First refin Project

ProfGumby · #1 10-17-2009, 05:18 PM

So, I jumped in and took a whack at refinishing a guitar that my son no longer wanted. He wants to be a drummer now so I figured instaed of screwing up my prized VM Squier I'd take a go at the strat copy.

I do not have any professional or home type paint gear. This is a rattle can wonder job. And for the most part it is paint I happened to have lying about. And I am mixing and matching. I had some Rustoleum auto primer, some Krylon red gloss and I thought I had Rustoleum Crystal Clear, but was wrong. I bought a can of Krylon Clear gloss. So for the cost of 1 rattle can, so far, I am refinishing a body.

I sprayed the primer on the back, 3 coats and made sure to spray the sides. After 2 days, I flipped the body and did 3 coats on the face. Then hung it to dry for a few days. I got no sags or runs with the primer.

A wet sand later I started the color coats. I did the same thing. 2 coats on the back and sides and then one shot just on the rounded edge, then another full coat. I let it dry another day or so. I did get a run on the inside radius of the lower cutout, but that was because I was not fluid in following the radius of the cutout and made an angular pass and at the point, there was a run. I let it dry for a day then wet sanded the run off.

Then the front was sprayed the same way, with 2 extra coats on the rounded edges. You know, full coat, edge coat, full coat, edge coat, full coat. After the body sat for a few hours I hung it up. For some odd reason, on the first coat a splot about the size of a dime formed in the Red. Maybe a big drop blew off the nozzle? But it almost acted like it reacted to something on the primer coat. Perhaps someone handled the body with dirty hands? A coworker? Oh well. I sanded it pretty much out and did a short coat over that general area. Now you can barely see it. I could have gone back and really sanded it down but I am impatient and it is only a guitar, right?

After the final color coat, I let the guitar hang dry over the weekend.

Wet sand time, then 6 coats of clear on the back. It is hanging now for the weekend and I will start the face clear Monday.

Then I plan a wet sand, 4 or 5 more clear coats front and back, with wet sanding as needed then it will hang for a week.

Then a good hand rubbed polish then a wax.

In the gaps between drying time with the body, I removed the hardware and nut from the headstock and neck, masked off the nut slot and fingerboard then sanded off the cheesy logo. I primed the headstock, 2 coats and added 3 coats of color. A wet sand and now 6 coats of clear. I will wetsand Monday then one or two clear coats and cure. Then polish. I am going light on the headstock as how much wear will that get?

I will upload some pics in process, but like an idiot I have not taken any so far...

I do have a before shot and I will take some of the body and neck either tomorrow or Monday.

Rocky McD · #2 10-17-2009, 06:24 PM

Sounds like you have everything under control. My only advise, which is too late, is not to mix products, but it looks like you did not have any issues with incompatabality. Let us see the finished product.

ProfGumby · #3 10-17-2009, 10:42 PM

Hey Rocky!

I generally do not mix brands etc. But wanted to see what would happen if I did. Like I said, this was an experiment.

And what I am figuring out is, since I have an acquaintance who has painted bodies before, runs a custom cycle shop where he paints all the time and will do a body in gloss black for 100 dollars, it is almost worth it to hand him the body and say, "Knock yerself out!"

ProfGumby · #4 10-23-2009, 07:41 PM

Quick update.

I have the headstock done and will re install the tuners and bits n bobs and nut on Monday. The guitar is still hanging and maybe Monday I will start wet sanding. The front of the guitar does not feel as "hard" as the back as of yet, so I am not rushing it.

And I am really starting to like the idea of buying already finished bodies or having "someone else" do the finish work! I guess I am just lazy? But I know once done, polished and waxed it will be a different story. The cost is minimal to do it yourself if you do it right.

ProfGumby · #5 11-04-2009, 07:00 PM

Here are some pics so far -

First before -

The finished headstock -

And the body in process-

ProfGumby · #6 11-04-2009, 07:02 PM

Here is also a photo of the blot I described earlier. I am thinking wet sanding and a few more coats of clear and more wet sanding will minimize this, but for the most part I have to point it out to the folks that see this in progress..

You can see it on the edge of the shadow from the window frame at the far end of the body....Also I have not touched the body since the last post about waiting to wet sand. I have been tied up and also have been working on a bass and selling parts of another. I will get to it soon, but my focus has been moving (selling) the parts I have around here.

ProfGumby · #7 11-11-2009, 04:19 PM

The wet sanding has begun! I found a really fantastic product for the task of the inside radiused parts of the body and the rounded edges, I liked it so much I did the whole body with it! I will post up some pics later tonight or tomorrow.

