I would say at this point, that's not completely smooth at all. If you're done sanding, you need to paint it with several coats of a high solid primer and then block sand for best results. What are you using to sand the existing paint? A dual action air sander will give best results when feathering old paint. What you've done so far looks problematic to me. I would take that all the way down to primer instead of just feathering to be honest. Also, do yourself a favor and remove that cowl panel and prep/paint it separately. Make sure you mask the seal behind the hood.

 

I agree with robertj; this will probably show lines, even though you you don't feel it with your fingers.

When I painted my XJ I used an random orbital sander, feathered it out similar to how you have done. I primed the heck out of the hood, sanded it back down again with a block. I also used a bit of glazing putty to smooth it out. After all that and adding the primer/sealer, paint, clear coat, I could still see phantom lines of where I sanded in the final paint. I should have just evenly sanded the entire thing down more evenly and used a lot more high build primer than I did. Basically, I did the right steps but got lazy and didn't sand it down enough, then didn't use enough primer/ didn't spend enough time block sanding after adding the primer. Now I get to see it every day. It's not a huge problem for me, but if you care about seeing the lines you'll need to do more work.

Also, definitely remove the cowl and anything you can. It's so easy to remove the cowl and remove the black plastic vent piece from behind; it'll look much better and it'll be easier to paint.

 

 

i agree, try to take it down to primer.

but for those areas where you can't, like side panels, roof, stone chip, etc. then you want no less than 7mm of feathering for each layer in order to not see a high spot when painting. and yes, you wan't hit it good with a sandable primer and block sand it smooth before base colour.

if you can feel the layers with your hand, then you will see it in the paint.

but it looks pretty good, so far. but try to take it down to primer.