Painting help for pickguard?

i used car paint and it turned out well

a pink pickguard is not super unique, or weird, just inline with the thinking of the youth today, and Nobody will chastise you for it. We all had our signature ideas at 16, this is yours, own it, and continue on.

As for painting, Easiest way is to remove the PG, sand it with 600 grit paper until completely deglossed. go back and wetsand with 600 using water and a dab of liquid soap mix. Sand in circles with a styrofoam block or wood, or rubber, whatever you can find that is hard and flat. Once Sanded flat, wash off with warm water, and allow to dry overnight.(Yes, plastics have pores that will retain water and they must have proper time to dry fully).
Next go see if you can find "Krylon or Rustoleum for Plastic" rattle can(spray paint). You can usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes. If not, regular spray enamel will work.
Lightly begin to spray the pickguard following the instructions on the can. Spray 3 light coats to fully cover PG(1 heavy coat will not work well on Plastic). Once PG is fully covered, give it 1 more coat, and let sit overnight. Once again wetsand with 600 just to level the paint and scuff the surface. Wash and let dry. Spray 3 more coats, let dry, and you should be good to go. If you want it really smooth and shiny, follow wetsanding regimine to 2000 grit, and polish with rag and wax. you can go to ebay to find a vinyl decal/sticker of the pentagram cheaply.

No no....don't paint the P/G. Dye it. It's easier and comes out much better.

Get Rit Dye in the color you want. Warm up a pan of water to just under the simmer point,add the dye and drop the guard in. Leave it in until you get the color you desire.

If you desire pink, it can be done with a white guard using red dye. Just keep an eye on it while dyeing. Of course if you don't have white guard you'll have to paint it.

Sam Hain said:

No no....don't paint the P/G. Dye it. It's easier and comes out much better.

Get Rit Dye in the color you want. Warm up a pan of water to just under the simmer point,add the dye and drop the guard in. Leave it in until you get the color you desire.

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You are kidding, right?

a lot of work? really? I am sure you could take it to a body shop and have it done for $60 or so, having someone else do it will get expensive.

You'd probably have better luck either buying Invalid Link Removedin the color you want and cutting it out yourself, or buying a Invalid Link Removed one. I'd put my money on buying it already made. You can paint or get a sticker made of the pentagram. I'd bet you could find a [This invalid link has been removed] without having to get one custom made.

Musiclogic said:

a pink pickguard is not super unique, or weird, just inline with the thinking of the youth today, and Nobody will chastise you for it. We all had our signature ideas at 16, this is yours, own it, and continue on.

As for painting, Easiest way is to remove the PG, sand it with 600 grit paper until completely deglossed. go back and wetsand with 600 using water and a dab of liquid soap mix. Sand in circles with a styrofoam block or wood, or rubber, whatever you can find that is hard and flat. Once Sanded flat, wash off with warm water, and allow to dry overnight.(Yes, plastics have pores that will retain water and they must have proper time to dry fully).
Next go see if you can find "Krylon or Rustoleum for Plastic" rattle can(spray paint). You can usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes. If not, regular spray enamel will work.
Lightly begin to spray the pickguard following the instructions on the can. Spray 3 light coats to fully cover PG(1 heavy coat will not work well on Plastic). Once PG is fully covered, give it 1 more coat, and let sit overnight. Once again wetsand with 600 just to level the paint and scuff the surface. Wash and let dry. Spray 3 more coats, let dry, and you should be good to go. If you want it really smooth and shiny, follow wetsanding regimine to 2000 grit, and polish with rag and wax. you can go to ebay to find a vinyl decal/sticker of the pentagram cheaply.

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What he said ^. I've painted several, and this is the way it's done, and don't worry too much about screwing it up, it's easy to just lightly sand it and start again. Also, try interpunk.com for stickers. Oh, and by the way, your question was definitely not stupid......we all learn by asking!

I have yet to see a home painted pickguard that did not look like crap after a few weeks' use.

joeyl said:

I have yet to see a home painted pickguard that did not look like crap after a few weeks' use.

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With a pink pickguard and a pentagram, me thinks this is a punk/rock/thrash/goth band.....a pristine bass looking bass is not necessarily a good thing.

Musiclogic said:

You are kidding, right?

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Nope...Not one bit. I think I may be doing one tommorow. Ill post pictures. In fact I think Im doing a red one so Ill see if I can get it pink for the OP before I get it to the final red.

You could buy a piece of acrylic (lexan), trace your pickguard shape, and cut that out and drill the holes. Bevel the edges by sanding. You can etch your design into the acrylic. Tape out the design you want on the backside and cover everything but what you want to etch. Brush on some etching compound. You can then paint it the desired color on the backside. The paint will never scratch that way and the design will subtly show through.

Musiclogic said:

a pink pickguard is not super unique, or weird, just inline with the thinking of the youth today, and Nobody will chastise you for it. We all had our signature ideas at 16, this is yours, own it, and continue on.

