I don’t think Fasta was being sarcastic when he suggested paying a professional. Considering it is someone else’s expensive vehicle, I think your process and knowledge is so far wide of the mark that you would save money, and keep your friendship intact, by paying a professional. A pro is going to use the basic techniques that you are trying to avoid. Get back to the basics instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.
Thanks. I totally believe he was being serious and both of you have a good point. Although I’m fairly confident I could of just wrapped his car console piece and made it look good. But I wanted to try another method that was suggested to me. I tired it out on a test piece. And even though I had to put a little more gelcoat on than I wanted to get pin holes to fill, I was confident I could repeat the process on the actual part.
…well it didn’t go as planned.
I have since come to terms that I will just go ahead and make a fiberglass mold with tooling gel coat and practice my infusion technique.
I can certainly relate to wanting to find quicker and easier methods of making cosmetic cf parts. I wasted a lot of time, money and enthusiasm doing just that in the early days when I started learning. I can’t tell you how much cf and resin I wasted…
There are no real shortcuts. Every time you try to save time and money by missing a step, rushing, using inappropriate materials etc, you will end up throwing it all away and starting again.
Making cosmetic parts is the most difficult kind to get right because they allow little to no room to correct your mistakes. They can be difficult even if you follow all the instructions. If surfaces cure with lumps or voids etc, you will not be able to fix them by sanding them smooth like you could with wood or plastic.
Making a proper mold is the way to go for most cf parts imo. I currently prefer to make them using cf with epoxy and an epoxy based gel coat. No nasty mek based resins to deal with so I can work indoors.
If you are going to skin a part, the EasyComposites video is not a bad one to follow for beginners. They make it look easier than it really is but it is a sales tool for them. It should work for simple shapes though.
in other words, start again, follow all the steps exactly and cure the cf with a proper laminating resin before applying any clear coating products. Don’t try to apply clear coat unless the part has cured correctly without any issues on the surface. Clear coat will not hide major mistakes. It’s only job is to provide UV protection and maybe improve the gloss level.
Avoid any parts with 90 degree angles or sharp tight corners. Use a good quality epoxy resin - it will make your life easier.
If you don’t have the time, money and patience to do each step properly and if this is just a cosmetic project, consider using a self adhesive vinyl with the cf look instead. Even a simple cf skinning project requires patience and learning curve… it’s very satisfying when you eventually get it right but it drove me crazy while I was learning…
Just my $0.02.
I plan on making a fiberglass mold using epoxy resin. I’ve been using adTec resins. I have black room cure tooling gel coat from acp composites. I plan to vacuum bag a mold using this. I may try and add some duratec high gloss additive to the tooling gel coat.
I’ve had issues with my Freekote 770 nc repelling any gel coat I’ve tried using as an in mild coating before. I hope by switching to PVA will allow that process to work correctly for the first time.
I also have yet to get an infusion process to work perfectly. Hopefully I can get an in mold coating along with infusion to work and that would totally be worth all the headache I’ve gone through so far.
I’ve definitely spent slot of time and many headaches as I’ve been learning.
I’m going on my 3rd year of doing this in my free time from engineering college and there’s been many times where I’ve thought it just isn’t worth it anymore. So much head ache and time.
I sure appreciate all the comments and opinions.
Don’t use the high gloss additive in the tooling gelcoat. For one, you said you want to make an epoxy mould which means you need an epoxy tooling gelcoat. The high gloss additive is for styrene based gelcoats, it won’t work with an epoxy gelcoat. Secondly, don’t use it even with styrene based tooling gelcoat - it reduces to thixotropic nature of the gelcoat and makes it more susceptible to separation.
Ok. Very much appreciate the info.