Curing Gel coat in open air

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Curing Gel coat in open air

Author	Message
dbcrx	dbcrx posted 10 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 46, Visits: 1.2K	Ok, here's one for you... Most of us know gel coat stays tacky in open air, and if you're doing so you should either use wax additive, cover it with some sort of plastic, or have to resort to just cleaning off the surface with acetone before sanding. However, sometimes I have to do a repair (like today) where I only have gelcoat and no wax, I don't have time to get the right materials (as the customer is leaving at the weekend) and the shape of the repair area is too awkward to cover with plastic (curves in 2 or 3 directions). Todays repair was also quite large (approx 100x30cm) so wiping with acetone was a PITA! This got me to thinking - would spraying the fresh gel coat with something like silicone grease or hair spray or something work to seal it? I imagine a thin film of something like that would be easier to clean off than the sticky gel coat, and would also leave all the gel coat there to be sanded. In some spots where I'd applied it a bit too thin, the acetone ends up taking it all off, leaving spots that need to be refilled. Also it would be a lot quicker and easier to just spray over it than trying to smooth plastic over. So what do you think? Does something exist that will work?
	Reply Like 6
ajb100	ajb100 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	I would be worried about contamination by spraying something on before curing. Why not just use lots of little but of Non perfect release film to follow the mould contours?
	Reply Like 4
dbcrx	dbcrx posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 46, Visits: 1.2K	This isn't in moulds, it's for when doing repairs on boats. Some of the flatter areas would work with release film, but I have two issues here. One is that sometimes the repairs are just too big or awkward to use film (see below), and the other is that getting hold of materials quickly here just doesn't happen. Not useful when you have boat owners that are just stopping to have a quick repair done before moving on. If I had time then I could just order what I need to do it properly anyway. This is the repair I've just done. I got there in the end, but it was messy work having to clean off the surface before sanding. I don't think I could cover an area like that without getting wrinkles and air bubbles under the plastic, which would just create more low/thin spots to refil. There were also cracks around one of the pulley blocks on top that you'd never be able to wrap as it went around the base and up the sides around three of the faces. I get the concern about contamination, but I'm thinking maybe hairspray may work. I've used it successfully as an alternative to pva in a mould and I was thinking if you just dusted on a few light coats the spray is so much thinner and lighter than the thick gel coat that it wouldn't really mix in with it. I feel some testing coming on!
	Reply Like 3
Fasta	Fasta posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 468, Visits: 3.5K	I have heard of people spraying pva on top of gel repairs, I have not done it myself so can't say any more on it?? Fastacraft Facebook page
	Reply Like 3