Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

The tear was still tacky when I finished lasat night, so I just left it out.
I woke up this morning....and the whole roof was milky....
So How do I fix this????? And what caused it?

John... the epoxy prolly wasn't fully cured. I noticed it didn't show up where the vent fan goes? There is a good chance sunlight will make the blush go away. I'd sure let it bake a few days before I tried anything else. Dang the luck... eh?

I agree with Brick...that was moisture affecting uncured epoxy. I would let it set out in the sun, or maybe under a heat lamp for gentle warming. West Systems recommends:

PROBLEM: Clear coating turned cloudy.

POSSIBLE CAUSES & SOLUTIONS:

Moisture from condensation or very humid conditions reacts with components in uncured hardener.

Apply moderate heat to partially cured coating to remove moisture and complete cure. See Out-Gassing caution in User Manual.
Use 207 Hardener for clear coating applications and for bonding thin veneers where epoxy may bleed through to the surface.

If for any reason it does not cure - you can do a "hot" coat over it and it should cure then - by hot I mean little more hardener.

This has happened to me in the past - the other thing you can do is take a blade and scrape off as much as you can and recoat.

Make sure you throughly mix it.

Ken J.

Ken J wrote:If for any reason it does not cure - you can do a "hot" coat over it and it should cure then - by hot I mean little more hardener.

This has happened to me in the past - the other thing you can do is take a blade and scrape off as much as you can and recoat.

Make sure you throughly mix it.

Ken J.

it just may be getting too cool to do this outside... at least here we wont be gluing anything outside much longer and I think this is a cause by condensation and cool weather at night..

Classic Finn

As said above it could be solved with adding hardener to it...

Epoxy blushes (turns opaque) with just high humidity . . . . it doesn't even need to get wet

Don

Alphacarina is right it is normal for epoxy to blush like that in a high humidity. Let it bake in the sun or in a hot garage (sun it better) then sand and re-coat. I would not recommend doing a hot coat because a batch with more hardener in it will make the epoxy softer/weaker. I learned that the hard way making boats.

Ken J wrote:If for any reason it does not cure - you can do a "hot" coat over it and it should cure then - by hot I mean little more hardener.

No, no, no - that is good advice for polyester, but it's all wrong for epoxy.

Do not alter the hardener ratio on epoxy or it will certainly fail to cure even if everything else is perfect.

You cannot apply a 'hot enough' layer of epoxy (which would require a different, super-fast hardener, used at the manufacturer's ratio) fast enough to get it applied before it gels - epoxy doesn't exotherm enough to do that.

Heat lamps or just strong sunlight for several days are your only hope. It wouldn't do any harm to wash down the epoxy with hot detergent which will wash away any amine blush on the surface - it won't cure your problem by any means, but it might reduce it a bit.

Andrew

The problem with epoxy is sometimes it just does not set up and so you have this tacky mess - been there done that - heat lamps, sun etc - I didn't do a hotter coat (someone who works a lot with the stuff told me thats would you should do because it will mix with the goey stuff underneath and will set it off) what I did do is scrap as much as I could off and recoat and it set up nicely.

Ken J.

Unless it's old . . . . or mixed improperly . . . . or the ambient temp is below what the particular combination is rated for there should be no problem with epoxy not setting up properly

My experience is that epoxy curing problems are usually caused by folks used to tinkering with the mix ratios of polyester trying to do the same thing with epoxy . . . . and that just doesn't work

It's always best to have a clean, dry place to work and if you're trying to get a nice clear cure so the underlying wood shows through like it was varnished, you need to pay attention to the humidity too

Don

O.K. guys... Here's what I did......I sanded....and sanded,,,,and sanded some more.I got most of it off, and started to reapply a new coat of epoxy...noticed a couple of areas where it was still cloudy, and stopped. Tomorrow I will continue to sand until I am sure it's all off. Then I have to wait till next week to reapply because.........wait for it.........


















I RAN OUT OF FREAKEN HARDENER!!!!!!!

Well . . . . . there's your problem!

You're using FREAKEN hardner - Order some of the regular stuff!

Don

Hmmm when you first put it on, it tends to be a little cloudy, then sets up clear.......If there is anyway you can put indoors that would be good.

Also if your sanding it off and its not gumming up your sander, that tells me it kicked off.

Ken

Well you are really making me excited to try epoxy..






Mike C.

I had enough hardener in the bottom of the can for one more batch. After sanding the roof again this morning, I applied the epoxy. It came out well.
I now have a roof I can be proud of......again.