Managed to find my copy of "competition car composites" tonight and have a feeling I may be putting the gelcoat on way too thick...

It recommends a gelcoat thickness of 0.4 - 0.6 mm which means I should have used about 300g of gelcoat....so far, I've used a complete 1kg tin....

(if laid out flat, the surface area of my mould is about 70cm x 70cm)

I may be wrong but i dont think it matters for the mould. I think if you go mad it can distort through heat.
For the moulding however, you want a thin, mm or 2, coat of gel.
It means that if the panel flexes a thin coat of gel is more likely to flex with the panel wheras a thick gel coat is more likely to crack.

[Edited on 16/1/06 by emsfactory]

I'd surmised as much. Therefore the 5kg of clear gelcoat I've just ordered should last me a while.....

Yep.

If you are after a gel coat finish you will need a good coat and some colours need two coats especially yellow.
Get the gel too thin and it will wrinkle and on something like yellow you will get weird patterns going on where the gel is thinner.

quote:

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Originally posted by Triton
If you are after a gel coat finish you will need a good coat and some colours need two coats especially yellow.
Get the gel too thin and it will wrinkle and on something like yellow you will get weird patterns going on where the gel is thinner.

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