New to the forum and would greatly appreciate any help! I am having a bit of trouble with skinning my interior trim (aluminum) with CF. Whenever I lay the base coat down it begins to pool and pull away from the trim. I have sand with 120 which didnt work so I went to 100 and that still hasnt worked. Finally I went to 80 and even though the surface is throughly sanded, it will not stay in place. Any advice?

What exactly is that? Cleaner, an acid, or a base? Metal pretreatment?

Aluminum is often unreliable and unpredictable to bond to. Try a different epoxy as the first coat, don't wait too long after sanding. It's also somewhat susceptible to corrosion when in direct contact with carbon. In aviation aluminum parts are therefore pretreated with certain chemicals before epoxies are applied, not because this enhances bond strength (it sometimes doesn't), but because it becomes more predictable and will last longer.