Somehow I managed to get a milky
haze in the epoxy on the bright strip. It proves quite difficult to
deal with, and requires that almost all the epoxy be removed in parts,
right down to the glass layer. I presume that the sanding of one layer
before application of the next has allowed the contamination to migrate
into
the first layer, and so on.
This was not obvious during the painting
process with the epoxy, especially after it was sanded again for the
application of the primer, but it is unmissable now. In sanding it back
I have exposed the fibreglass in parts, and there is always the concern
that this will look different to the unexposed areas, but a rub with
acetone shows a fairly uniform appearance, so I am hopeful. But as it
turns out, the fibreglass is not the problem. It covers again
invisibly. But
the contamination seems to have penetrated to every layer of epoxy.
Even after sanding it back to apparant uniformity, there is a milkiness.
On the left, from a distance it looks alright after sanding and refinishing, but there is still a problem close up.
In the end I had to sand back to the glass all along the strip, and then take it up to 240 grit to get a uniform base for recoating. Eventually it looked better, but it caused a couple of days delay to the schedule, and at the end it was still flawed anyway. So, the idea of a bright strip had to be abandoned, and the strip painted instead.
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On the left, from a distance it looks alright after sanding and refinishing, but there is still a problem close up.
Sand it back again and
re-coat, and it improves, but still fails the close up test.
In the end I had to sand back to the glass all along the strip, and then take it up to 240 grit to get a uniform base for recoating. Eventually it looked better, but it caused a couple of days delay to the schedule, and at the end it was still flawed anyway. So, the idea of a bright strip had to be abandoned, and the strip painted instead.
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