some finish work to do before you gel it. dont forget to use some sort of inhibitor in the gel (Duratec, wax additive or a coat of PVA)