Hit 500 hours of paint work without realizing it

I was cleaning out my workbench last Friday and found my old job log from when I first started. I had this habit of jotting down every paint job I did, just to track my progress. Turns out I passed 500 hours of actual paint time last month and never even noticed. That number caught me off guard because back when I was learning, I struggled just to get through a single panel without messing up. Now I can do a full door in under 2 hours with fewer runs and orange peel than I used to. It's not a huge milestone in the grand scheme, but it made me feel like I'm actually getting somewhere in this trade. Has anyone else ever hit a random number like that and had it surprise you?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosed328d ago

Honestly I used to roll my eyes at people tracking stuff like that but now I kinda get it. 500 hours of anything is a lot of time learning from your mistakes.

phoenix_adams607d ago

Man that really sneaks up on you, doesn't it? I bet if you looked back at those first few panels you'd barely recognize your own work. Here's a question for you though - did you notice any big jump in quality somewhere around the 200 or 300 hour mark, or was it more of a steady crawl? I'm curious because I've heard people say you hit a wall around that point where things finally start clicking, but I don't have that many hours myself to know if that's real or just talk.