Guitar refinish/repainting question...

[DaveAronow]

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.

 

Well stripping it to bare wood certainly wpnt hurt anything, it is just extra work. So it is not neccessarily "unfortunate", but you are right about not taKING ANY KIND OF POWER ANDERS TO THE CURVES. iT WILL BE ALOT OF WORK TO REMOVE THOSE AREAS BY HAND AND YOU MAY FIND IT IS NOT even NECCESARY.

 

 

OOps. Sorry about the caps. Too lazy to fix it.

[anti-flag193]

I'll try a heat gun and see what happens. Thanks guys.

[Belva]

The light spots you're seeing is where you sanded thru that Fullerplast sealer coat. Either get it all off or leave it the way it is and go opaque. B.I.N. shellac based primer is your friend. Get it smooth, use a whole rattle can of it, sanding as needed & start with your color. BTW poly finishes end up being thinner that laquer because you need 230,633 coats of laquer to get the protection provided by 2 coats of poly. So, which will have the most effect on tone?

[Elias Graves]

Oh no, I didn't mean for nitro. That stuff will rot your brain! Or a heater will ignite it and blow your garage sky high. But for poly, wouldn't a heated garage with an exhaust fan work? I don't know. I've always sprayed in the summer.

 

Well, you're not going to be able to use poly like they do on the imports. That stuff is UV cured.

 

Most auto paints are lacquers and are very durable. Enamel works OK but takes forever and a day to cure properly.

 

Not sure what the discolorations are, but if you are good with stain, you could probably get them to blend fairly well. But maybe not...especially if there is something soaked into the wood.

 

I did one guitar with enamel. It turned out pretty good but next time I'll use an auto lacquer. Dries much faster than enamel.

 

EG

[Angry Tele]

those light spots are poly. You need to sand them off with 200-400 paper. Have fun!

 

You can shoot 30 coats of nitro (from a rattle can) and it will be super thin like the width of a hair.

[Meowy]

Has anyone used graffiti paint (German / Spanish Montana, Molotow, etc) for a guitar?

 

They are supposed to be very opaque and forgiving of temperature variances. I don't know if they go on too thick or don't fully harden, but they do come in a bazillion colors

[anti-flag193]

The light spots you're seeing is where you sanded thru that Fullerplast sealer coat. Either get it all off or leave it the way it is and go opaque. B.I.N. shellac based primer is your friend. Get it smooth, use a whole rattle can of it, sanding as needed & start with your color. BTW poly finishes end up being thinner that laquer because you need 230,633 coats of laquer to get the protection provided by 2 coats of poly. So, which will have the most effect on tone?

 

I figured it was some kind of sealer but I can't get through the rest. I'll try again this week.

[HanSolo]

I would leave the sides alone. Just sand them smooth and primer them with a white or light gray primer so the paint covers evenly. It isn't worth the fight unless your are doing a natural wood finish. Those white patches are clean wood, the rest is probably the catalyzed sealer they applied before the paint that soaked down into the wood. You'll wind up sanding 1/32" of wood off to get it to come up clean and even so forget it and paint it.

 

I don't know why everyone is obsessed with stripping off the paint that's there unless their intent is to do a natural finish. If the paint is sound, it's the best primer in the world. Here is a Strat body I spot repaired, primered and painted ... Newbuilder bought it from me after I overhauled it. I had it filled, sanded, primed and finish painted in one afternoon. I used Duplicolor and simply wet-sanded with 1600 & 3200 grit and hand buffed it with Simonize Scratch-out.

 

Another trick I learned is the paint the body laying flat rather than hanging up vertically. The paint flows level rather than running down the body when you lay it on. I paint the front first, let it flash for 15 minutes, grab it underneath and hold it by the trem cutout and turn it over resting on two paint can tops under the pickup routes.

 

I then paint the back and make sure I cover the blend on the sides completely. Only a touch of overspray occurs and the blend occurs on the sides and just wet sands out. It is almost impossible to get a paint run even with heavy wet coats and the paint seems to self-level better with almost no orange peel. The last 2 thumbnails are the painted body before I wet sanded and buffed so you can see how flat and level the paint turns out this way.

 

 

 

 

[anti-flag193]

I was planning on doing a natural finish, or at least a see through finish if I can get the sides sanded down nicely and get the front and back sanded evenly. When I'm done stripping the paint I'll decide.

[Belva]

YOu never know what you may find under the paint. When bodies get done the QC types take the best ones and send them to get clear and trans finishes. The rest are paint grade. Almost every time you strip a painted guitar you end up seeing why it was painted in the first place.

[StevenJM]

YOu never know what you may find under the paint. When bodies get done the QC types take the best ones and send them to get clear and trans finishes. The rest are paint grade. Almost every time you strip a painted guitar you end up seeing why it was painted in the first place.

