Hi guys

I have nearly finished my first carbon skinned parts but after following the instructions, and completing the wet sanding and polishing phase, I am not left with a glossy finish but I am left with a rather dull finish.

Hopefully the inagws below help to show the issues

You probably just need a heavier cutting polish.

1500 wet and dry with the right polish and maybe even use a buffer rather than try by hand. Hand polishing is not very easy in my opinion.

I agree you just havent polished it enough yet. What grit did you sand to before compounding? 1200 grit is sort of the bare minimum you want to start from, and it can actually take a lot of compounding to polish up to a real full gloss. Especially if you are trying to polish epoxy rather than a urethane or polyester, as epoxies are very hard wearing and can take a lot to polish. Some of them will never polish to a full gloss, but modern ones should so I doubt that is your issue.

Personally, I actually sand all the way up to 4000 grit. From here it is much faster to compound to a full gloss and you dont use as much compound.