Stripping a bass guitar (nitro)

[GeneralElectric]

So I'm going to strip my beloved Fender Precision and refinish her in royal blue metallic. The bass looks like it was dragged behind a truck and there are numerous dings, dents, and gouges. The bass is a 57 RI P-bass from 1982, which was the first year for the model.
While I understand that this bass is collectible and I'm destroying the value, I never plan on selling this bass. I've been playing it now for 11 years and its my first bass, and one my father helped me pay for (he passed away in 08) So for sentimental reasons at least, I'll never get rid of it, even if I give up 4 stringers or bass. Neither of those are likely to happen though.

In short, please don't try and talk me out of this, my mind is made up.



The bass is finished in nitro. There are plenty of dings and dents in it. There is a small gouge on the back by the contour where it goes through into the wood kinda deep. There are also a few dings and chips in the body edges, or deep indentations where the bass banged into something hard. The clear coat isn't perfectly level in some spots from wear (belt buckle area mostly) and it has a few minor cracks in it. I'm not sure from what. Temperature changes maybe?

My main worry is preserving the body contours. I remember someone once told me that nail polish remover would get rid of tape goo, but they neglected to tell me it'd rip up the nitro finish. Big mistake on my part but I caught myself before I did a ******** of damage.

Does this sound like a feasible plan?
-Using nail polish remover, or paint thinner, to remove the existing white finish.
-After thats dry, sand smooth all the dents in the clear coat with light grit sand paper
-Refill any dents and gouges with either wood filler, nail polish, or super glue.

The bass has an ash body, so I'm worried about doing a new sealer coat as ash is particularly porous.

[praisegig]

If it is nitro, you can use any paint stripper, acetone(nail polish remover) or lacquer thinner, to remove the finish to bare wood.

If you are going with nitro products again, I would fill the grain, then use sanding sealer to level, primer to cover and spray paint the metallic to even coloring. Spray 2 cans of nitro clear, cure for 30 days, wetsand and polish to high gloss. JMHE

[GeneralElectric]

Thanks Lon. I plan on using a white primer, silver undercoat, metallic blue overcoat.

Really think I need two whole cans of clear nitro from reranch just to do a bass body?

[praisegig]

Basically the first can is to bury the metallic flakes, the 2nd can to give you enough film thickness to be able to wet sand/polish without sand throughs

[trayner1]

IME, the best stripper to use is Jasco...about 7 bucks for a decent amount at Home Depot. Instead of a metal scraper, which will dent and scratch the body, use a plastic putty knife. The jasco will remove everything cleanly and evenly in 2 or 3, 20 minute coatings. After that, you will have a thin, filmy coating, which will come right off with 150 grit sandpaper...you should be bare after that.

[GeneralElectric]

Originally Posted by trayner1

IME, the best stripper to use is Jasco...about 7 bucks for a decent amount at Home Depot. Instead of a metal scraper, which will dent and scratch the body, use a plastic putty knife. The jasco will remove everything cleanly and evenly in 2 or 3, 20 minute coatings. After that, you will have a thin, filmy coating, which will come right off with 150 grit sandpaper...you should be bare after that.

Straight to the wood?

[trayner1]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

Straight to the wood?

aww yeah.

[Hardie775]

I'm pretty new to this particular forum and I certainly don't claim to but just a bit informed, but I've finished and re-finished a couple dozen guitars in the last 2 years. What started as a fun project has turned into an obsession. I have a 2nd bizness now, relatively small, selling guitars I've built or modded is one.
Any way, if your going with another solid color, what you have on there now you can leave as a base. Most certainly if your using nitro based paint and primer from re ranch you don't have to take it to the wood, though I would. In my opinion, I would never use thinner or spirits to remove the lacquer or for that matter, use wood stripper. My main line of work is as a remodeling contractor, so I use stripper when appropriate and though I've heard of folks using this to strip instruments, I'd assume keep that toxic mess away. If and when I go down to the wood, (which is almost always myself), I use a heat gun and a 1" putty knife. But if you for simple reasons, keep what you've got know, sand it back a bit with 220 grit. Fill the dings with miniwax wood filler, sand again with 220 then 320. hit it with sanding sealer, or straight lacquer, (sanding sealer is just lacquer with talc, which is a soap, to make sanding easy), sand with 320 again, primer, paint and yes, 2 cans of nitro. 3 to 4 wet coats 1 day and in the morn sand with 400, 600 and 800 grit, then 3 to 4 wet coats the 2nd day, hang again overnight and repeat sanding, the 3 to 4 coats again and let sit for 30 days. sand then with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and 2000, polish with 3M products, finesse it II, them 3M rubbing compound and then 3M hand glaze. A piano finish is guaranteed. The 1st time I did this, I took it to the wood on an 91 Strat Plus that was alder. I though it was as good as sex. I had it hanging in a closet and most every time I'd pass by I had to touch it, it was just that good.

