Hello everyone,

I am hand-laying a car door trim in easycomposites pro-finish 2x2 twill carbon fibre.  Here is my workflow:

1. Sand down the part
2. Apply black basecoat
3. Allow basecoat to go tacky, ~2.5-3hrs
4. Apply profinish carbon fibre material to the part and press it down firmly onto the basecoat
   
5. Allow to cure overnight
6. Apply epoxy top coat to the part
7. The next step according to the video would be to sand down the layer of epoxy
8. Apply second coat of epoxy
9. Allow epoxy to go tacky
10. Apply subsequent layers of epoxy
    

Here's the problem:


On my last attempt, the carbon fibre cloth was still showing through the layer of epoxy so if I sand then I would be sanding the carbon fibre itself and some epoxy.

Should I apply a very thick first coat of epoxy to ensure that it covers the carbon fibre cloth sufficiently so that the cloth is not showing through and so that there is enough epoxy coat to sand into?

Thanks for your help!

I would wait for your first coat to reach the almost tack free state and then go on with another layer before sanding. (you are using skinning resin right?)
The skinning resin is so thick it should cover fairly well in one coat to be able to sand lightly.
Hope this helps.
Fred

Fred, thank you for your reply.

You hit the nail on the head there, I checked the product today (attached picture) and I was infact using easy composites laminating resin instead of the coating resin so that explains it!

Now I need to check everything because it seems I did order coating resin back in 2011 and perhaps I received the wrong product.  I admit I never checked until now which is silly!

I ordered 1kg of easy composites coating resin last night because I expect to use alot in future so when it arrives I can get cracking again.

Glad to here that. I tried using laminating resin to see if it would work and it just would not fill no matter how many layers I built up. The skinning resin is a treat to use. One note, when you put your second layer on make sure it is still at a tack free state but is still some what sticky. If you miss this point and put on resin when it is dry it will not stick. You will have to sand first.( I always put 2 coats on before I sand)
Fred

Excellent, thank you Fred.  I'm hoping to get cracking on it in the next few days just as soon as I receive the coating resin from EC.

Update

I contacted EC and Matt kindly pointed out that back in 201 when I placed the order, laminating resin was the only product available at that time so I did receive the correct product.

I degassed my newly purchased coating resin and it works perfectly.