Is there anybody using varnish coat for good and 3Dlook when the carbon product is finished? In all my project I am using for the last step vernish coat in a proffesional cars paint shop and the results most of the time is not show good. I have a lot of small pins of air and sometimes the extending varnish coat is a disaster. Any ideas?
are you saying you are using an actual varnish…like for wood?
Id probably steer clear of that stuff.
If you mean you are using clear coat from an auto paint supply…then the problem you are getting with the pin holes is in your layup. You should use a surface coat and then do your layup. Ive only seen those pinholes in stuff that gets infused dry.
I tried to fix some once…and I ended up spraying 10 coats of clear as the pin holes would literaly suck the clear paint into the fiber like a wick. It was a disaster.
yes hybridracers,
I am using clear coat, sorry my English is not so good:( . You said first surface coat? Do you suggest anythink?
Try spraying something like Duratec clear coat or maybe automotive 2 pack acylic clear coat onto the surface of your moulds before you start.
In terms of pinholes if you are thinking of going into small scale production, then the chances of defects can be reduced significantly, and production time and costs reduced if you look at RTM rather than vacuum infusion, which is not altogether ideal for larger numbers of smaller parts.
surface coat…I use polyester gelcoat.
Even if you use epoxy you can spray the poly gel coat in your mold first.
I use marine clear
Most of the time when I take the part out from the mold, there is some problems like bubbles or resin problems and I must fix it. So if I spray the mold before maybe I cant make some repairings. Thats why I spray it after.
There is any way to make the part some corrections and then spray it with gelcoat? or I must spray it with clear coat in the mold, make the part, fixed the problems and then again clear coat?
I must tell you that when the part is finished I make sanding from 240, 400, 600, 1200, 1500, 2000 for better surface.
Is there exist any transparent first coat, before I put clear coat?
If you have bubbles you have to work on your infusion.
Basicaly you spray clear gelcoat on and then do your layup when it b stages…
then infuse and let cure…pull it out and if you want super glossy you scuff that and spray some auto clear coat paint on it.
You can spray gel coat on a part you pulled but after it b stages youll have to spray pva on it or it will never full cure…then you wash the pva off and sand and buff it.
If you want to spray gel coat on a part there is no need to mess around with PVA…just add some wax additive to the gel and it will dry no problem.
CB, thanks, you beat me to it…
Cool,
thank you guys, I try to my next infusion. But because I am like you and every time I try a lot of things, today I buy marine gel coat for the parts that I have already finish and I will try to spray them with thick gelcoat. When the gelcoat come to b stage I will scuff it and then I spray it again. Let’s see what is happen:rolleyes:
If your parts have lots of air bubbles and other imperfections, you will probably find its much faster to make another part, rather than spend a lot of time trying to repair the defects.
Correct, but is not so many bubbles, you can fix it very fast. My problem start with the quality of the gelcoat. Today I buy marine gelcoat and probably I will try it in this weekend to see how they go.
I dont think you are going to find that its the quality of materrials causing your problems. If you are trying vacuum infusion for the first time, then its a very good idea to try making a few parts using glass and poly resin, and only then progress to more expensive materials.
Personally I feel that anyone thinking low volume production of smaller carbon or Eglass parts, would be well advised to look at the RTM process rather than vacuum, as its a good deal faster, and less costly if you are making a reasonable number of units.
To tell you the truth, yesterday I find out in marine shop,they are fixing all the boats carbon masts with a specific gelcoat. This gelcoats is collaborate with the epoxy resin. I think my problem was that. All the gelcoat for cars can,t work very well with the epoxy resin, that’s why I have the problems with it. I see this week how it goes.
and the name to that specific gel coat is? guess the name isnt on the label either…
xmmmm!!! is that joke?
This have a label but I want first to check the results and then I will tell you.
2 thumbs up 
Now, don’t jump the gun just yet…Epoxies have what is called “face coats” (epoxy resins with thickeners in it) which is LIKE Gel Coats in PER!
I will do the first coat of marine gelcoat with paint-brush and when dry up the next day I will sand it and then with the spray gun I spray the last gelcoat varnish.
OK Gentleman,
I done it and I find the best Varnish for my parts, here’s the photos:
