Help Refinishing Wrecked Vintage Bass

[Obese Chess]

Howdy LC!

In a recent move, I discovered an old bass I had relegated to the dustbin of history that I'd like to try another crack at reviving. I got it in a trade with another member on here in 2009. It's an 80's Yamaha BB, I believe a BB 2000. When I received it, it had been set up like Billy Sheehan's bass with a big "woofer" pickup by the neck. Sounded really cool, mostly, but it had a truly horrid, yellowed, red and gold sparkle finish that was thick and plasticky. It felt like the wood just wasn't really breathing. Very little resonance. I figured I was pretty handy, so I tried to scuff it up and paint over it - after I tried this, the plasticky red finish began to flake off, taking my new paint with it. So I sanded it off. Then I sanded off the rest of the red finish. Beneath that was blue paint. So I sanded that off. Beneath that was black paint. so I sanded that off. We are now counting four thick coats of paint. No wonder the sound was a little muted!

So beneath that was probably the worst arts and crafts project I had ever seen - someone had burned or engraved lots of little curlie-q's, asterisks, stars and hearts into the bare wood.

Now, here's the thing - if I had a garage or a wood shop or something, I could just keep sanding this down and find a DIY to give this a new coat of paint and fix it up into a beautiful vintage workhorse. The neck is straight and fast, and with some new pickups I bet it would really scream. But I don't have a garage or a wood shop - I live in a 700 square foot apartment in the middle of the city with a sleepy old cat.

So, given that setup, how would you go about re-finishing this bass? Is there a way to set up some sort of outdoor paint booth on my porch? Can I temporarily repurpose my shower? Surely people in small urban spaces have done more involved tasks than this, and I am not looking to make a significant financial investment into this by having a professional do it.

Alternatively, if there is anyone in the Portland, OR area who would like to give me a hand with this, I would be willing to compensate them for their time and expertise - I am a fast learner, fully vaccinated, and have met many TB'ers at get-togethers in the past, all of whom would hopefully vouch for me being charming.

Pictures of the bass, such as it is, will follow when I get home from work. I have long since lost the electronics and most of the hardware, but the electronics weren't factory anyway so no big loss there.

 

[TerribleTim68]

I do a lot of swirl paint refinish projects, so I'll chime in on what I know and what I do. Take it for what it is, I'm no pro finisher, but I have sold a few.

It all depends on your desired finish goals. If you are going solid color, I'd just sand it down so it's "flat and level", and if the burned in curly-ques are actually burned "into" the wood (as in, you can feel them) don't be afraid to fill them and sand that flat. Bondo works fine, or wood filler, whatever you like. I prefer wood filler because it is....wood you're working with after all. If your desired goal is a transparent finish, you're in for a long haul, and that may not even be achievable. But the basic deal is, in that case, you'd need to sand and sand and sand until the surface is smooth wood with no burn marks visible or detectable.

As for "paint booth", yeah..not here bro. I have done clear coats on my swirl finishes standing on my back porch. I just spray it on and then put it in my "stand" to dry. You could certainly build a spray booth out of cardboard if you got a big enough Amazon box. But I don't.

Once you got it "painted", I just wet sand the clear smooth using the typical wet sanding methods. I then "polish" with a regular car wax, like Mequiars or Turtle Wax, and my drill with a buffing wheel chucked up. Nothing fancy man, it can be done if you're willing to do the work. But also, make sure your expectations are properly adjusted and your end game is set.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Oh, just because, here's a shot of a swirl refinish I did on my back porch. I just hold the "stand" in my hand and spray with my other hand....

But that gives you an idea of how I hold it to spray the clear, and what may be achievable literally on your porch.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I live in a 700 square foot apartment in the middle of the city with a sleepy old cat.

Apartments are a place where using "old tools" shine, as they don't take much space and they mostly make manageable shavings you can clean up after working at your kitchen table or coffee table (as workbench), rather than throwing dust everywhere and annoying the neighbors (and cat) with noise. In this case, scrapers and perhaps a block plane and/or spokeshave or two - or just scrapers. Of course, if you've already sanded off THAT much paint, sanding off some wood should be a piece of cake by comparison.

As for the finish, the UV-lamp-or-UV-from-sunlight-cured SolarRes (spelling may be off - SolarRez?) products have had some positive reviews here if you get some sun on that balcony. Oil & Wax work if you like the feel of wood and are going to peel off all the woodburned "art" and go naked wood. Much depends on what you are going for, and there's usually more than one way to get there.

 

[mrperkolator]

@TerribleTim68, what is your process for swirl? are you able to bring it up to a high gloss shine afterwards?

 

[TerribleTim68]

@TerribleTim68, what is your process for swirl? are you able to bring it up to a high gloss shine afterwards?

So basically, after I put the swirl on it, I bury it in 2K poly clear coat -

I can order that from the Amazonians, but you might be able to buy it locally from an auto parts store. I will put an entire can on it, because once you crack the "seal" it'll harden in the can anyways so you aren't gonna save half a can for a future project, so I just use it all. From there -

...
Once you got it "painted", I just wet sand the clear smooth using the typical wet sanding methods. I then "polish" with a regular car wax, like Mequiar's or Turtle Wax, and my drill with a buffing wheel chucked up. Nothing fancy man, it can be done if you're willing to do the work. ...

I'll start with wet sanding at 800grit, work my way up through 2000grit and then go to the buffer with some sort of automotive buffing compound. There's nothing that I can find that makes it "automotive", it's just buffing compound, don't get hung up on "Mequiar's is made for cars" or whatever, it's just buffing compound.
In my opinion, you can get a pretty high gloss finish with this method. Is it gonna be as good as a factory sprayed finish in a professional paint booth would be? Probably not. But I'm happy with my results and I've sold a couple now.

I will say, I recently started woodturning and now I have an actual buffing wheel (actually two) for the lathe so my buffing process is gonna change on the next one to an actual 12" buffing wheel and real compound, only because I now own that.

 

[Obese Chess]

Oof, busy few weeks and totally forgot about this thread. Thanks for the informative bump!