Guitar refinish/repainting question...

[anti-flag193]

Hey guys. I'm refinishing my Fender Cyclone from 2000. The paint was beat up and dented to hell and it hasn't been complete in years so I figured I'd take on something I'd never done before and sand and repaint it. Here's what I did so far with a hand held orbital sander:

Before:

After:

The grain looks good. Looks to be one piece which is surprising. How can I get rid of the light marks on the 3rd pic of the refinish? There are a few marks on the back as well and they won't go away. I'm debating whether to clear coat it or paint it a solid color. I don't know much when it comes to guitar painting but I'd like a professional looking job. Can anyone give me some pointers on painting techniques and which paint to buy? Any other tips about sanding or painting are much appreciated. Thanks.

[Wyatt]

I have found auto paint to be really durable and easy to apply. If you want to go nitro, you really should check out the Guitar Reranch website. That site has a huge WEALTH of information. It's pretty cold nowadays where you are. You may have to wait for warmer weather, unless you have a heated garage?

 

Heated garage doesn't work. You can't ventilate as needed and keep out the cold, which inhibits spraying.

 

To spray nitro, you need lots of fresh air, moderate temperatures and no humidity.

[anti-flag193]

No clue what paint I should use. At work there's a garage with a big exhaust fan I could use.

[anti-flag193]

I use poly all the time at work. I have access to stain and poly if I chose to go that route. If I can get the wood nice and even I may go that route.

[anti-flag193]

What are the benefits of nitro?

 

How many coats of stain and poly? I'd like to find a blue or green stain.

[Wyatt]

Nitro is thinner and helps the guitar "breathe," so they say. Some people (myself included) also love how it ages. It yellows over time and develops small cracks. A poly finish is like a car finish. It's very strong. It doesn't yellow. If you ding it, it cracks something like glass or plastic. I would venture to say it takes some really sensitive ears to hear the difference between the two. The last spray job I did was on a high gain guitar, so I didn't care. I've played nitro and poly strats and teles and I don't mind the poly at all. And I play clean a lot. As far as the stain goes, that's up to you. I stained a guitar with a rag and it took about two applications before the color was there. There is a procedure. If you don't fine sand and wet sand the heck out of the raw wood, the grains will lift and you won't have a smooth finish. It takes patience. As far as the clear coat of poly, I have about 7 on mine. I don't like a super thick coat. I did a thread a year or so ago on a refinishing project you can look up if you like. Hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes!

 

Most of the comparisons people bring up are based on myth.

 

Polyurethane, being plastic, is porous and breathes as well. And it can be sprayed as thin as nitro, the problem was it is often sprayed heavy handed because then there is less of a change of sanding through between coats.

[anti-flag193]

Thanks a lot guys. Anyone have a tutorial or something that will take me step by step through painting or polying a guitar?

[linusâ„¢]

thats an awful nice looking one piece body, is that poplar (doesn't seem greeny enough to be)? i thought those custom series (cyclone/toronado out of mexico) were all poplar?

[BoneNut]

I hope this will help you out with your project.

I used acrylic enamel from rattle cans on the last body I painted and it turned out very well, only taking two cans of paint. It was a Strat in Shoreline Gold I painted baby blue.

 

I sanded the Fender three piece body down to bare wood, eliminating all of the original topcoat, color coats and sealer. Once those were gone, I sanded with progressively finer grades of sandpaper until the wood was silky smooth. Just before applying the first coats of paint, the body was wiped down carefully with an alcohol soaked rag to get rid of any grease, hand oils or other contaminants before spraying paint. Since the paint coat I was going to apply is extremely thin, the wood had to be perfectly smooth or else any imperfection would show through.

 

Even though I had sanded the body very smooth, the first few coats soaked into the wood a bit (not too much) and acted as its own sealer. I applied extremely thin coats and slowly built up the color. After every 4 or 5 coats, I

[abrasive]

^Looks great BoneNut.

 

I did the exact same as BoneNut, except I used acrylic lacquer. ~2 cans. Picked it up at Home Depot.

Electric Blues has a great writeup on this site showing how he did it, and he was kind enough to answer a couple of my questions when I was doing mine.

I attached a piece of lathe to the neck pocket, and the drilled a hole in the end of it, and hung a piece of mechanic's wire from the ceiling in my basement. That gave me something to hold onto, and something to hang it from. It was cold here when I was spraying, but I just grabbed it, went outside, and brought it back inside between coats and after spraying. It takes like 1 minute to spray a coat, and that's really not enough time for anything to cool down enough to be a problem.

I couldn't find anything finer than 2000 grit to do a final wet sand, so I rubbed two pieces together for a bit until they were worn down, and then used that for a final sanding. I didn't use a clear coat either. I finished with NuFinish, which is what I use on pretty much all my guitars.

 

[lowbrow]

True Oil. I refinished the guitar below with it and used red dye to tint. It's been a year now and I just love the way it feels and wears. I think I actually might prefer it to nitro. I was able to do all the work inside at my workbench except the final two coats, which I sprayed on using their aerosol bomb. I didn't even need to buff it out afterwards (although your taste may be different).

 

[BoneNut]

^Looks great BoneNut. I did the exact same as BoneNut, except I used acrylic lacquer. ~2 cans. Picked it up at Home Depot. Electric Blues has a great writeup on this site showing how he did it, and he was kind enough to answer a couple of my questions when I was doing mine. I attached a piece of lathe to the neck pocket, and the drilled a hole in the end of it, and hung a piece of mechanic's wire from the ceiling in my basement. That gave me something to hold onto, and something to hang it from. It was cold here when I was spraying, but I just grabbed it, went outside, and brought it back inside between coats and after spraying. It takes like 1 minute to spray a coat, and that's really not enough time for anything to cool down enough to be a problem. I couldn't find anything finer than 2000 grit to do a final wet sand, so I rubbed two pieces together for a bit until they were worn down, and then used that for a final sanding. I didn't use a clear coat either. I finished with NuFinish, which is what I use on pretty much all my guitars.

