gel coat?

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Fiberglass, Fabrication, and Interiors
Forum Discription: Fiberglass Kick Panels, Subwoofer Enclosures, Plexiglas, Fabrics, Materials, Finishes, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=40399
Printed Date: May 14, 2025 at 5:51 AM

Topic: gel coat?

Posted By: xglasscustoms
Subject: gel coat?
Date Posted: October 06, 2004 at 2:11 PM

what do you guys use gel coat for? is it mainly for finishing?

Replies:

Posted By: CarAudioHelp
Date Posted: October 06, 2004 at 3:49 PM

Gel coat is for making parts from a mold. You have a mold, you spray it with gel coat and then you create your fiberglass part from that.

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Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 07, 2004 at 3:25 PM

I think I would like to try using gel coat to reproduce a few molds. I'd like to get good and someday sell custom enclosures for a few different kinds of cars. Initially I thought about making a mold, then tapping up the outside of the mold, lay a few layers of FG and use that as a mold. I would just simply keep making molds from the inside it. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone, I think Gel coat would probably be easier haha posted_image

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Im a fiberglass whore!!

Posted By: HottAccord
Date Posted: October 16, 2004 at 1:02 AM

I had to come back to the post and show you guys a pic of a guy selling fiberglass boxes with gelcoat finishes. This stuff looks really good and I heard you can get it really shiny/glossy. I heard it can also be either sprayed on (highly recommended) or rolled on with a roller. This stuff is kind of expensive though, the average gallon is about $35-40 on different sites. Worth a try though?

Here's the auction: https://cgi.ebay.com/dll?ViewItem&category=32823&item=5725307931&rd=1

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Im a fiberglass whore!!

Posted By: CarAudioHelp
Date Posted: October 16, 2004 at 6:31 PM

I'm not sure you want to treat gel coat like paint and use it after the fact. The beauty of it is the lack of finishing time. You create the mold (once) and then layer the surface with gel coat. Then build up your part inside and let it cure. When it's cured you pop it out and it has a really smooth finish because the gel coat comes out too. Then you can polish it up if you want to. The repeat the process for more parts.

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