Over the weekend I painted one side (it was in an accident and poorly repaired, primer exposed, etc, only had time for one side as I am a college student and it's my daily driver) of my car, first time painting, came out good and I was **** proud of it. 1993 VW Corrado if anybody is curious. I put 3 coats of color, and 2 coats of clear. After doing so, I wetsanded the car really lightly, with good quality sandpaper, 800 and then 1000 grit. Someone who restores classic cars and does body work said to do 600, I didn't want to go that heavy so I did 800 and 1000. Ultimately, I gave horrible orange peel now, and it is REALLY cloudy. Is there anything I can do? Sand down and re apply clear? Polish and buff? Going to try to submit some pics, Idk how to use this forum.

Unless you put two really heavy coats of clear on there I would stop sanding immediately.
Sanding doesn't put orange peel on a car but it will reveal the orange peel by knocking the tops off (which appear dull) and leaving the low spots (which appear shiny).

Pictures would help because I am not sure what you are looking at. If you are still seeing shiny spots on the surface there is hope but you will have to proceed with caution.

1000 grit is what I usually "start" sanding with to level the surface.
You can see the process I use when sanding by hand in this post on page 11: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22145&p=195196#p195196

https://gyazo.com/24b6641a96ff5eada1a991674a558713

https://gyazo.com/fd0ec84f317a2313b4d8d19649611f02

https://gyazo.com/3e24d8d60d2e38d92e25ee0357657964

Best I can do for pictures right now.

You have sanded the tops off the orange peel.

There is still clear left (see shiny areas between dull spots) for the cut and buff process. But with you saying you only sprayed 2 coats I do not know how much. I would prep it for another round of clear, hit it with marroon scotchbrite very carefully and get it 100% dull. Then spray a couple more coats of clear.

Then you will be ready for the cut and buff process.

Just my two centavos.

Yeah, guys are telling you right here....almost any normal cut/buff process will remove 1 full coat of clear (even more if you are aggressive). Use this as an opportunity to get more of a level clear that will yield a better image of your paint. Image even affects how "true" your color is...that's why this is called color sanding. More clear........

Also, went back and blew up your pics. Based on the way I see your orange peel you are not getting enough clear on with each coat. Clear is not "wet" enough going on. You've got to keep in mind what constitutes a "coat" here. It has to be wet enough to leave a clear coat that can link up and flow. Yours looks dry sprayed to me.....

Agree. There hasn't been enough flow out happening there. But there's way too much texture in that paint to expect to get it smooth with just another couple of coats of clear and there's too much texture there that if you try to get it flat and then buff you could all too easily go through.

If the texture is just in the clear then it will need to be sanded down more until flat, or nearly flat. The good thing is that you can use the texture like guide coat to see progress and the aim has to be to keep sanding, very smoothly and evenly, squeegeeing often until the little shiny spots (the low points) almost disappear. Then respray clear with 2 medium wet coats.

The key is to get those coats wet enough that the clear will flow out, but not run. Practice first.

One or two small runs are way easier to fix than dry spray.

I think every newbie to spray guns wants to dry spray stuff. I was in a gun demo session with new people and every person (none had done much spraying) wanted to kind of "wisp" on the clear. I looked the instructor in the eye as I took the gun and said, "Push it to the point of running it, right?" He laughed and said.... Yep.....