I have done some research and read a heap of how to make surfboard instructions. However, I can’t seem to find out what is in a gloss coat? Some instructions purely say “This is just another hot coat”, is this true? As I have seen gloss coat resins, is this just a marketing ploy?
Along with the gloss coat, they say you need to compund and polish and that these material are taken from the car industry. So does that mean I can pick something up from a local car retail shop?
I’m using an PU board in polyester UV resin with a white pigment and some other colours. Just wondering what I need to do?
G’day Dallasf. Step one… Laminate your glass to the board using PE Laminating resin. Step two after curing trimming etc … apply a filler coat using filler resin which is laminating resin with wax in styrene added to it. The yankees like to call filler resin ‘hot coat’ … either way a filler coat it is and by adding wax to Laminating resin you’re able to sand her.
After sanding her PROPERLY… Comes step three… Take your filler resin and add to it, Styrene Monomer at about 5%. as a thinner which should level out nicely if applied correctly and make the cutting and polishing process less tedious. We call this the Finish coat but yo’ll tag her as the Gloss coat LOL.
Once you have three coats over the board… done your sanding and fairing by machine and by hand down to about 100grit and you are happy to proceed. Go to the auto store… get some 240… 400… 600 and 800 grit wet and dry paper. Also some auto cutting compound. Cheaper ones are fine. If they sell Mr Sheen grab a spray pack… This will be your polishing compound and probably the easiest portion of the process and also the most rewarding OR on the other hand the most dissappointing if’n ya find a flaw that you missed before. LIGHTING Have good lighting:)
PS. You can still use hot coat resin as a finish resin but by adding a thinning agent such as S/monomer you will acceive a far better result with your final 'Gloss/Finish coat.
Do not use wax in Styrene. To thin your resin you need Styrene Monomer. The mix ratio that i use is 5% Styrene Monomer and I usually measure this out by guess work. It’s pretty forgiving stuff. Look I don’t know where you are. If you’re somewhere around Eastern Australia and not near the surfcraft building industry I would go to the nearest boat building or chandlery store otherwise you might have to cough up the extra dough for dilivery. I bought a litre of it last week … The smallest amout I could buy … ran something like 20 bills. Lordy that’s enough for a hundred boards. It’ll probably go stale before I use her up LOL.
I usually stick to this advice from the manufacturers.
“To overcome this problem Solution MW (or Wax Additive) is added to unsaturated polyester and vinylester gelcoats at a low percentage (usually around 2%). Solution MW, which is made up of paraffin waxes in a styrene and white spirit solution, is pushed to the surface during curing and effectively forms a very thin barrier between the gelcoat and the air ensuring that the gelcoat cures with a hard, tack-free finish.”
This applies to gelcoats but works equally well in board laminating resin.