brush on gelcoat?

[Vumad]

This is because polyester gel coat cannot cure when exposed to air correct? So then the epoxy is allowed to make a chemical bond to the semi-cured surface? Or are you mixing surfacing wax in with your gel coat before applying it to the mold and then allowing it to full cure?

No. You can buy gelcoat with or without wax in it.

It bonds for 2 reasons.
1) the gelcoat is not cured when you start applying the epoxy, so you get a chemical bond.
2) you are bonding epoxy to gelcoat, rather than gelcoat to epoxy.

Epoxy bonds fine to gelcoat. The reason to remove the gelcoat before your layup is because of the weakness of the bond to the gelcoat to the hull. The epoxy will bond much better to the smc than the gelcoat is bonded to the smc under it. Only as strong as the weakest part.

 

[Vumad]

I only have experience applying gel-coat to boats and my ski. You have to mix hardener and wax or use wax paper for gel-coat to fully cure.

You can buy gelcoat with or without wax in it. I use the stuff with no wax in the molds. I haven't bothered with anything with wax in it. The rideplate I coated I was using as a plug, but the gelcoat still cured very hard and was a pita to sand. Not sure how it will hold up, was mostly using it as a filler.

 

[blastin603]

the links i posted are an epoxy gelcoat... 2 part system

 

[Yami-Rider]

You can buy gelcoat with or without wax in it. I use the stuff with no wax in the molds. I haven't bothered with anything with wax in it. The rideplate I coated I was using as a plug, but the gelcoat still cured very hard and was a pita to sand. Not sure how it will hold up, was mostly using it as a filler.

Ya I normally buy it with no wax also. But the first time i mess with the stuff, it didnt setup until I put wax paper on it. But that was a external repair, not in a mold.