Talking to a painter about clear coat thickness changed my whole process

Ran into a guy at the Sherwin-Williams counter in Tacoma, been painting for 30 years. He said I was laying clear too thick, that I should trust the gun settings instead of chasing that wet look. Checked my last few jobs and sure enough, orange peel in spots I missed. Anyone else had to unlearn what a mentor taught them?

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wendyk5615d agoMost Upvoted

Thirty years in the trade and he’s just now telling you this? Man, I had a guy in Fresno tell me the same thing back in 2019, after I’d been laying on clear like it was syrup for almost a decade. I used to think that thick, glossy coat meant I was doing it right, but he pointed out a single spot on a cabinet door where my film thickness gauge read 8 mils. That’s way over, and sure enough, it looked like an orange’s skin in the sunlight. I tore out two whole jobs after that and started trusting my spray pattern, not my eyes. It’s wild how a stranger at the paint counter can just wreck everything you thought you knew.