base coat clear coat wet sand, and now what?
This all depends on what you want the car to be. Any spots you cut through will need more base applied and a blend will be needed. If you plan on clearing the car again you really will only need to sand with 600-800 grit. You can apply base over both of those and still have adhesion. Remember those are orbital scratches not straight scratches. If you plan on applying the base you might want to step it to 1000 grit depending on how much metallic you have in the color if you are hand sanding straight scratches.
Gun tip size can make a difference for sure. I spray daily with a Sata 1.3 RP for clear. You should get an old fender or panel and prep it for clear and set your gun up before spraying the car.
What gun are you using? What pressure? Full trigger? How wide is your pattern set?
Do you know what a pattern overlap is? Most basic painters use about a 50 percent overlap. This is the pattern in which you spray. One coat left to right, then move up 50 percent and overlap the fist coat and keep going. I spray at probably a 75 percent overlap but I move my gun close to the panel and move extremely fast. This is because I use a production clear and it has different spray techniques needed.
Remember the flatter the substrate the flatter your paint film will be.
My guns are those cheap, ATD three pack HVLP deals. I think the three tip sizes were 1.8, 1.4, 1.0
I had approx 30 PSI at the gun, on an analog, dial type inline regulator, on the output side of an inline water trap. Used at full trigger, pattern was not quite full width, but about 12" high at about a foot away. Spraying on cardboard, it appeared to be consistent with what I saw on videos. I sprayed trying to keep a 50% overlap, but I worked from the top down, and left to right. Two things I know - I probably was not completely consistent in my distance from the panels, and I probably moved too quickly. It looked to me, like maybe it was spraying too dry, but my inexperience let me continue. I have read and heard a few different things regarding clearing at this point. Some say the same as above, the finish is now too smooth. Some say, like you (if I understood you right), the clear can still be applied. So, do I need to re-sand at 600 (I am currently at 2000)? Maybe I should just try polishing it. To be honest, if I can get enough of a shine out of it like I had, when it was wet, I would probably be ok with that. I would love a show car finish, but to be honest with myself - I just don't have the proper tools, skills, or money in the budget for that.
I have an air powered DA, but I don't think I would want to use it for buffing / polishing. I have an older, electric polisher - it looks like similar to a grinder, but much larger, and much slower. I have access to some decent pads. I also have some Meguire's compound and swirl mark remover. It may not be top notch like the 3M stuff, but I have used it before.
