Auto lacquers set up real fast, so it is hard to get a really gloss look to them. You may have to polish the final surface to get a good shine. Problem is, many polishes have wax in them and prevent you from painting over them with a clear coat. One option is to not polish and just bite the bullet and clearcoat. A second is to see if the polish is sufficient to meet your needs. If you are trying to duplicate a factory finish of an older car, that may be enough. For a rod or custom, you may want to do the clearcoat to get that wet look. And contemporary cars often have a clearcoat from factory. Third option is to polish with a non-wax polish and then clearcoat. But in that case you should do a test case on scrap to verify that the polished surface can take an overcoat. A lot of us use plastic spoons for such testing.