Release agents on Lexan and fiberglass resin.

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#1

Hey guys, thanks for having me.

I’m currently finishing up my first plug. It’s a wooden flat piece with about 3/4" sides. It’s going to be a carbon Fiber aesthetic part, so finish is imperative. Since that’s the case, I put a piece of Lexan on the flat part for an extra perfect finish. The sides were body filled to eliminate the seam between the wood and Lexan, and then coated with fiberglass resin. The resin was then polished to a nice reflective finish.

With that said, how would you guys prepare this for the tooling coat? I assume PVA would be bad since the the surface needs to be perfect(although Easy Composites seems just wipe their release agent on without problems).

Thanks in advance!

#2

Use a chemical release agent like Easy-lease, Frekote, Zyvax, etc.

PVA will always affect the surface finish, even when sprayed.

#3

Great, thanks. So the number of choices from the companies are dizzying, but looking at the descriptions, it seems like “Zyvax Fiberglass Shield” should fit the bill. Of course, so do others, so I have no idea.

“Fiberglass Shield is a high performance, semi-permanent release coating specifically formulated to provide high gloss moldings of polyester resins and gel coats. It also offers effective multiple release efficiency with a wide range of molding compounds.”

Is waxing still necessary beforehand if this is used? Sorry, i’m coming from a fiberglass/PVA background, so this is all new to me. Thanks again!