Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Polyester compatible gellcoats

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic23275.aspx

By davro - 5/8/2017 12:01:41 PM

Hi All,


A friend just phoned me abut helping with making a carbon bonnet for a race car from an old mould suited for wet-laying.

He's plan is to wax the mould, clear gel coat it then wet lay the carbon in a general purpose polyester laminating resin, (same as the previous layup).

The bonnet is going to be wrapped so the finish is not important.


Is GC50 only compatible with epoxy resins?


What would be the best Clear Gel Coat for a polyester laminating resin ...



I'm normally an infusion guy and never really use a gel-coat, just clear coat.


Cheers,


Davro
By Warren (Staff) - 5/8/2017 1:20:57 PM

We would very strongly advise against trying to use GC50 with a polyester resin.  The GC50 has been uniquely formulated to be epoxy compatible in its cured surface finish by being tack free (as well as the formulation).  If you tried to use a polyester resin on the back of a cured GC50, assuming there was no reaction of one against the other, you would find the gelcoat would delaminate very badly, ruining the part.