After you pull apart your parts from the mold. Do you guys clear coated your part? If you don’t clear coat your parts what kind of gel coat are you using to make it shinny? Because right now I am only using gel coat, but in order to make my parts shinny I need to clear coated, and I just want to get away with spray clear coat.
your part will be as shinny as your mold is, if it comes out hazy it is because thee mold is hazy, wet sand and buff your mold
+1 to the above post…
I used no clear coat on a lot of my beginning parts and because my molds were so nice the parts came out really nice. Then I just buffed them if I wanted a super nice glaze to them.
You should clear them if you can just for the added UV protection.
Maybe shin pads might help?
is it possible to make a part that look like it has clear coated?
An autoclave helps enormously, out of the reach of most DIYer’s though. Make sure your vacuum is as good as possible. If you are still disappointed with the shinyness, when the part has cured, wipe some resin (with a bit of black pigment - assuming it’s carbon fibre) over the part, a bit like cleaning a shoe with shoe polish - not a heavy coat. when it is fully cured, sand it (wet) with 1500 paper and buff with an automotive polish. As well as making it shiny, it will fill in some of the surface porosity.
Yes, use clear gel coat in the mold first…or better yet, spray PUR automotive clear coat on after the part is out of the mold.