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HI, you will just need to play around with the colour back and forth, start with small sample amount. Ideally you need a bit of an artist eye for colour mixing too.

Hi, rubbing down flowcoat can be quite difficult so I wouldn't like to do a full hull. If it required fairing you may be best off doing this with epoxy mixed with a fairing powder such as west system epoxy mixed with 407 filler. skim the area, sand when cured then apply a further 2-3 coats of epoxy and leave to cure before priming and painting. but also seek advice from a professional boat builder/restorer first. As apart from having some knowledge on boat repairs our main background is in GRP moulding rather than boat restoration so our advice is limited on this.

This is one method purely to help release the styrene from the deepest parts of a mould, it doesnt have to be a fan you can even fan it now and then during curing with just a peice of card or simply turn the mould on its side to let the styrene vapours out. This is because styrene is heavier than air and will lie low on moulds slowing down the cure. In terms of temperature it is best to work between 15 and 20 degC and avoid direct heat on the mould has this can create other issues such as hotspots leading to severe shrinkage and pre-releasing which can cause indentations in the final part.

Thank you

HI For a flexible foam or sponge you will need a different type of foam altogether. some foams are specifically designed to be flexible or spongy when cured. This one is purely designed to be rigid and reducing mixes of one part will only prevent it from curing. Kind regards.

I totally agree with you and I appreciate your feedback . Most manufacturer's material data sheets suggest temperatures should be at least 18-20 °C with a minimum 2% catalyst. Some users will push the boundaries, and I admit I have done that myself, such as increasing catalyst and even stealing my wife's hairdryer to encourage laminates to cure in my cold shed at home😁 , and I've very rarely had any issues apart from the odd pre-release marks at times from too much direct heat or curing too fast causing shrinkage. Although, if you do work outside the recommended parameters and the moulding pops out with defects, then you have no quarrel or cause to complain to the supplier or manufacturer of the material even if you have got away with it previously in the same cold conditions. As a responsible distributor of our suppliers’ materials, we can only demonstrate how to use these materials as intended and recommended by the material manufacturers guidelines. Customers are more than welcome to experiment with extra catalysts and methods outside of our advised recommendations as i have done in the past, but it is at their own risk.

You're welcome!

i'm not familiar with hydrocal 30 we went though approx 7-8ltrs of mixed plaster for this bust and saved on more plaster around the shoulders by using plaster bandage. It would be best to pre-fill the mould with water and quickly tip this out and measure that volume of water. This will give you a rough idea of how much mixed product it will take to fill the mould.

Hi Unfortunately we are not familiar with the prevulcanised we have never compared them.

Hi, if using a general purpose resin with fibreglass never apply more than 3 layers at any one time otherwise the laminate will get how as it cures due to an exothermic reaction in the resin. this heat buildup can then cause warping. also the UV exposure especially on a hot day can act as an accelerator speed up the reaction of the resin further and adding to heat build-up. you also need a good solid stiff former/plug (the part you are moulding from) if the former has any flex then it can't resist any shrinkage that your mould will go through as it cures allowing the mould to twist and distort freely pulling the former with it. however you can reduce shrinkage and add more layers at once with a tooling resin without the fear of shrinkage but you still need a good solid former to mould off. we cant supply to the US due to hazard restriction but look up a company called Fibre Glast and they may be able to help you further with tooling resin and more advice on their systems. hope this helps. kind regards .

Hi, We just went straight on with the fibreglass matting. If you let the 6mm chops cure you could end up with pull marks in the gelcoat side where the thick 6mm filler has cured shrunk back applying at least one layer of matting over prevents this.

Thank you for your input. what would you suggest we use to mix it in?

Thank you

Hi It is definitely Ral 1015 just above the Ral 1016 sulpher yellow in the colour chart. Due to the room's lighting however it does look slightly darker on camera. Kind regards martin

It was a while since I did this pool so i cant remember the exact dimensions. I estimate it was around 2mtr high, 2.5mtr wide and 4.5mtr in length so around 40 square metres for that size you would need:- 36kg of 450g emulsion bound chopped strand matting, Approx 90-100kg lloyds approved resin (low styrene emission) approx 40 mtr surface tissue 25-28kg flowcoat If however the water in the pool is to be chlorinated then the resin and flowcoat needs to be chemical resistant and the matting a powderbound version rather than emulsion bound.

