Seriously How many Coats of clear should be put on repairs? and How many coats for a Repaint? I have always sanded and Polished after 2 coats or done two coats sanded and did a flow coat. Anyone doing more? why?

My Friend Pete has something to say about the subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAWsGrE4Qeo

Ok I will try to answer your question with what I was taught at sikkens application courses dealing mainly with collision painting.Firstly it depends what clear you are using,if its a high solids(thicker film after all the solvent is evaporated vs low or mid solid) you do not need to do 2 coats from panel edge to panel edge when doing a collision repair.The main reason for this is it can cause a metallic or pearl color to appear darker(swiming pool effect where the deep end looks darker than the shallow end but the water is the same color) So when doing a spot job one coat goes over your new base,then the second coat goes over the complete panel to the edge.This is fine when using a high solids clear as you will have enough film build.

When doing a cut and buff you will need at least 3 coats of a high solid clear as you will loose close to 1 coat after you have sanded and buffed.This will insure you have enough mil build so the UV rays will not cause delamination.

Flow coating I will do 2 coats,sand flat and add 2 more.Personally as long as you can control your paint environment and get a dirt free job I prefer this kind of job to a cut and buff.

My 2 cents and I hope this may help....

Yep, that's pretty much verse by verse what both my local paint jobbers are saying as Jayson stated....thing I keep hearing now is that with most of these high solids clears about the worst thing you can do is go too thick with them. Trying to observe mil spec. recommendations yields a stronger coating which still gives a hard but flexible surface.

Good info here.
I would add that spraying technique comes into play when considering film build.
Some guys spray very thin coats of clear while others tend to hose it on.

That is an excellent point right there.... I was lucky enough to be trained in professional wood finishing by some of the best industrial shooters in the biz. We were taught to use a wet film gauge to lay on accurate thickness to match mil spec.s of critical jobs. If you guys notice in almost any clear coat product sheet they will spec. how many mils of wet coating should go on in one coat to yield a certain dry coating mil spec. build. If you have a wet film spec. of 4 mils at say 50% solids that yields a dry film of 2 mils. A wet film gauge trains you on how to get closer visually to that wet film thickness. The gauge is nothing more than a credit card sized stainless steel card that has steps all around it. Go here, this is worth the read....
https://www.geionline.com/wet-film-gauge
Another newer thing they mention on that page as well is using the wet film gauge to get depth on powder coats. Very handy
You can either buy the $7 assortment there or call around to some of the large wood finish supply jobbers in your area to find them. I got mine just going to trade shows years ago. The finish suppliers used to stamp their logo on them and hand them out free.

Absolutely correct at our shop 2 of us paint and I am a bit heavy handed.My jobs still look good and I match the factory texture on collision repairs when I have to and make completes smooth as glass.I use a sata 5000RP with a 1.4 tip.The other painter at work just does 2 quick coats,im sure there is a difference in thickness.