Hi, Marc, and welcome to the forum.

For UV protection, you basically have 3 choices:

01). Let your part as it came out of the mold. UV will not kill your pretty black finish in one week... You choose that way if you got some part that dont especially see the sunlight, or a part on a race car, that has high risks to be broken before UV's make their job.

02). Coat your finish part with UV resistant clearcoat: sand your part with 600 grit sandpaper then spray a decent 2K clearcoat. Carefull that some clearcoats wont bond well to your laminate, please see datasheets of the clearcoat you intend to use.

03). UV protection coat, but this time in the mold: you have your empty mold, and before you lay your fabric, you spray that in-mold coat directly on your mold surface (after of course using release agents). Let that cure relative to the product manufacturer says, then start building up your laminate as you would normally. Finished part will have the protection coat "built-in" as you demold it. Good example of such a product : EC GC50, that you can find here.

Hope it helps.

 



 


    A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse

Helloo all,

Just a quick introduction as I will probably be referring to this forum often.  I have just ordered a laminating starter pack as I have always wanted to make my own parts.  Just going to see if I am able to make quality parts initially for my mx5.  Maybe get the mould kit if I find I have what its takes.

Loving the easy composites website as well as its sister carbon mods as they clearly show carbon fibre is not a black art as so many still think and they really do 'share the knowledge'

One little query (i appreciate its probably not in the right section) is how do you once you have made a part make it uv resistance.  Is this something thats already in the resins?

Many Thanks
Marc