Members DaveGrima Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 Ok Ill keep this short and to the point. I bought a USA Strat about 4 months ago for a really sweet price because the previous owner did either a really bad relic job or started to repaint it and changed his mind. Half the paint was alreadsy stripped off. I got it for $500 out the door with a set of Lollar Blackfaces and some Callaham hardware upgrades. Anyway I finally got around to refinishing it this month. I decide to go with sonic blue from Reranch. Heres some of the supplies. Reranch Sand&Sealer, primer, SOnic Blue, and Deft gloss clear lacquer. I sanded the old paint off using a palm sander and 100 grit. With the paint all off I dry block sanded it to 220 and filled in some dings with wood filler. After a few coats of sealer. . . After 5 coats of Sealer, I sanded it to 400. . Primered. . Im hanging it in my closet with a wire coat hanger. . Continued. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted February 17, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 Ok after about 8 or 9 coats of primer I lightly sanded it with 600 grit dry just to smooth it out. I used about 10 or 11 light coats of color. . Sorry for the small, dark pics. After its all done Ill take lots of closeups. I didnt fill the dings in very well. . theyre still showing up a little bit with the paint on. Oh well Im not a perfectionist. I dont baby my guitars and I imagine it will get plenty more when I start playing it again. I just started clear coating today. Ill update when Im done with it. I wanna thank customtele for all his tips and thanks for reading. This is my 3rd refinish and my 1st time posting one. I would have been too embarrased to post the first couple I did. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted February 18, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 18, 2012 Is there a way I can copy my thread and move it or do I have to have a moderator do it? I wanna send a copy of this to HCEG. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted February 20, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 I knew I shoulda waited until I was all done before posting this. . :bor: :bor:only 3 more weeks and I can final sand and polish and put it all together! Rosewood board, mint pickgaurd, so should I use aged white pickup covers, mint, or. . black? Im thinking black would look cool . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alan Roberts Posted February 20, 2012 Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 Aged white. So, that's an Am. Std. body? How many pieces did they use in that thing? 4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted February 20, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 I counted 3. . I dont think Fender has used one piece bodies in a long time. Now you can only find em on the high end custom shop stuff and maybe some transparent finished deluxe models. I honestly dont think it makes any difference soundwise. . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 20, 2012 Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 Amazing what they hide under a painted body. Thats why I either buy a natural or translucent finish.Not that it matters too much on an electric but you learn theres Less chance on being ripped off with crappy wood/grains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Average_Joe Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 I counted 3. .I dont think Fender has used one piece bodies in a long time. Now you can only find em on the high end custom shop stuff and maybe some transparent finished deluxe models. I honestly dont think it makes any difference soundwise. . I've got a '92 Am Std and it's the same, 3 pieces. Although the paint has never been removed, you can see where the seems are when you hold it up to the light. So that's at least 20 years they've been 3 piece bodies. And the tone sounds fine to me. Although my hearing is so damaged, it could be made out of 3 flavors of Jello and I probably couldn't tell the difference.....except for the fruity smell of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jpacman Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Great job man... I've got a Squier than I want to repaint. How hard was your paint to remove? Did it have a really hard finish? I have no idea what kind of paint the Squiers have, but its like a really hard shell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 ^^^ Its poly which is a ball buster to remove. You either sand your ass off or you burn it off with a heat gun. poly is plastic and paint remover wont touch it. My suggestion is, is its in good shape. Leave it alone. First, unless you are an auto body painter or refinish for a living, you'll never get it to look like a factory finish. Refinishing is not easy and you'll always have flaws. Second, you can kiss the value of the instrument away. The minuteyou refinish the value is cut at least in in half. Third, if you want to learn how to finish, get an unfinished body. Prepwork is minimal and its a whole lot easire to learn that way. Lastly, if you do refinish, remember to study your chemicals. Do not mix and match. Use poly clearcoat over poly paint. use laquer clear coat over Lacquer paint, use water based acrylic clearcoat over acrylic paint. Dont mix poly with lacquer, or oils etc. stay with the same chemicals and even the same manufacturerand read the labels carefully for instructions. In other words, Dummies have failures because they dont read and follow directions. Never use enamil or latex on a guitar, nor metal paints like rustoleum. Theres different chemicals for different jobs and different results. I suggest using lacquer because its easy to work with and you can buff out flaws which will occur. It can be done with spray cansand unless you have experience using a sprayer, and own one, lacquer spray cans will get you close to a decent looking finish. You can even buy cans of auto lacquer in auto parts stores that do a fair job. When it comes down to it though. When you add on the cost of refinishing which is maybe $50~75. You need to decide if its worth it. Take the guitar, sell it, take the extra money you'd spend refinishingand just buy a better instrument or one with the color you want. When it comes down to it, A guitarst doesnt turn and audiance on by how his isntrument looks. He does it by showing the audiance how well he plays. If you're focused on your instruments looks, your head is in the wrong place as a musician.If you're wanting to learn refinishing and repairs to build your own, then just remember its a messy job thats not a whole lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Danocoustic Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 