Hello! you always start with a master or plug to make a mould. we always have fibreglass plugs for remolding if one of our moulds gets damaged. this video is has shown exactly what materials are used to make the mould. if you need to know how to make a plug to make a mould from then that would be a different video.

Hi here is the link to the products you will also find technical and safety data sheets here www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/pu-polyurethane-foam-liquid mixing ratio is typically :- Part 1 and Part 2 are mixed at a ratio of 1 to 1.06by volume, or preferably 1 to 1.2 by weight. However this ratio can vary between brands of PU products so it is best to check with your supplier first.

Hi This would be totally experimental, you may find however depending on metal size that the contraction/expansion of the metal may cause cracking ion the resin. glass fibres are usually better for improving strength to resin.

The mixing stick is an upgrade from a spoon. works just fine once you are a black belt in mixing and dispersing of pigments for 20+years. Thank you however for you professional input I tried to find your video on the subject but not sure where it is? nice playlists though 😉

​​​@@ecfibreglassuk lol. You used your hand. Around 2:55. E: but you did get me. I don't have any professional videos detailing how a spoon is better than starfish fingers for scooping powder. 😂 To clarify, good video, good end result. It was helpful for what I wanted to know - whether I needed to worry about the metal settling.

haha right you are I missed that. we must have been mid filming before realizing we didn't have a scoop well try better next time 🤣

That's a great Idea for a video! I will look into this and hopefully have something uploaded soon.

@@ecfibreglassuk Thank you!!

@@monkeybase01 HI, Sorry It took a while but we eventually got around to this video for you here is the link ..... ua-cam.com/video/Ka-buMW0iY4/v-deo.html Kind rgds Martin

@@ecfibreglassuk haha, that's amazing!! Many thanks :)

It is a catalyed resin which is used. Depending on the system you have this may be a resin which is catlysed by the injection gun as it enters the mould or pre-catalysed by hand before being poured into the mould. we only supply the raw materials such as the Rovicore matting they are placing inside the machine. For any further questions on this you would need to speak to a manufacturer of these types of moulds.

HI, unfortunately we wouldn't recommend this as a DIY approach. We would advise having a professional boat builders /restorer carry out this type of work . They tend to have their own formulated Gelcoats /Flowcoats and perfectly temperature controlled workshops necessary for this type of application and years of experience and skill. For a DIY er I would say just use Marine paint. Not meaning to knock anyone's abilities but even with all our experience in the GRP industry, we would not tackle re-gelling a boat hull even if we had the space or a hull to spray. I did give this same advice once to an ex automotive sprayer. because of his background in spraying he decided he was going to try anyway. after spending a fortune on gelcoat and flowcoat, cutting back too far , buying more , re-applying back and forth he eventually gave up and bought paint and said he never ever wanted to try that again .😀 I would say however small areas of the boat are worth a try as shown by this guy here ua-cam.com/video/3d8S8TlcPYE/v-deo.html but never a full hull unless it was a small rowing dinghy maybe? The other thing to factor in is that when gelcoat or flowcoat is mixed you introduce tiny little air bubbles into the product. these are exposed when you start cutting back into the flowcoat/gelcoats surface and become like microscopic craters and although when first finished and polished it may look amazing, these tiny microscopic holes will attract dirt easier than a gelcoat finish produced from a moulded application.

Hi This was a fan made mask by a local artist for himself as a one off . the mould was destroyed and is not being sold therefore no copyright infringement. Kind rgds

ooh ok I understandi thank you for your reply..@@ecfibreglassuk

Gelcoats can sometimes come out of a silicone mould quite tacky due to a reaction with most standard silicone. So it best to test first with your particular silicone. Addition cure silicone, sometimes refereed to as platinum cure silicone, can usually be gelcoated without issues as shown in this video approx 6.57minutes in.... ua-cam.com/video/ZRZzWQ8yxk8/v-deo.html bear in mind however that gelcoats are a polyester and contain styrene solvents which can eventually dry out rubber moulds and reduce their lifespan compared to plasters ect.

Hi, yes you are right it is common practice, we would do that if we were coating the mould to save on powder. However here we are doing a solid heavy cast with a 1:1 mix, any dusted powder into the mould would have been rubbed off anyway during the wire wool process. As you can see from the final results this method worked great for us. We should however probably do another video to show how to save on metal powder especially since the rise in metal prices. Thanks for the feedback and info.

If you mean applying a colored resin in the recess? then yeh just grind out the old and apply new resin, if going onto metal use epoxy for the best bond and seal with a UV resistant clear laquer.