 

That turned out really well Abrasive and I'm glad my original Electric Blues write up about this guitar refinish helped you out.

 

Considering results like yours, I can't figure out why more people don't do their own finish jobs.

 

[abrasive]

So that was you...

Well thanks again.

 

Yeah, aside from a couple walls here, and a couple decks there, this was the first time I'd really ever painted anything. If my dumb ass can do a passable job, anyone can.

[Loudog99]

Poly does not have to be thick. I redid my SX SST Ash model with Rustoleum American Accents spray paint and cleared it with Satin Minwax Poly from a rattlecan. I didn't fill the grain because I wanted it to look like wood NOT plastic. This is 2 coats of BINS tinted shellac white primer, 3 color coats, and 2 coats of poly sprayed very thin. I used less than half the can of poly.

 

I also sanded with 600 grit after every coat to eliminate the roughness since I sprayed the coats very dry. I literally just used enough hand pressure to hold the paper against the body. EXTREMELY light sanding.

 

Final coat was lightly buffed with 0000 Steel Wool.

 

PICS

 

Before the Refinish

 

 

As you can see the grain matching was a bit off with the left side a bit lighter in color than the right.

 

After

 

 

Current State

 

 

No reason why you couldn't fill the grain and then do the same to get a nice low build finish. BTW, I sprayed in February in an unheated garage in NJ. Just be sure to run the cans under hot water for about a minute before spraying to thin the paint a bit. Really helps the paint flow better.

 

This was my second ever refinish.

 

Lou

[BoneNut]

 

Nice work!

[stevieb]

I have found auto paint to be really durable and easy to apply.

 

DON'T DO IT! Or, if you do, be careful. (I am assuming he means enamel, btw.) Enamel takes a long time to dry/cure. If you DO use enamel, BE PATIENT. Wait DAYS before you bolt the guitar back together. Otherwise, the enamel may still be semi-liquid, and you will get all kinds of ugly "pushing" of the finish when you bolt things like the bridge, neck, even the pick guard back on. I know, as I am currently refinishing a Mustang copy someone repainted in enamel, and got impatient.

 

And do know, auto-parts store lacquer is NOT NCL. It's ACRYLIC lacquer.

 

If you make mistakes, get dust in the finish, etc, lacquer is easiest to fix, followed by enamel. Poly is pretty much unfixable- mistakes either live there forever, or you take it off and start over again.

[headless]

 

I really like than natural top/black with black binding look.

 

I say clear-coat it like that (and keep the waist-cut black--looks cool).

 

Don't be surprised if I steal this idea from you.

[anti-flag193]

I hope this will help you out with your project. I used acrylic enamel from rattle cans on the last body I painted and it turned out very well, only taking two cans of paint. It was a Strat in Shoreline Gold I painted baby blue.   I sanded the Fender three piece body down to bare wood, eliminating all of the original topcoat, color coats and sealer. Once those were gone, I sanded with progressively finer grades of sandpaper until the wood was silky smooth. Just before applying the first coats of paint, the body was wiped down carefully with an alcohol soaked rag to get rid of any grease, hand oils or other contaminants before spraying paint. Since the paint coat I was going to apply is extremely thin, the wood had to be perfectly smooth or else any imperfection would show through.   Even though I had sanded the body very smooth, the first few coats soaked into the wood a bit (not too much) and acted as its own sealer. I applied extremely thin coats and slowly built up the color. After every 4 or 5 coats, I

[anti-flag193]

Hey guys. I ran out of free time so the guitar is still as it is in the picture. I'm ready to sand down the sides but how? The orbital belt sander won't lay flat so it will gouge the wood. Hand sanding takes forever, like 5 minutes to get a tiny spot down to wood. Also, I still can't get rid of the light spots shown in the pics. Is there a better way to strip paint? Thanks.

[abrasive]

Orbital belt sander?

A belt sander isn't going to work too well, but a random orbit will.

I used a 5" RO sander. Might have to experiment with grit so you don't gouge too bad, but it should have enough cushion in the pad to conform to the contours pretty well.

[anti-flag193]

I didn't mean belt. It's an orbital sander. There's no flex in it so I cant get it flat to get the grooves.

[linusâ„¢]

heat gun & a putty knife.

[DaveAronow]

Here is a thread I did you might find useful...

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?t=1894708

[anti-flag193]

Great thread. It'll be very helpful when I get to the step of choosing a paint. Unfortunately I already stripped it to bare wood on the front and back.

[abrasive]

If you want to do it with power tools, you can get a RO sander with a pad that has some cushion to it.

This is what I have:

http://www.dewalt.com//ProductImages/PC_Graphics/PHOTOS/DEWALT/TOOLS/LARGE/2/D26451K_K1.jpg

 

Conversely, a drum sander that attaches to a drill press or drill can be very handy. The one I have is an inflatable bladder spindle. You fill the drum spindle up with as much air as needed (less air=more flexible) and that allows the sanding sleeve to conform to the curves. Works well, but you've gotta be careful.

http://www.sawbird.com/drum_sanders.htm

 

I've heard chemical strippers don't work well on poly. I have, however, heard that liquid electrical tape will strip poly very well, but I haven't done it, so I can't verify that. If you're going to give it a try, test it before you slather it all over your guitar to make sure that it works, and that it doesn't leave anything undesirable behind.