As for painting, Easiest way is to remove the PG, sand it with 600 grit paper until completely deglossed. go back and wetsand with 600 using water and a dab of liquid soap mix. Sand in circles with a styrofoam block or wood, or rubber, whatever you can find that is hard and flat. Once Sanded flat, wash off with warm water, and allow to dry overnight.(Yes, plastics have pores that will retain water and they must have proper time to dry fully).
Next go see if you can find "Krylon or Rustoleum for Plastic" rattle can(spray paint). You can usually find it at Home Depot or Lowes. If not, regular spray enamel will work.
Lightly begin to spray the pickguard following the instructions on the can. Spray 3 light coats to fully cover PG(1 heavy coat will not work well on Plastic). Once PG is fully covered, give it 1 more coat, and let sit overnight. Once again wetsand with 600 just to level the paint and scuff the surface. Wash and let dry. Spray 3 more coats, let dry, and you should be good to go. If you want it really smooth and shiny, follow wetsanding regimine to 2000 grit, and polish with rag and wax. you can go to ebay to find a vinyl decal/sticker of the pentagram cheaply.

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^
What he said | x 2.

Along with the good advice you've gotten so far, just one more thing - If it's a dark colored pickguard (black especially)you might want to consider first applying at least one coat of white primer paint, then applying the pink color coat(s). That way, the pink will come out much brighter, and you won't need as many coats, and the fewer the coats, the better, IMO.

joeyl said:

I have yet to see a home painted pickguard that did not look like crap after a few weeks' use.

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I think I can help prevent this. I've only done one pickguard, but I've painted a number of plastic automotive pieces. Musiclogic's advice is absolutely top-notch, but I'd stray from his method after the prep work - sanding, wet-sanding, and then drying thoroughly. From there, my recommendations are below. First, however, it's important to consider your environment. Fully enclosed, dry, warm, and dust-free are musts. Also, if you can hang the pickguard (coat hanger or other metal wire, routed through one of the mounting holes is perfect) vertically, you'll get much better results. Mix ratios with rattle cans are iffy at best, and trying to effectively spray with the can facing down is the first part of the recipe for bad results. Also, if you've got halogen lights, a space heater, or any other means of applying fairly direct heat, you can both speed up the process and shrink the curing time between coats.

Here are the materials I'd recommend:

- Painter's tape. 3M is great, but cheaper stuff will be fine too.
- Adhesion Promotor. Bulldog makes one that is both cheap and good.
- Automotive primer. Duplicolor is my favorite, but other brands are fine too.
- Automotive (poly) color. Try to match brands for the primer and color.
- Automotive clear. Ditto on the matching. Use this if you're after a very glossy look. It'll also protect the color coat a bit for more durability.
- Meguiar's Scratch-X or other mild abrasive polish.
- Meguiar's NXT or other automotive polymer sealant/wax.
- Microfiber towels.

And here's the process I'd use:

- Tape off the back of the guard completely. You don't want it to end up being any thicker than necessary, and taping off the mounting holes will make it very easy to remove any excess paint.

- Apply two light coats of the adhesion promoter. You can generally accomplish this in 10 minutes or so.

- Apply two-three light coats of the primer. Hit the guard with the space heater or halogens for 30-45 minutes.

- Apply three light coats of color. I'd wait 10-15 minutes between coats, and then hit the guard with the heat for 60 minutes.

At this point, let the guard rest overnight. You'll be anxious to proceed, but if you really want the guard to look good, wait.

If the color and gloss are as you'd like, you're done painting. If not...

- Apply two-three light coats of clear, using the same directions as above. Hit with heat for 60 minutes, and let it sit overnight.

- Using an edge of the MF towel, apply the Scratch-X to the guard. You'll want to work it in a bit so the abrasives break down completely, but do this more with speed than with pressure. It'll still take awhile...be patient and the results will be worth it. Once you're done, the finish should be very smooth and free of scratches.

- Apply a coat of NXT for protection.

- Pull the tape, clean the mounting holes, and toss it on the bass.

Good luck!

Thats nice of you Vroom for going into such detail but man thats a lot of work...I imagine that stuff cost some big scratch too. I found out that RIT makes a Invalid Link Removed that would work for the OP. If its not Pink enough he could add a little red Dye.

I did the Dye job this morning on my Strats PG. I stopped early to see if I could get pink. I did but, though using the right color would come out better than mine. Heres the pic tutorial....

I started by taking off the pickguard and knobs. This is an old beat up guard from my Strat



Get a big enough pan to hold the PG. Also a flat pan is better to keep the PG from warping from the warm water. Notice the time.



Pour a little Dye in.



5 mins later your done...now just letting the dye work.



Check on it...



Heres a shade of Pink after 20 mins. In the 2nd pic you can see a white stripe. This was a piece of scocth tape I put on. If the OP wants a Pentagram a vinyl decal shaped like one will mask off the dye and leave a pentagram of white. I did this before in the shape of a Kokopelli on a chicks guitar one time and it looked pissa. The scotch tape doesnt seal very well and let some dye in but you get the point.



The final product is soaking in the dye right now because I was it a deep red. Ill post pics up later. BTW..it took me longer and more work to do this post than it took me to do the dye job. Total cost was $5.99 for the dye.

Oh and heres another one I did. It came out flawless. Factory looking. The pics are taken on a phone so the quality is not very good.

One other thing...the dye penetrates the plastic so scratches don't show...

that is really cool, how long does it last?

Musiclogic said:

that is really cool, how long does it last?

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Thanks....

My guess is it would last forever. The dye seeps into the plastic.

I'm trying to figure out a way to do a tie dye pattern. So far all it looks like is a painters pallet. Still pretty cool though.