wrgkmc, youre such a killjoy :poke: your advice on stripping poly, however, is sound. ive had the best results by starting with a heat gun and a painters 5-in-1 tool, followed by a palm sander (CAREFULLY) followed by a cabinet scraper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Great job man... I've got a Squier than I want to repaint. How hard was your paint to remove? Did it have a really hard finish? I have no idea what kind of paint the Squiers have, but its like a really hard shell The right way IS indeed to strip it down to bare wood and poly is a PITA as WRG mentioned. Another option is to shop around for a new unfinished body. GFS has 'em as well as Fleabay. There is another option which is not the greatest but does work. Get some shellac based sealer. After scuffing the gloss off the body and feather edging the chips, hit it with that. Then treat the rest of the project just like it's ready for primer. The lacquer will stick, but you can't ever get it real smooth that way and it will always look like a repaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jpacman Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 I just got mine disassembled, so I might go ahead and make a thread later tonight. I am going to decide if I want to paint it or not when I take mine down to bare wood. If it is in good enough shape, I am going to stain it or whatever. I absolutely love the look of a guitar with the natural wood still showing. I also love it when they have a good paint job on it. Like this one, I can tell this one is going to turn out really nice... Off Topic.I sent wrgkmc a message because I did not want to hijack this thread, and he replied with a VERY long message about how to do it and what I need to look out for. I am amazed at amount of great / helpful people around here. I honestly have never been a part of such a great community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted February 22, 2012 Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 Jpac, Reranch 101 is a good source for info even if you decide not to get Bill's paint products. Also, IIRC, shipping is a flat 11 bucks regardless if you get one can or enough to do the whole job. Dave, did you find that to be true?BTW that guitar is looking real nice, love that sonic blue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted February 22, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yeah Reranch has a minimum shipping charge around there. Sometimes you have no choice but to refinish as I did here. Half the paint was already gone when I got it and it looked terrible. Even a bad paint job would will look better than how is was when I bought it. Anyways the Poly isnt that bad to strip with an electric sander and really course sandpaper. I may have used 60 grit. I wish I was more careful around some of the rounded edges though since I flattened out some of them a bit. Oh well. Refinishing a body is alot harder than it looks. One thing is for sure... the more I do the better I get at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted March 4, 2012 Author Members Share Posted March 4, 2012 About one more week then I can wet sand/polish this thing! I can't wait. I bought a mint pickgaurd, a Fralin baseplate for the bridge pickup and a blender pot. I want the 7 position super strat wiring plus I've always hated the standard Strat control layout. Am I the only one? Id rather have just one master tone and volume. Keep it simple. Anyways I know you're all dying to see this thing finished. . One more week. . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted March 19, 2012 Author Members Share Posted March 19, 2012 OK I just finished wet sanding it to 2000 grit. What polishing compound do you guys recommend? Ive got 3M medium rubbing compound and Imperial Hand Glaze which I used on my last jobs. Reranch recommends 3M Finesse It II. I still need to get some buffing pads for my drill. Any recommendations for compounds? Preferably something I can get at Home Depot or Ace or something. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted March 19, 2012 Members Share Posted March 19, 2012 What you have is fine. I use turtle wax automotive rubbing and polishing compounds. Really doesn't matter. You don't have to use what Bill recommends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tedmich Posted March 19, 2012 Members Share Posted March 19, 2012 (wrgkmc gets paid by the character) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted March 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted March 23, 2012 Well heres the guitar all put together. Cant see it in the pics but it has quite a bit of orange peel Im gonna fix later. Im gonna laying the body flat to paint next time instead of hanging it. Also a little spot on the side that got sanded through during the wet sanding phase. The spots in front are from using the wrong buffing wheel the guy at Ace hardware recommended. Or I might have been using it at too high RPM. ANyway, id have to get another can of color to fix it and I didnt feel like waiting another month for it to cure. I just couldnt wait to play this baby. Bottom line it looks 100 times better than when I bought it and it plays and sounds like a dream which is the most important thing. Best Strat Ive ever owned hands down. I also put a few new coats of Deft clear satin laquer on the back of the neck since the previous owner had sanded all the finish off. Soo smooth.. . Also the pickgaurd is actually Mint. For some reason it looks white in the pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sublimeride Posted March 23, 2012 Members Share Posted March 23, 2012 Nice job.Looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveGrima Posted March 23, 2012 Author Members Share Posted March 23, 2012 Thanks, ya it looks nice from far away, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Belva Posted March 24, 2012 Members Share Posted March 24, 2012 Looks good. The repairs are just little spots and will be good practice. The major thing is it looks good as is and it has a good, durable finish that will age nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RickBeall Posted March 26, 2012 Members Share Posted March 26, 2012 It looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members darthyahya Posted April 5, 2012 Members Share Posted April 5, 2012 nice job. i did a complete strip of a bladerunner. it had been professionally painted on top of the original paint. took me months to properly strip it and get all the nooks and crannies but it was the bomb when i finished it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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