[GeneralElectric]

Only the overcoat of the new bass will be nitro. I plan on using regular white primer, and silver autobody paint for the body, and then going over it with an acrylic lacquer (the royal blue metallic)

The clear coat will be nitro.

The body is made of ash and is particularly porous. Would regular sanding sealer work with that?

[Hardie775]

You got to make sure that it all works together. That auto body paint I've used. Acrylic. I used some black on a tobacco burst cause it looked like a aligator took a bite of it. But I did there, just about what i suggested to you. Miniwax wood filler, sanded, hit it with some lacquor and used a preval sprayer just on the few small areas, then a bunch of layers of clearcoat. To reply to your statement and question, I've used ash and it's a sweet wood to work with, if you were to use a heat gun and strip it all the way down, I'd probably use a grain filler to be safe, but you'ld probably not need it, but using a nitro clear coat, at 1st it might polish up nice, but over time, the grain will start showing through, (texture). When you say regular white primer, I'd make sure you can cover it with lacquer. You can cover poly with nitro but not the other way. If you put a primer that is not lacquer friendly you'll have a big mess. If you want to do it right and are not afraid of spending the price from Rerach, buy there white pigmented primer and 2 cans of clearcoat. When I've used a white primer, I've always used reranch. Or ask someone at sherman williams that knows there stuff. That auto paint is not cheap, I paid $50 for a splash fo the acrylic black, so you don't want to put just any old primer, then the auto paint just to have the clearcoat start to bubble off. it's a very ugly sight.

[smoov]

like Hardie said...i wouldnt use stripper on a soft wood like ash...the stripper will get into the pores and could pop up to haunt you later...

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by GeneralElectric

Only the overcoat of the new bass will be nitro. I plan on using regular white primer, and silver autobody paint for the body, and then going over it with an acrylic lacquer (the royal blue metallic)

The clear coat will be nitro.

EDIT: I just re-read and I see you plan to use acrylic lacquer as a top coat over what I THINK will be an acrylic lacquer (silver) undercoat. As long as the sealing coat is compatible with the top coats, that should work.

You can benefit by reading the info at ReRanch and Stew-Mac, and you should pick up Dan Erlewine's book on guitar repair. You can learn a lot by investing a couple of hours in background research. All layers of the finish must have compatible chemistry. You can't assume that any one paint in layer 1 will work with any different paint in layer 2.

Don't expect to learn everything you need on a bass forum - you need to do your own homework and have reference materials available when you tackle this. It's not "rocket surgery" - finish removal, sanding, filling, sealing, base coat, color coats, clear finish coats, finish sanding and polishing. details like the progression of grits you use in finish sanding make a big difference. My last project was finish wet-sanded with 600, 800, 1000 and 2000 grits, then polished with 3-M Finesse-It II machine polish. Incredible finish!

The body is made of ash and is particularly porous. Would regular sanding sealer work with that?

Definitely need a good sealer, and it may make a difference whether you're top-coating it with polyurethane, acrylic lacquer or nitro. Personally I agree with your selection of acrylic lacquer because it behaves a lot like nitro but is non-toxic, non-flammable and easy to find. Most of the touch-up auto body paint in rattle cans is acrylic lacquer, so you can get your silver and your top coat color inexpensively.

And BTW - an inexpensive, good quality sealer can be ordered from Stew-Mac and you will know that it's compatible with the finishes they list. I know it's compatible with acrylic lacquer.

