Yeah you might be in luck. I've used the 'Halfords' brand filler primer over here in Scotland. It works well enough, but it isn't a miracle worker and it doesn't make up for a half-assed sanding job. Ask me how I know!
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Musicman USA Sub refinish- Questions
- Thread starter Chaser1
- Start date
Yeah you might be in luck. I've used the 'Halfords' brand filler primer over here in Scotland. It works well enough, but it isn't a miracle worker and it doesn't make up for a half-assed sanding job. Ask me how I know!
I managed to get some work done and I am about 95% finished with my contours. They look like turned out really well, I still have a bit of contouring left and just general smoothing but I think it looks and feels great. I flowed a bit more superglue into any small gaps I found and sanded them in again and the lines look perfect now.
Tomorrow my plan is to finish my shaping and get everything smooth and perfect and then start going up in sand paper grits to get a nice smooth finish prior to my base coat. I still have some of that gross undercoat in the bottom of the horns which I will need to sand out which will probably be time consuming as that stuff is terrible. So far going well and excited to start painting.
I attached some pictures from earlier, I have since taken a bit more material to get them closer to the fender curves,
Was about to say much the same... files and rasps are what I'd use there, with sanding more to the end of the process, for smoothing and details.
The files I use would sneer at that undercoat.
The files I use would sneer at that undercoat.
A little half round bastard file might be quicker to clean up the cutaways and cut down on sanding.
Was about to say much the same... files and rasps are what I'd use there, with sanding more to the end of the process, for smoothing and details.
The files I use would sneer at that undercoat.
I used my rasp file on it and that stuff is nasty, just gummed up the file. I have gotten through most of it and will need to clean it up with sand paper to get it perfectly smooth.
With the green, it is a flat green colour, not sure how I want to go. Do I want to aim for a more satin finish on my clear or go for a gloss. I got prob a 5-6 days to think about what I want to do.
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I have my first 6 base coats on and am starting to see minor imperfections in the wood, stuff that was hard to see or feel when the wood was bare. Any suggestions of what to do with these? Will the paint and clear coats smoothen these out or should I use some sort of filler? They look like little tool indentations, probably from when the body was stripped. I can live with them if need be, but would like to get as close to a perfect finish as I can. Any suggestions?
Any imperfections will typically telegraph forward into the final coats - you basically need to block sand it perfectly level, drop fill any of the problems/imperfections/dents and then sand them perfectly smooth. After that you can hit it with primer again and then address any other little things that rear their heads. This is typically 2-3 times even with a scratch build to get things flawless.
^^^ What he said. Anything in the primer will show in the paint. I’ve been through that with spray cans, it can be a long journey.
It's pretty much been said- The end result is all in the preparation. This is where patience and attention to detail will lead to an immaculate finish.
Glad it's coming along!
Glad it's coming along!
Thanks for the advice, I am going to block sand it back maybe a layer or two and see if I can smooth out any of the imperfections in the finish, if there is anything left I will use some filler to try to even it out.
I'm assuming you're aware of the "Dargie Delight" limited editions that Music Man put out as part of their Ball Family Reserve scheme.
Olive green sparkle, with Martini glass fret markers.
Probably a useful reference point.
That Dargie delight is sweet, maybe a little more lime than I am looking. I started sanding back the layers and noticed that in the light I have lots of little grain marks, and tool marks. I don’t think I was careful enough when handing and on the back they are everywhere. I have elected to knock the finish back to the bare wood and start again. This time I am going to make sure the body is 100% perfect before spraying. I kinda naively thought that the paint would flow into some of these imperfections and fix them, but that’s not the case. I think I will use a grain filler after I am done getting everything sander. One upside of starting fresh is my spraying technique has improved dramatically, so next time I shouldn’t have to deal with the runs I got the first time around.
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If you are using a compressor and gun, depending on the finish you use, it can fill some amount of grain or marks. The Varathane finish from the water based finish thread, for example, won’t fill, say, ash without a lot of coats but I’ve used it on fine pored mahogany or something similar and it has filled the pores adequately in 6-8 coats with sanding back. Almost anything out of an aerosol can won’t fill much.
I think they've done 3 different runs over the years - the original was pretty "key lime pie" under some lighting conditions.
The current one, for the Stingray Specials, looks much closer to your Olive Drab examples (maybe some army surplus store has a supply of Huey / Jeep paint).
Good luck.
