thickness of clear coat (2k)

[carl0s]

Hi.

My clear coat looks REALLY thick when dried. Like you can see 0.5mm of it or something.

As it happens, I had so much orange peel in it this time, that after cutting it back (a lot!) and polishing, it looks like a factory finish.

My question really is, should the clear coat be a really thin layer, and is it hard to get it that thin? My factory finish looks like you can't see any thickness to the clear. I'm just not sure I can spray it on that thin?

 

[steveo3002]

most people go for 2 coats of high solids or 3 or medium solids

from my experiance sanding down original cars , they seem more like one decent coat if youre lucky

 

[langy]

A lot of modern cars just get 1 coat these days, VOC's weight etc etc
I like 3-4 coats as I like to completely flat & polish, flakes etc can need a lot more coats

 

[TwoThumbs]

You want to leave some headroom for buffing and polishing. To me it sounds better to have little too much clear than too thin coat. To avoid orange peel in clear you could try to increase air pressure for few psi, decrease fluid flow a bit and turn fan pattern narrower.