Here is the sand "paper" that I used -

ProfGumby · #8 11-13-2009, 06:57 AM

These pics are after the first wet sand. I will do one more to make sure I get any shiny areas that still might exist then next week I start with more clear coats. Probably 6 more coats on the front and back and 2 more than that on the edges.

ProfGumby · #9 03-08-2010, 07:12 PM

Time to update. I thought I was on my last wet sand and then I went through the color cost trying to get to an indented area next to the control cavity. (Sorry, no pics) and I also had a few small runs along the bottom of the body between the jack hole and the bottom string button hole.

So a few blasts of color over the sand trough and some careful but generous wet sanding later, I restarted clear coating. I was able to get the clear coats to a thick luster by basically doing 3 or 4 thin coats over the period of an hour. Then let the body sit overnight and do it again.

So the body is home now and gonna hang for the rest of the month at least. I will not polish and wax it until the finish stops stinking of paint. It took the headstock about a month for this to happen.

Since it is Krylon, and several here have mentioned soft finish results, I am waiting a good long time for the paint to totally cure. Similar to what one does with nitro paint.

A good friend of mine cautioned that this type of paint needs a long time to truly cure. He has made a living painting cars and cycles and guitar bodies, so who am I to argue with him?

I will post a new pic or two soon.

This has been a good learning experience for me and I have learned a few things specific to guitar and bass bodies. First, I have refined how I hang the strap in the neck pocket. Not one single screw point like in the pics above. It flops around too much. I used screws bigger than the existing neck bolt holes and picked up the two holes on the Low E side of the pocket.

I relearned not to wet sand like a drunk gorilla and take your time with the process. I relearned how I used to spray finish coats with proper equipment. And made it work with a rattle can. I also learned that even when taking your time with a rattle can, they like to sputter and spit if you are not on top of your technique and like wasting a lot of paint by getting the spray going good off the body. Then move the paint across the body and stop the spray after well off the body.

I learned not to bounce the bottom rim of the can off the body on the 3rd cleat coat. Unless you sand down to primer and restart, that will be there forever. (I didn't feel like starting over, so I didn't.

One other thing I am learning is those 3m sheets I have to wet sand are fine for doing the edges and the flat parts of the body (with a block behind them) but they lose their grit entirely too fast. So next time, I will use them on the radius areas only and regular old wet sand paper on the flat spots.

And lastly, taking your time is most important. Don't rush the job.

62bass · #10 03-09-2010, 01:21 AM

Nice job. It's going to finish up just fine.

I've been trying out that Sandblaster stuff lately too. It's nice to work with and great on rounded areas but I agree-it dulls too fast. That can get expensive. I've also used those thin sanding sponges made by Glit. They work quite well and can be rinsed out and re-used a couple times. But limited selection of grits.

ProfGumby · #11 03-12-2010, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 62bass

Nice job. It's going to finish up just fine.

I've been trying out that Sandblaster stuff lately too. It's nice to work with and great on rounded areas but I agree-it dulls too fast. That can get expensive. I've also used those thin sanding sponges made by Glit. They work quite well and can be rinsed out and re-used a couple times. But limited selection of grits.

Most all of the sponges I have seen round here have grits far to large for a wet sand job. I did use a fine sponge when removing the runs on the bottom of the body by the strap button though...

ProfGumby · #12 03-15-2010, 06:30 PM

Couple of pics of the "curing" body. And you can see where I dinged the body with the bottom of the paint can, right at the arm relief. I plan to cover that up with a racing stripe similar to the kind Fender uses on some guitars.

Okay, a couple of cruddy pics....what I cannot understand is why they can't make a floggin digital camera that can take a picture that is worth a damn indoors!! they all stink! I had a 500 dollar POS and it took worse pics than this 100 dollar Nikon! But then the Nikon aint that great either!

ProfGumby · #13 05-26-2010, 07:39 PM

Brief update. the body was taking forever to cure. It still smelled of wet paint.

So taking a clue from a guy I know who repaints cycles, I started leaving the guitar out in the sun the last few days. He claimed the UV more or less baked the paint like in a UV booth.

So far this seems to be working nicely. I should be able to polish and wax the body soon enough.

I am thinking now that I either did not let the paint dry enough between coats or the coats were too thick. My friend thinks the paint could be reacting with the primer not being the same brand but then if that were the case the issue should have happened between the primer and color coats, not the color and top coats as they are the same type of paint, from the same manufacturer and the clear coat they recommend for the color coat I used.

Soon, real soon.