Because there is no real UV protection with epoxy as the final finish I know that a automotive clear coat with UV protection in it is going to have to be sprayed on anyway.

So what I have been doing is spray the automotive clear in the mold and let it cure overnight. I then lay up my stack of carbon in the mold and do my epoxy infusion in the normal way. It comes out great. For a show shine you need to wet sand and polish anyway so because there is already clear on the part a light scuff is easy without the danger of going through into the carbon. I then spray a bunch of heavy coats of clear and wet sand and polish when cured. Its then as shiney as glass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

follow the video.  they leave it to fully cure before laying up the carbon.

so to make it easy, the reinforcement would have to be laid down and infused/vaccuum bagged just after 2-3 hours

in structural terms it can be, but a gelcoat is not a structural usage of the polyester so its unlikely to have a negative impact on the strength of the part.

Isn't Polyester the weakest of the esters?

That's perfect, thanks a lot!

Check this out:

 

https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/clearpol-iso-npg-clear-polyester-gelcoat



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

hi guys,

this is my first question here so any help would be much appreciated.

i've been using resin infusion to make bits and pieces for a while but now i want to make something shinier.

i wanted to use a clear gel coat and then use RI to produce a part but it had always been my understanding that you need to apply the resin when the gel coat was tacky.

watching the EC bonnet video, the gel coat is sprayed on and then sanded so obviously its dry, but i wanted to check before i try it.

if i use the EC epoxy gel coat (https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/epoxy-bonding-polyester-gelcoat-clear), let that dry and then lay the carbon etc down, it should all bond and work ok?

i take it the resin will re-activate the gel coat enough to bond?

Thanks