Epoxy Boards & Gloss-coat Polyester Resin

Has anyone used glossing resin on a freshly finished epoxy board.

I’ve heard of this being an option, but because epoxy and polyester resins have a different tensile strength and flexibility, I would imagine the gloss coat flaking away with board flex, dents and general use.

Any feedback would be great!

Peace Out me Brae

tough as …

i did it that way for 10 years or more …works great , actually strengthens the whole package cos poly has better compression strength …

if you leave your gloss to thick , it does what you decribed , when your board gets a hammering it can flake and chip even tho the epoxy underneath stays intact …

cut it right back so you just have a thin lick of resin left and it gets quite flexible …

polyester shines so much better than epoxy …

as a caution tho , make sure your epoxy is fully cured before glossing with poly …

if not you end up with a sticky sludge …

also if your epoxy mix was the slightest percentage out of ratio , it will cause dramas for your gloss as well , sticky spots the same as if the epoxy was not cured properly…

also some brands of epoxy dont seem to like polyester even if fully cured , but i suspect the recomended mix ratios hadnt been calculated properly or some other fault with the resin , maybe greg would know more about that one ??

these days i just use a 2 pac gloss , way easier …

but not quite the glowing shine you can get with a polyester gloss …

from a quality point of view the poly gloss comes up better , but from a durability and chip and crack resistence point , the 2 pac is better …

regards

BERT

Thanks Bert, your info is greatly appreciated!

I am using Fiberglass Hawaii’s Epoxy formulation and I really like it’s properties. Louis from Fiberglass Hawaii was extremely helpful and knowledgeable on the subject. He said that polyester gloss coats have been used effectively on this product and I believe him, I just wanted to hear form others that have put the theory to practical use. So thank you for that.

Not to sound like a commercial, but I highly recommend Fiberlass Hawaii’s Surfboard Epoxy. It has good wet-out properties and dries to a perfectly clear, hard, no-blush finish. It is also very cost effective as far as epoxies go.

Carl

My shaper used poly gloss over Resin Research epoxy. Mostly because that’s the old technique from the 80’s and it’s way too cold up here to gloss with RR epoxy& Slow hardener. I really wanted them all epoxy and am happy to learn from Bert that it could be stronger overall.

I think there is something in the archives from Loehr discussing poly gloss over epoxy.

My poly gloss epoxy quad: