Newbie here:

Did several coats of base and proceeded on to the clear coats immediately. I think I was putting all the coats way too thinly...it wasn't covering at all in single passes so I just did multiple passes and coats. It may have been a combination of not being close enough/too much air/too little paint flow.

So the paint/clear coats came out quite rough/grainy touch wise. The color is very even and looks good, but it is not smooth and consequently it does not have a glossy look (more of a matte type finish even though it has the clear coats). Can this fixed through buffing/polishing? I really don't want to sand and repaint....this stuff is expensive.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Did you let each coat flash off?
How many coats of clear are on it now?
Can you post a picture of what it looks like?

I would say I waited 10-15 minutes between each of the base coats, then at least 20 minutes before I started the clear (not doing a whole vehicle, so each coat did not take long to apply). Maybe this wasn't long enough? It was going on so light, I just kept going over it until I was out of paint.

Here is a link to a photo of it: The extreme right of the photo is some paper behind the item. It actually looks a little rougher in the photo than it is.
https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/ ... HDbTID79av

Link doesn't work.

How many coats of clear are on it?

What spray gun and size tip did you use?

There are 3-4 coats of clear on it. I think I just didn't put anything on enough to really wet it at one time. I used a Harbor Freight cheapo gun with 1.4 tip.

Here's another attempt at posting a pic:
https://i.ibb.co/kGg10Yn/paint-pic.jpg

I'm thinking of two options: Wax the heck out of it (this will never be outside), or sand with 1000 grit and reshoot the clearcoat. What do you think?

Your color coat has texture in it. That won't go away with sanding it smooth and respraying.

The question we need to answer is why the base went down like that. Once we get that straightened out we can work on the steps to correct what you have.

Tell me about your compressor, hp, tank size and CFM output.
Next, what brand of paint and clear?
Then, how did you set up your spray gun?

Compressor: Central Pneumatic (harbor freight) 2HP, 8 gallon, 5 SCFM.

Paint was Sherwin Williams Dimension basecoat with ACME Finish 1 Clearcoat.

Spray gun pressure was at 45 psi, spray pattern narrowed from full spread (halfway) but was still fairly wide, and flow was mostly open.

Any advice for the next project would be helpful. However, this project will not be redone, so any advice on what to do to make it as good as can be would be helpful.

The problem is your compressor is way too small.

Spray guns give two requirements concerning air supply.
1. Volume or CFM
2. Pressure or PSI

Even the cheap HF gun requires 8 CFM to operate correctly and your compressor only puts out half that amount at best.

If you plan to do more painting then invest in a better compressor. For a one man shop I would recommend at least a 6 hp 80 gallon compressor that puts out 15 CFM or more.

https://www.autobody101.com/content/art ... ould-know/