A customer's question about clear coat made me change my mind on blending

I was finishing a fender on a 2017 Honda Civic, using my normal method of blending into the door. A guy picking up his truck watched for a minute and asked, 'Why not just do the whole panel? The color match is good.' I told him it's standard practice, better for the clear coat line. He said, 'But you're still painting most of the door. If the match is right, you're just adding a weak spot for no reason.' That hit different because he wasn't a painter, just a guy who thinks about how things are built. I've been doing it for ten years because that's how I was taught. Now I'm thinking, if the color is mixed right and the panel is small, maybe a full respray is cleaner. It's making me question a lot of 'always do this' rules. Has anyone else moved away from blending on smaller, flat panels?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa17720d ago

Blending hides the color edge better than a full panel ever will.

thea24620d ago

How did you get so good at blending? I used to be all about full panel color because it seemed faster, but seeing your work made me try a softer edge. The way it melts into the skin just looks more real, no harsh line at all.