Hello folks,

Not an expert by any means here and looking for the best method to complete a project I have been given in work please.

Basically I have been given a small 400mm square piece of PIR foam (40mm thick) to layup with a few layers of fibreglass and then encapsulate in gel coat. The piece is to be used as a hatch for an exit and will be visible on both sides.

We have CNC facilities in work however I am unsure on how best to achieve the encapsulation and the correct steps. My initial thoughts are to coat the bottom part of the mould with gel coat then once cured layup with fibreglass all over. Afterwards I was going to pour the gel coat to flood the sides of the mould and over the top part of the panel and simply let it cure.

I am aware that there will be a join in the gel coat and guess I can buff this back?

Any advice would be much appreciated please. I have looked around and cannot find any projects similar to this. I will take some images when I tackle the project, a video if possible too.

:-)

===================
[[xXXXXXXXXXXXXXx]]
===================

XXXX is foam
[[ and ]] laminate on the sides, followed by
====== laminate on top and bottom


Do you absolutely have to use gelcoat? Can you choose which gelcoat to use, or does it have to be the same material as the rest of the project?

Hi,