Well here is another one, should have been the first question? Lol

Having discussions with friends, not being aware what's up my sleeve...they are concerned with yellowing of CF due to exposure to the sun/water etc... I read about your gel coats:

 Gel coats are generally applied as a thickness of 0.3-0.7mm and are specially formulated to provide the part or mold surface with properties such as resistance to UV (ultraviolet) degradation, hydrolysis or osmosis (where water is absorbed into a composite over considerable time)

As mentioned on your site your products are superior to other products on the market...could elaborate on it some?


What thickness would give the best result? .7mm?
How would I measure the thickness? would it be in terms of coats, before CF layied?


When I plan to make the heat shield for my bike I will use the

Clear Epoxy Gel Coat correct?

Should have asked this question in the 1st post my bad......

Hi Martin,

UV stability of epoxy resin is something that we get asked about quite a bit and it's an important subject that anyone working with epoxy should be aware of.

Firstly, all epoxies are damaged, to some extent, by the sun. They have improved a lot over recent years and most hold up a lot better than many people thing.

All of our epoxies have additives which reduce the damage caused by UV light and certainly we've seen plenty of parts made with our resins that still look good after quite a bit of sun exposure however they certainly arn't immune to damage and so if you're making epoxy-based parts (which we generally are) you should think about if you need to protect them from UV damage and if you do, how to go about it.

Anything that's going on a race car/bike/boat we generally don't bother. Anything applied to the part (either during the laminating process or after it's been made - like a paint) will add weight and not strength as so no one would bother. The car/bike/boat etc will probably crash before any sun damage will occur!

Any applications that are more cosmetic (road cars, leasure boats etc) that will be subjected to prolonged UV exposure should be protected. Probably the best way to do this would be a PK (2 pack) lacquer/clear coat sprayed onto the part after it's been made. 2K lacquers offer pretty-much perfect UV protection and a very deep shine at the same time.

Another alternative is an epoxy compatible polyester gel coat (yes, they do exist!) which can be applied to the mould surface and then once fully cured the epoxy resin and carbon reinforcement can be laid into the mould. Again, polyester resins offer excellent UV stability and will block any UV from damaging the epoxy underneith. As far as we can tell there is really no dissadvatage to these new epoxy compatible polyester gel coats (providing they are designed specifically for this purpose) and they offer incredible interlaminate strength between the gel and epoxy, along with great clarity and shine.

The clear epoxy gelcoat that you've identified is intended more as a smooth gloss epoxy layer rather than a gel coat for UV stability. Again, it does have UV stablising additives but it's no where near as effective as a lacquer or an epoxy compatible polyester gel coat would be.

So, in short, you have 3 options:

1 - No gel coat, don't worry too much about UV damage (ideal for race parts or parts that won't see too much)
2 - 2K Lacquer/clear coat - you need to spray this using a gun. Available from any car paint suppliers
3 - Epoxy Compatible Polyester Gel Coat - Brush or spray application onto the mould first, then lay carbon/expoy in after.

I hope this helps!

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales