I am painting my truck and the guy at the autobody store sold me all the stuff I would need. I was on a budget so I didn't necessarily buy the best stuff. I am using dupont Nason acrylic lacquer primer and a HF spray gun to go over my red paint right now so that I can paint it blue. I sprayed the hood and cowl and it drys really rough. I dont really know what is going on but I think the over spray is drying before it hits the hood. The can says to mix it 1:1 with lacquer thinner. I did that and it came our real rough. I sanded it down lightly with 320 to get rid of the roughness. It almost looked like someone lightly dusted a fine sand over the hood. Then I thought I'd mix in less thinner and more paint. I tried that and it came out slightly better but mostly the same. I have to prime the whole thing and if this is how the whole thing is going to come out then I'm going to have a lot of sanding to do. It was a little humid today and it was like 70 degrees.
I have never painted before so I am guessing the over spray is drying before hitting the hood and then when I go to spray the area where the dry overspray is it comes out rough. How can I make this come out good? any ideas.

The gun isn't helping you and you probably have the pressure turned up too high. I don't know what you are using, the lacquer thinner comment is a little concerning. If you state the exact brand and description/part number of the primer products you are using that might help.

The primer is dupont nason select primer 421-23 gray acrylic laquer primer sufacer. The guy at the store sold me some laquer thinner to thin it out with. He said that is for the primer. Mix 1:1. He gave me different thinner for the base coat and clear coat which is also nason.

Also, I finally figured out how to use my gun. I had the pressure up too high like you said and also the volume knob was set wrong. I redid a panel and it came out a lot nicer than before. No more of that over spray drying stuff but the finish is not glass smooth, should it be. Should I sand this primer surface or just start spraying basecoat over it? I really don't like to wet sand because it just makes a mess and I never saw the point unless i was sanding clear coat or a drip, so I will dry sand with like 320?

Thanks for your input.

I'm no pro, but no one has answered you since yesterday, so I will throw out what I was taught. You should sand the primer smooth. Don't wet sand the primer though. 220 and 320 after will work great. Don't burn through primer. Have you already guide coated to fix imperfections? Good luck and post pics.

here is the tech sheet for the 421-23:
http://pc.dupont.com/dpc/en/US/html/vis ... 23_pds.pdf

its an acrylic primer surface and should be reduced with Nason Thinner 441-62