After making my first carbon part with vacuum bagging technique and noticing some flaws here and there on the cured resin surface i thought it might be a good idea to use transparent gelcoat next time. With gelcoat you have an extra security barrier in case something goes wrong with the final surface.
Question is:
Can i use polyester clear gelcoat on the mold and then continue with epoxy laminating? Do you think that polyester gelcoat and epoxy resin will bond perfectly together?
I personally have never done this, but Ive read about 5000 posts that says you can. As long as you lay your cloth on the poly while its B staged you should be alright, bonding wise.
i’ve done it many times with no problems. even if you leave polyester gelcoat to cure for a day,it will still be sticky,on the surface. it’s a blessing and a curse,for laying carbon on it. its no problem for small molds but try laying carbon on a hood while the surface is sticky :mad:
however the thickness of the gelcoat is a saviour,when you can sand the part down to perfection,before you clear coat it.
Thanks aga,
OK there is epoxy clear gelcoat anyway, but it is a bit costly… 
Epoxy will stick to PER, but applying PER to Epoxy will not hold up over time.
i was at neotex last saturday and asked about the totally clear gelcoat, and they have it!! but they only sell it in 25kg buckets!! 
why the hell…
And what’s the price for this quantity?
You both are in Greece so get together and split it? 
That’s a good idea!
its still a huge quantity for me… i barely use 1 kg every two months… i don’t know about half, but i would buy say…3-4 kg.
about the price, i didnt ask, but you can give them a call.
1 gallon is about 4kg. 1kg would be used almost every day!
i’m not a professional my friend…and the biggest part i build is a bonnet.