Roof gel coat finish vs sides

[bsraero]

Picked up our new Escape 19 this past week from the factory. Over happy with the trailer, there are some quality issues that will need to be addressed by Escape in a few weeks.

Back home now and gave the trailer a good wash and noticed the gelcoat / polish across the body in general is uniform and polished. However, after looking at the roof it seems much duller almost chalky finish compared to the rest of the body. Just wanted to confirm is this normal? I assumed the roof would have the same finish as the entire trailer.

[bsraero]

So I did some more digging on the forum here and found this issue reported on other units. However, went back out to look at the roof again and noticed some area's with the 'polish' coming through. I was able to to scratch a small area and this haze / chalky residue will come off with some work. Assume they forgot to polish the roof after removing from the mold? Will it add to the list for when the trailer is back at Escape.

Should have looked at the roof before leaving but knew we had to come back anyways for other issues.

[WillyB]

Ours is the same. It think it would take a good polishing compound on a medium/rough pad to remove the residue followed up a minor polishing compound with a medium/fine pad and finished with a nice hand wax.

For us we just waxed over it with a hand polisher. Seems acceptable now. Not like the side but better.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by bsraero

Assume they forgot to polish the roof after removing from the mold?

It doesn't work that way. It's the wax in the mold that is dissolved by the stryrene in the gelcoat that gives f.g. finishes that great built-in shine.

Some times PVA is also used as an additional mold release. It can leave a residue but it's water soluble and should wash off.

Ron