Are guys popping the part right out of the mold and mounting it to there 100k car, or is there a process to get the parts to that level? Coat sand polish? coat sand polish?

Straight from the mould, always. If you're doing any sort of clear coating, it adds weight. Not a concern for a lot of people, but for people like me who do a lot of high end race cars - every gram counts.

It is a process though, it all starts with the pattern. Perfect pattern > perfect mould > perfect part.

Hanaldo's work is fantastic, as always

However, I think that most manufacturers making panels for high-end supercars will likely be investing a lot in the finishing process. For them, it's probably not so important to achieve a perfect surface finish when the part comes out of the mould and a lot will be invested in many coats of lacquer to achieve a deep gloss and fairly tough finish

I tend to use EC's GC50 on a lot of the parts that I make and this can give you a surface coating straight from the mould that is highly polishable with added UV stability. The downside of using it is that you do tend to lose a little clarity on the visual effect, as even the most careful of spraying will leave a surface onto which you lay the dry fabric a little less flat than usual. However, it does give you a bit of leeway to fix and improve any slight issues from the mould that might otherwise not be possible with a 'bare' epoxy-made part

Hanaldo that part looks amazing, What release system do you use if you don’t mind me asking? and what is your process for getting rid of that resin wick left behind at the seems of the molds? Are you using a spray adhesive to hold your material in place on the surface?

Markmk, we’ve tried putting down a clear face coat first which yes did give the part a d different depth look. But it also had very small air/vaccum voids that were then trapped and the only way to fix them is to sand down the face coat. Have you ran into that issue?

You will find a mix of methods in high end cars but most of what I have seen will have a finishing coat or clear coat to get it smooth like glass.  Resin infusion and pre-preg parts always at some angles and lights have a slight print through effect on the surface due to the very thin layer of resin on the surface.  Correctly applied clear coats can get you a like glass level of smoothness.  But that doesn't come cheap  - that and the extra level of care and detail during manufacture explains why often OEM high end carbon parts seem silly expensive.

Race cars are a bit different and you wouldn't want the extra weight of gelcoat or clear coats. Also race parts it really doesn't matter if the weave is a bit distorted here and there or the odd repaired pinholes. 

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

Ms, I use Chemlease and Marbocote chemical release agents. To clean up the flash line I use a razor blade at an angle (you dont cut it off, you scrape it off).

I will also clear coat some of my parts if that's what the customer wants, but that is a bit irrelevant - the part should always be perfect from the mould anyway and I'm sure most OEM manufacturers will believe the same. If you are trying to fix issues by applying clear coat, you are doing a lot of unnecessary work. Pull the part, give it a quick rub back for adhesion and spray it. Trying to fix pinholes and other issues is an absolute nightmare.

I also don't find clear coating does anything for print through. If the part is going to print, it will print whether it has a clear on top or not. Part needs to be thoroughly cured prior to demoulding and then never see higher than it's Tg during service, which is easier said than done when making parts with infusion.

Markmk, we’ve tried putting down a clear face coat first which yes did give the part a d different depth look. But it also had very small air/vacuum voids that were then trapped and the only way to fix them is to sand down the face coat. Have you ran into that issue?

When all has gone to plan with the infusion, then there's never any unexpected air entrapment when using the GC50 that EC sells. Have your bubbles been evident in the sprayed coating itself or in the epoxy underneath?

One advantage of using the in-mould coating is that, when an infusion might not go well i.e. where there might have been a bit of air ingress that's happened during the cure process that's evident on the part  there is often really good scope to fix things well

Some contoured parts might end up with air 'blisters' in the corners, where the air might have collected and this can sometimes be corrected by carefully creating a hole and filling the blister with additional epoxy. The finishing process of flatting down any excess and polishing to a near invisible state is also made possible by having a coating that can take a bit of sanding and compounding