New gel coat on a carbon seapost?

heavymental

Anyone restored a carbon seatpost to it's former shiny glory after getting all scuffed over time?

bondurant

It is not uncommon. Though using gel would be!

heavymental

Gel coat is the right term innit?

bondurant

Clearcoat. Sand down the post with increasingly fine grades of wet and dry, then clearcoat. Never heard of gel, maybe it's another word for the same thing.

There will probably be a YouTube of the process somewhere.

heavymental

This is what I was thinking of... similar/same thing? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelcoat

Will have a look and get rubbing.

imposter2.0

Gelcoat is what goes into the mould before the fibre is laid up, so the term is correct.

Sanding down and re-coating with anything risks altering the OD of the seatpost, which is not really a good idea. I would just replace it if it bothers you that much.

The Rookie

Bondurant wrote:

Never heard of gel, maybe it's another word for the same thing.

Nope......

How would you apply a gel coat without a mould?

fat daddy

I would just polish it with a carbon fibre glaze .. it will fill in all but the deepest scratches and get you to a relatively high shine

phil485

Gel coat can be brushed or sprayed on I had it done on one of my boats, but it is heavy and thick.


Not what is needed here.

bbrap

Am I missing something here. The only bit of a seatpost that gets scuffed is the bit that goes in the frame which is invisible unless you possess X-ray vision. The bit you can see can easily be sprayed with a clearcoat laquer, gel, polished or anything else you want to do to it to restore shine without compromising the seatpost diameter which is in the frame (just wrap a bit of tape round as a mask). Once I have my seatpost height set it never moves (not down anyway) unless I'm taking it out to make sure it has not seized (about once a year).