Okay so i purchased 7 1/2 gallons of Surf Sources new Aluzine resin system that resembles RR Purple Haze. The lam coat turned out great and cured super hard. The Hot coat also the same. And it sanded out great. Then lastly the gloss coat laid out great also, but when i sanded out the board and then finish wet sanded the board, as it dried, I got a weird cloudy haze over the board. It is a custom order board with dark crimson rails and it is very noticable. Now i use additive F / Xylene (2 ml per oz of hardener) in all of my mixtures. The gloss coat was done at 6 a.m. and I started sanding out the board at 4 p.m… (Too Soon ?) I sanded it down to 600 grit and wet sand at that grit as well. After sanding i rinsed with water as I do all my boards. I have done dozens of boards and never had this happen before. The cloudy/haze is not the kind that you get from frothing the resin as you pull on the rails, This is something different that did not show up until after I rinsed the board off. I have a shop where it is a constant 75 degrees, so temp should noy be a factor. Any suggestions?
First off, you can't gloss coat epoxy. It just won't gloss. Secondly any surfacing agent will show when another coat is applied over it.
So the steps are,
- laminate
- fill and baste with straight epoxy.
- lightly sand, but if you hit the weave, stop that area immediately!
- Second/ hot coat. You can use 5% by weight Xylene to thin. No additive F or surfacing agent! It has wax in it!
- Sand again. **Your goal is to flatten out any high spots**. If you hit the weave stop sanding that area. **Hitting the weave meant you are sanding in a low spot!**
- Last coat. this is your final coat, because the last two coats really smoothed out everything already. Because you are so close to done, you need just the thinnest coat, to cover any weave that might be showing from your last sanding. On this coat, add 5 to 10% xylene, and your additive F or Fiberglass Hawaii surfacing agent.
- If you did everything right, this last coat is almost perfect, except for slight brush strokes. Sand those out with at most 320 grit.
- If you want gloss, use Upol spray. One can for under 7'. Over 7' will take two cans.
- Wait a day for the upol to cure. Sand that with 400 grit at the coarsest to get rid of the orange peel texture from the spray can, and go from there.
Hi newleaf -
I'm not a chemist so won't try to explain the exact chemical process but it happens when freshly (not fully) cured epoxy is exposed to water. I would recommend you fine dry sand and follow that with a clear coat like UV Clear or some other topcoat.
EDIT: Sorry Mark. Didn't see that.
Hi John,
I didn't even think about the timing. 10 hours would be long enough for Fiberglass Hawaii fast epoxy on a summer day. But i havent used Surf source, so you might be right there.
I agree with mark, laminate using resin straight up. After that ignore.
What hardener? fast, medium or slow?
How many oz of resin did you use for final coat?
Used hundreds of gallons of FGH aluzine over the years and never have seen your problem. Use fast cure 95% of the time. If you are not using fast cure it was possibly not fully cured for sanding. Don't be afraid to use additive F with filler coat. Never used the epoxy brand in question.
Take cloudy board and run water over it and if the dullness goes away and colors pop, I would spray gun it(not rattle can) with gloss urethane or automotive gloss acrylic.
pic below aluzine with sprayed gloss urethane sanded to 1000 grit.