Hi Thank you for your professional advice that makes perfect sense. this is the general lay-up some of our guys did back in the 80's and 90s for old GRP Kayaks/canoes and sometimes fairground rides, I suspect the UV exposure may have been far less due to them being in storage/under cover more times than they were outdoors or in the water?. It's always good to obtain information from those who have further experience with these processes. Thanks again for the info. Kind regards Martin

@@ecfibreglassuk You are very welcome, I love watching these, when that little golden nugget shows up making me go "well I didn't know that would work" or "we will be trying that" is always a treat almost as good as when something that is new teck pops up.

Although we used one roller for demonstration purposes, you would tend to have more tools to wash out during a normal fibreglassing process, also the same pots would be sealed afterwards and used again after each project. Repeat the process until the first pot becomes too dirty, you can sometimes let the sediment settle to the bottom of the tub and salvage cleaner acetone from the top, the sediment will usually eventually solidify into a lump if you leave the lid off then it can be disposed off. for an industrial scale you can get acetone recycling machines. leaving tools to soak in just one tub of dirty acetone during a typical GRP workshop week of manufacturing can cause residue to collect and congeal at the bottom of the tub and clog up your tools. worst case it can eventually solidify and render your tools useless or in need of stripping down. larger tubs of acetone especially if they cannot be sealed can evaporate quicker causing more acetone waste. The method you use all depends on the volumes of production you have. This video was mainly put out there as we had some first time users just leaving their tools in acetone, as if they were leaving paint brushes in a tub of white spirit, instead of physically cleaning off the resin that would typically still cure on the brushes and rollers. we used approx 1ltr of acetone for this demo. A 1ltr tin of acetone is around £6 or cheaper per ltr if you buy bigger tubs for example a 25ltr of acetone works out around £3 per ltr. A 3" consolidating roller is typically around £5. You could clean over 20 x £5 rollers in just a ltr of acetone. Or you can save the £6 on acetone and throw away over £100 worth of paddle rollers. It may make sense to throw away a roller and a brush if its a one time project you are doing, but in a GRP production factory it would be a huge waste to throw tools away that can be re-used.

We would advise a GRP moulded wheelhouse for best cosmetics and design. A customer brought the ready made plywood construction to us, as he didn't have the confidence to carry out the work himself, we just offered to glass it for him so we could make this tutorial. Some people will do it this way if they are working on a Low budget or do not have the knowledge moulding with GRP materials.

Hi If you are trying to reapply a gelcoat and using multiple coats,it is better to do coats of gelcoat first as thes ewillchemically bond together, then finish with a flowcoat (gelcoat with wax), however bear in mind that gelcoat and flowcoats are not designed to be used as a paint and have a specific purpose in moulding applications. they are quite thixotropic and will leave brush lines or pit marks with a roller so therefore the finish wont be pretty. Having said that there are some instances where customers have thinned the products with styrene for spraying or even persevered with cutting it back . cutting back and polishing gelcoat/flowcoat is a hard long winded process and I wouldn't want to do a full hull this way. The other issue with this, that alot of users don't realize, is that when mixing you introduce alot of tiny microscopic bubbles, so that when you cut back you start to expose these as tiny microscopic craters, your newly applied gel coat can begin as a gorgeous polished finish but soon after can look dull and grimy once the dirt gets into those tiny pores. If going over old gelcoat you will certainly need to sand it and wash down with acetone to promote some of the chemical bond. If going over an already flowcoated surface we would recommend sanding the flowcoat off back to fibreglass or as near as possible . Some may argue that this is overkill but I've seen the bond fail after around 2 years or sooner once its been exposed to different hot and cold environments. as shown in the video of that failed bond, that panel was originally machine sanded with 40 grit and washed with acetone, all looked fine until after around 2or 3 years then the peeling started, we should have gone further back into the flowcoat or back to the fibreglass.

yes, it is a low budget method of moulding, we would often advise on making a proper professional polished mould if going into panel production. However some projects don't warrant the expense of moulding making for say a one off or temporary panel this method is quite popular for bespoke camper shower tray, water tanks, boat fishing boxes, pontoon boxes and lids etc . We did use a pigmented gel coat first then layed up with a white pigmented resin.

HI, Please contact our sales team on our website , please note however we are based in the UK and only ship within the UK

Yes i know. I will contact your team, thank you!@@ecfibreglassuk