Let's say you shoot base, and then spray 1k clear. The clear gets sprayed badly. Too dry maybe. Orange peel as well. It does not sand well either. 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, Polish with a wax polisher (Not DA). So, now I have terrible haze and orange peel. There is zero gloss. It looks like **** and there is no reflection at all.

The next day, I did not sand it off and start over. Instead, I resprayed new clear (auto store clear) right over that. This time, I sprayed the clear thick with runs to make sure it was not dry. Wet sand and polish. Still looks like crap.

So, now I have new clear coat over the garbage clear coat. Is it possible to get gloss? If the 2nd attempt at clear is done correctly, will it still look hazy since the first clear attempt underneath was hazy and orange peel. Or could it be glossy if it was done right the 2nd time?

It is a moot point since the 2nd attempt also looks like trash. Totally haze, orange peel, and zero reflection still. Looks like it was painted with a paint roller. When I do a 3rd attempt, I will aggressively sand it down to bare metal and respray base and better quality clear.

Please post some pictures so we can see what you are working with.
Did the clear ever have gloss to it after being sprayed?

So it sounds like you "locked down" the 1k product with something else??? If the 1k product looked like crap, then no, putting more of another clear wasn't going to "fix it." For example if I poorly spray an acrylic lacquer and got orange peel, blushing, whatever in it then that look is going to stay the same if I put a 2k clear over it. In fact the 2k depth/thickness is going to simply highlight the bad clear.... Sounds like you better get into a good base/clear system and do some practicing on old fenders, hoods, etc.

'68 Coronet R/T wrote:Please post some pictures so we can see what you are working with.
Did the clear ever have gloss to it after being sprayed?

No, I don't think the clear ever had gloss.
The 2nd attempt of clear was much thicker and maybe a little more glossy.
But, I put that right over the dry/hazy first attempt of clear, so there is zero gloss or mirror effect.

Sounds like Darrelk called it.

Should I sand everything off with 600 down to bare metal
Then respray 2 coats primer, base, clear
Just do everything over?

That would be the best approach at this point since you have incompatible materials on there. Don't feel bad, you are not the first one to have to start over.

You need to stick to 2k materials (two components, meaning a separate activator/hardener) from the primer to the clear coat.
There are plenty of posts on here dealing with proper prep and painting techniques as well as paint selection.

Also, get a rotary buffer as those polishers are not up to the task. Read up on everything before you spend more money and time.

I've had good results with 1k paint and 1k clear in the past. This was a total disaster, and I'm not sure why. I will try using DA instead of a $19 HF polisher

https://www.harborfreight.com/6-in-comp ... 69487.html

1k is old technology. Much better products out there now.

A DA isn't going to be much better than the polisher.

I bought one of these to replace my old rotary buffer and love it. Trigger speed control with RPM limiting.

https://choicesdepot.com/product/dewalt ... CkQAvD_BwE