Peel-ply finish

[jaros]

What is a secret of making a nice, uniform peel-ply finish on the top side of the finished board? Please, share your method.
I get a mostly ok finish with perfect grip, but there are imperfections here and there and I do not know why they happen…
Thank you in advance!

[kgb]

Peel Ply is textured so the finish will never be perfect

[jaros]

Peel Ply is textured so the finish will never be perfect

I mean a nice uniform textured surface... It can be done, I have seen it...

[plummet]

Use a bigger bag overlap the peel ply and breather cloth and meticulous attention to placing the peel ply, breather cloth on the board and in the bag without any wrinkles.

[jaros]

Use a bigger bag overlap the peel ply and breather cloth and meticulous attention to placing the peel ply, breather cloth on the board and in the bag without any wrinkles.

I do it just like you described. There is no wrinkles in the bag, but after removing peel ply, there are spots that do not look good. You can not feel the imperfections with the hand, but you can see it from the right angle - see the photo bellow.

Is it possible to lay a dry peel ply on the dry board, and wet it out with epoxy from above, like you can do with normal glass cloth?

[Kevin Brooker]

If you can find drafting velum wax the snot out of it and place this on top of you outer layer of cloth. Top it with peel ply breather cloth etc and bag it. The velum will leave a glossy finish and is reusable.

[jaros]

If you can find drafting velum wax the snot out of it and place this on top of you outer layer of cloth. Top it with peel ply breather cloth etc and bag it. The velum will leave a glossy finish and is reusable.

Does this glossy finish have enough grip, so you can use the board without foam pads? The peel ply finish is (for me) the best in this regard...

[downunder]

No,

It does not.

But, it is not a peel ply finis u want directly on CF.

None of CF boards have it, like CrazyFly carbon. What u need is to close the carbon inperfections with building up the epoxy layer.

Than u finish up with pply. However, for that u need special epoxy which can be sanded off.

That epoxy is acrylic based, like Surf Set Flex which can be sanded quite well. Hand laying only.

If not doing that, youll have open pores on CF b/c of sucked epoxy by vac.

CF is not FB. FB dissolves in epoxy. CF does not, hence imperfections. Build that layer and imperfections are gone...

[rynhardt]

Peel Ply is textured so the finish will never be perfect

I mean a nice uniform textured surface... It can be done, I have seen it...

I've done 5 wakeskates with the peel-ply finish only. As you know, it gives good grip. My boards use bright and colourful graphics, so if there are imperfections they are difficult to spot. I will need to go and investigate as I've never looked at the finish that closely.
A friend of mine did a carbon board with a peel-ply finish, but with half the board covered with flow mesh (the flow mesh was on top of the peel-ply. The peel-ply texture under the flowmesh was different from the peel-ply texture elsewhere.
The peel-ply is a fabric after all, so it's not entirely uniform, and it might be affected by imperfections in the bag, etc.

Alternatively maybe use two layers of peel-ply, with a 45 deg bias and see if that doesn't even out the texture.

[Glice227]

I have had good results on CF with a flat surface as follows: iron the peel ply so it is completely wrinkle free; mask the board around the perimeter of the grippy area; place the peel ply over the area; apply epoxy over the top of the peel ply and ensure it is completely wetted and there are no bubbles, the peel ply should be transparent; if there are any stubborn bubbles you can wait for the epoxy to gel a bit, then flatten it out.