I'm not trying to be a pain about this, just suggesting that since you're going to have to put hours of work into this to get any good result, do the bit of extra research that will result in an excellent result. I think you're headed in the right direction.

[GeneralElectric]

Thanks Pilgrim. I guess I'll stay away from the stripper. I own a heat gun, fortunately, so I just need to get a putty knife to scrape it all off.

A friend of mine who is a painter will be doing most of the actual painting in his spray booth with a paint gun. I'm supplying the top coat (the royal blue) and he's supplying the white primer and silver undercoat. I have to prep the body though as he said he just wants to paint this in a weekend and then spray the overcoat.

For the overcoat I was planning on using the clear nitro from reranch.

I was unaware of the reranch and stew mac forums. I'll be looking at those now.


EDIT: The silver undercoat is acrylic lacquer as well.

[Pilgrim]

One key is impeccable prep. The body must be absolutely filled and smooth. I suggest you build a "paint stick" to fasten in the neck and hold the body for painting - if you don't know what that is, do a search and you'll find out.

As long as all three layers are acrylic lacquer, you'll be OK. Don't know what primer he has in mind, but if it's automotive and he's spraying lacquer top coats, he should understand the need for compatible chemistry.

[tomsbass]

Hey General Electric,
I'm about to paint a new Alder P-Bass body with the Royal Blue Metallic myself. How did yours come out? What paints did you end up using in the long run? Thanks.

Tom

[Pilgrim]

PS: I just re-read the post by Hardie775 and he covered the process pretty darn well. Nicely done!

[GeneralElectric]

I had knee surgery shortly after I started this thread and while I painted another bass in the meantime, I decided to take some pictures this time through of the whole process. I'll upload the first couple later on tonight as I'm in the middle of stripping the body.

My materials thus far:
Citristrip Gel (recommended by a cabinet making friend of mine)
Minwax Sandable Wood Filler
White acrylic automotive primer
60s Ditzler acrylic car lacquer called Sungleam Blue
Automotive urethane reducer (for the blue)
Clear nitrocellulose lacquer

Unfortunately Lowes did not stock any sandpaper finer than 220. Is there a better place to get sandpaper for the wetsanding?

[GeneralElectric]

I started with a 1982 Fender Precision. I got it NOS about 11 years ago in a pawnshop. Its a 57RI but I replaced the original gold guard with a white nitro one last year. Its since turned to mint. As you can see its a little broken in.


I began taking off all the hardware. Unfortunately at some point the pickguard had partially fused to the finish and when I pried it off the pickguard broke right underneath the pickups. Lots of grime and rust from all the sweat and alcohol thats soaked under the guard. The pics don't really show how yellowed the outside looked but under the guard was the original white blonde. I rubbed the whole thing down in denatured alcohol to get the grime off so I'd have a clean surface for the stripper.


Sitting on the back table ready for stripping! The white finish picked up a lot of stains over the years.


Here's the back. I then realized I forgot to take the sticker off and furiously scraped it off.


Liberal coating of citristrip. I used one coat on the front and waited half an hour before going outside to check. I used a paint scrapped to get all the gloppy bits of stuff off. I then used a towel to wipe off the rest. A few spots remained even after scrubbing. I flipped her over and I had some tough spots of finish to get out again. I just coating both of these in citristrip again, waited 15 minutes, and wiped the rest off.


My P-bass after everything. The citristrip left most of the sealer intact. The bass had a bunch of cracks in the sealer from going from cold to hot weather, or spider webbing from dings. It looks like it got semi soft and when I rubbed everything off it melted the cracks back together. It was a little sticky so I used denatured alcohol to get off the residue.


And here's the back. It almost makes me want to keep it natural!


I'm going to go over the bass tomorrow and fill in all the dings and chips with wood filler before sanding flush.

[praisegig]

I would advise doing a wash down with naptha to neutralize any stripping action, at least twice with clean rags each time and let dry in between. You can get all your wet sanding papers at any NAPA auto parts.

Looking good with the ash grain, if at all possible, it might be nice to leave it natural.

[TC2112]

I know you have your mind made up about the blue, and more power to ya, but boy that grain sure is pretty. That thing would look awesome with a transparent butterscotch or Mary Jane White, or even an amber clear over the top of it