I've been in this world on my own vehicles for a couple decades. As I get more knowledge, I am curious about one thing.

How do you manage risk? By risk, I mean the risk of damaging a customer's paint, or blowing through their clear coat. To someone who doesn't do it every day, it seems like educated guesswork.

I understand the idea of paint depth gauges. They are showing what is still on top of the panel. But the paint depth won't tell you how much clear is there, right? All you know is how much material is on top of the panel (paint, clear, primer). So how can you use that information to determine how hard you can go?

If someone brings you a $100,000 car with some scratches, how do you decide what you can and cannot do? It scares me to even think about taking some compound to a car when I have no empirical data to make decisions. I have to think pros have a way to decide, without risking having to paint the customer's car.

What's your process like, and is how much faith is involved? At what point do you refuse work because of the risk?