Definitely looks a little better. Hard to tell what the gloss is coming from. If you're seeing the decal itself there may not be any recourse. The bag helps get a satin surface consistent without scratches. If it is only at certain angles I think I'd be ok with the way it looks now.
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Help! Clear polyurethane spray can is beading on bare maple
- Thread starter Stagelab
- Start date
Since you can still see the outline of the decal, I'd say you don't have enough (or thick enough) coats of clear on there yet. Here is the headstock of a bass I put together last year to give you an idea of what it should look like:
It's not at an angle but trust me that you can't see the outlines easily. It wound up with six fairly thick coats of clear on it.
How much wet sanding did you do after applying the 6 coats and with which grits? I put on more coats though maybe not as thick as yours. Had a lot of orange peel so I had to sand a lot across the whole face of the headstock. I’m using water based poly and orange peel seems inevitable no matter my spray technique.
What's the green stuff?
Last edited:
I sanded with increasingly finer grits after each coat, starting with 400 (800-1000-2000 etc).
The green (turquoise) color on the headstock was a result of trying to match the body color with wood dye. It was close but not perfect, so being OCD I sanded it back down and what you see is what was left. I like it as it looks like shallow water over sand, and the theme of my bass is the beach. So a happy accident!
Happy accidents are the best.
I only wet sanded after applying a lot of coats. First time I’m hearing about sanding after each one. Maybe that’s the secret sauce I’m missing.
If you had to estimate, how much more did you sand over the decal vs the rest of the headstock?
Maybe I’ll put more time into it. Not sure yet. I’ve found this process really tedious.
It was light sanding over the entire headstock. It doesn't take much work to level the clear out to prepare for the next coat.
Sharing in case it helps anyone else.
Tried applying a third decal with Rustoleum 2x clear gloss this time. Applied 14 coats progressively thicker starting very thin. Wet sanded 1200 and 1500.
No orange peel and a nice result without gloss residue. Feels good to get it right and find a product that works.
It smells a lot so I dried the neck outside for 5 days before sanding.
Tried applying a third decal with Rustoleum 2x clear gloss this time. Applied 14 coats progressively thicker starting very thin. Wet sanded 1200 and 1500.
No orange peel and a nice result without gloss residue. Feels good to get it right and find a product that works.
It smells a lot so I dried the neck outside for 5 days before sanding.
