On Tuesday, 5 individual coats of release agent were applied to each of those patterns that do not require split moulds and then first gel coat was applied. It felt very alien to put large gobbits of gel coat onto the patterns that I had spent ages trying to get smooth and polished. This cured overnight and they looked OK, so a second gel coat was applied yesterday.
Here is my worry, the ignitech enclosure came out fine
but to a greater or lesser extent all the other patterns came out with blisters. See the tool tray below.
If these blisters are pressed one can see air moving beneath the surface. The trouble is I do not know whether this air is trapped a) between the two gel coats or b) between the pattern and the two coats. If a) applies then I might still be able to make a reasonable mould. If b) applies the affected moulds are scrap although the patterns should be salvageable.
Also, I have no idea why this happened, the mix gel coat to catalyst was the same, the temperature at the time of mixing and curing was approximately the same and nothing was touched or done to introduce contaminants that could have caused this reaction.
I have 2 options now 1) try to remove all the gel coat and start from scratch or 2) carry on and see how they come out and if necessary remake them. I will try option 2 with a few of the smaller patterns so that I do not waste too much resin, fibre glass and time.
Yesterday, I re-visited my excel planning schedule and despite adding a few jobs (making CF belt covers and aluminium backing plates I only (????) have 326 hours to completion.