The problem was only evident with the first coat - subsequent coats went on OK but I had to sand the first coat pretty heavily (not just a keying sand) before applying the 2nd. coat. The only epoxy I have ever used is Bote Cote and have not had any problems with amine blush. I have a habit of scraping my finger nail over the dried epoxy and have never seen anything foreign in the finish.
Anyway it is sorted now and waiting for me to get back home after our annual winter trip north. P.S. have a look at the 2 pics I posted on this thread and you will see what the first coat looked like.
Thanks for the post. (to every poster)

Quote Originally Posted by redx View Post
Just a thought. Are you sure it's repelling both epoxy coats?

It crossed my mind that you could have developed Amine Blush on the surface of the first coat which will repel the second coat. If this is the case you need to remove the amine blush completely before applying subsequent coats. I used to have this problem badly when using West System epoxy, so I switched to using BoteCote epoxy and had no further trouble. BoteCote does not produce amine blush.. It's great stuff..