 

+1 ... i stripped my tele to find that it was 7 pieces with a veneer glued on top of it... lots of visible glue spots to fill holes... and to think some people say squiers are just as good as fenders... however my tele got a new paint coat and sounds just fine, so it doesn't bother me...

 

poly is tougher, but doesn't allow your guitar to breathe and vibrate the way a nitro finish does (i personally can't hear a difference and anyone who says they can is full of themself)

 

nitro wont rot your brain if you use your brain... (BY WEARING A RESPIRATOR!!!!)

 

Also if you chip the finish on a nitro-finished guitar, its easily repairable, because new lacquer melts into old lacquer, where as you don't have that convenience with poly finishes.

[anti-flag193]

This one seems like one piece. I can't find the seem anywhere.

[linusâ„¢]

This one seems like one piece. I can't find the seem anywhere.

 

don't pass judgment until you see the sides..

[Angry Tele]

don't pass judgment until you see the sides..

 

+1 thats where they like to hide....Don't be too suprised if it is 1 though after stripping my CIJ Tele I found out it is one piece.

[Funderbunk]

I paint the front first, let it flash for 15 minutes, grab it underneath and hold it by the trem cutout and turn it over resting on two paint can tops under the pickup routes.

 

I screw a piece of scrap wood into the neck pocket as a handle/hanger, then put toothpicks in the pickguard/trem cover screw holes to act as standoffs - plus it keeps paint out of the holes. Paint as you describe, flip and rest on the toothpicks, paint, then pick up by the scrapwood handle, pull out the toothpicks, and hang it up for extended drying/curing.

[Angry Tele]

my walmart is blowing out thier nitro, $3 for minwax clear. I think they stopped selling and are getting rid of thier old stock.

[Belva]

my walmart is blowing out thier nitro, $3 for minwax clear. I think they stopped selling and are getting rid of thier old stock.

 

Buy it all! You can use it over Duplicolor acrylic laquer. This one is B.I.N. followed by 3 different colors of Duplicolor and topcoated with the Minwax you mentioned. Been almost a year and it holds up well. Yes I've gigged it.

[Slave2TheAudio]

It's gonna be bad ass man. Can't wait

[anti-flag193]

ok. I got all the paint off. The heat gun and scraper worked well. There were a bunch of gouges in the wood, but I sanded it all down smooth with 250 sandpaper. There was a couple of gouges that I filled with wood filler then sanded smooth. The only semi-issue is I can't seem to get the base sealer off the the top and back but it is all off the sides. So, you can see small cracks of the base sealer on the corners where the sides meet the front. I rubbed some wood filler on that as well and it feels pretty smooth now.

 

Should I go over the whole body with finer sandpaper? The finest I have access to at work is 250.

 

I feel like I should lay a coat of primer first before I start my color coats just to account for the uneven base sealer coat. Is the BIN shellac primer good or should I go with another kind? I'm abandoned the natural finish idea and am planning on going with a blue acrylic enamel or lacquer. What are the differences between the two? Lastly, I'm undecided if I should apply a poly finish coat at the end. Thanks for your help guys. I'll post progress pics soon.

[anti-flag193]

up

[anti-flag193]

:poke:

[anti-flag193]

a little help guys? I'm gunna try to buy paint this weekend.

[Angry Tele]

reranch

[cratz2]

I have little refinishing advice and I haven't used any paint, only oils.

 

My #1 bit of advice based on my experience is use a finer grit paper, then use a finer grit, then use an even finer grit.

 

 

This is an Ibanez. I really took my time on the flats... the front and back. There is one gouge in the back, but I didn't want to fill it and it doesn't really look THAT bad.

 

I used a palm sander on everything, using 60 then 180. Then I hand sanded with 360 or 400 then 600 on the flat front and back. On the sides, I only went down to 360. It looked fine without a finish and felt absolutely as smooth as the flats. Put as soon as I applied Tru Oil to it, the sides/bevels actually looked visibly different than the flats.

 

Next time, I will to 600 everywhere. I really rushed through this project though. I only sanded for about an hour and a half total, then applied the Tru Oil letting each coat dry exactly 3 hours, 1000 (maybe 2000) grit sanded the first coat, then steel-wooled after the second and third coat. Looks pretty good in pics and pretty good in person actually, but next time, I'll spend all the time I need and then some on the sanding.

 

 

 

 

 

[normh]

Also if you chip the finish on a nitro-finished guitar, its easily repairable, because new lacquer melts into old lacquer, where as you don't have that convenience with poly finishes.

 

 

While poly will not burn into the previous coats like Nitro or KTM it can be repaired. You sand the area and slightly outside of the area in need of repair with 220. Mask off the area sanded. Spray. Let dry and it is done. Done improperly and it will peel; this is why people mistakenly say it cannot be repaired. Done properly and the finish is durable. Or do I need to remind people of all the dents auto body shops repair daily and spot paint over polyurethane with polyurethane paint.