Musicman USA Sub refinish- Questions

[Chaser1]

Alright, I am back to square one. I have sanded off all the primer and then sanded the body starting at 80 then 120, 220 and 320 damping the grain and sanding to get the best possible finish. There are no tool marks, no grain marks, not one rough spot, this body is perfectly prepped and ready for primer. I am glad I sanded it back because my finish will be so much better this time and at the end of the day I will be happier with the overall finish. Tomorrow I will put on my first coats of sandable primer. Here we go, the right way this time. This has been a learning process and actually really fun, I am super excited to see the finished product, but my early mistakes have confirmed that it is key to take your time and do things thoroughly and correctly.

 

[Beej]

Aaaaannnnnnnddddddd....the addiction takes hold...

Nice work!

 

[Chaser1]

I am now done my second day of priming. I began by doing a 600grit wetsand of the previous days work and my finish is smooth as can be. I sprayed 4 light coats tonight all 10 minutes apart. I noticed as I was spraying that the pesky lines were showing up where the body separated. They are less than a sheet of paper thin maybe half a sheet and only in a few spots on one side (you can see in the image of the front if you zoom in). I grabbed some spackle and worked it into the cracks. They are so minuscule but I want the finish perfect. Tomorrow I will wet sand again with 600 and do another 3-4 coats. I am avoiding the pitfalls of last time and doing light coats, so far I have no drips or imperfections! I plan on priming tomorrow and possibly Friday, then I am away for the weekend. Sunday I will wet sand and Monday I will start with the colour.

 

[Rody]

View attachment 3480240 View attachment 3480241 I am now done my second day of priming. I began by doing a 600grit wetsand of the previous days work and my finish is smooth as can be. I sprayed 4 light coats tonight all 10 minutes apart. I noticed as I was spraying that the pesky lines were showing up where the body separated. They are less than a sheet of paper thin maybe half a sheet and only in a few spots on one side (you can see in the image of the front if you zoom in). I grabbed some spackle and worked it into the cracks. They are so minuscule but I want the finish perfect. Tomorrow I will wet sand again with 600 and do another 3-4 coats. I am avoiding the pitfalls of last time and doing light coats, so far I have no drips or imperfections! I plan on priming tomorrow and possibly Friday, then I am away for the weekend. Sunday I will wet sand and Monday I will start with the colour.

One tip to get imperfections to pop during prep is to put on a white/light primer, and then mist over that with black. Sand off the black with a (semi) rigid block and fine grit paper (wet) and all imperfections will show because the block doesn't reach down into the dimples and cracks... Rinse and repeat.

 

[Chaser1]

My final coats are done and wet sanded I am really pleased with the result. There are no visible or feel able imperfections in the finish. The last two days I wound up doing about 5 light coats in a row spaced 10 min apart, so I think I am at a total of 13 or 14 coats total or two full cans of primer. I switched to white for my final coats as I thought it would be easier when I got to the painting part to be able to see the colour go against white instead of dark grey.

Yesterday I picked up my custom colour from the auto parts place. It is Jungle green metallic. I really like the way it looks. I did a tester on a piece of scrap wood which I attached above. It’s hard to get a good sense of the colour with my camera. It’s a little darker than it shows up in the picture I attached. Well here is my final primed body (taken prior to my wet sand) and ready for paint!

 

[Chaser1]

I figured it would be easiest to see the difference with the new paint if I posted the three in order, my new jungle green metallic which is the bottom pic seems to be right between the top two and a much nicer colour.

 

[Chaser1]

My first coats of colour are now on. I did a 3 coats on Friday and then a few more today. I think I will do probably another 6-8 coats before I am ready to do clear. I think it is looking good so far and after a few more coats.

I was frustrated because there is a spot where you can see the split in the wood, I was super irritated by it until I noticed that it will be under the pick guard!

I am toying with what colour pickguard I am going to go with, I have a black and a white pearloid, but I am thinking a brown tortoiseshell might look cool as well. What do you think?

 

[A Future Pilot]

I really like the white pearloid on that green! It's looking really great!

 

[Chaser1]

My final colour coats are on and I am through 2 cans. The colour looks great. Coverage is solid and overall I am really happy with the result. The metal flake in the paint looks really nice. Next up is going to be my clear coats. I am using duplicolor gloss acrylic lacquer. I have heard mixed things about it, some say it’s great others say it stays sticky. I am hoping with ample dry time it should harden well. I am in an area where the humidity is on the lower side, so that may help me out a bit with getting a hard finish.

 

[Chaser1]

I really like the white pearloid on that green! It's looking really great!

Thanks, I initially was leaning towards the black but every time I see the pic of the green/pearloid I think they look perfect together.

 

[Chaser1]

Alright so, another MAJOR step back, and I have no idea what is happening. I began to spray my clear coat over my finish and I have a few spots where the whole finish just crackled. The majority of it is fine and looks perfect. What is going on??? Anyone’s help would be greatly appreciated, I am guessing that to fix this is going to involve more sanding. Ugh I am so irritated right now. I pre sprayed on a tester to test for any reaction and my tester was perfectly fine. I watched a video on this and long story short the only way to get it to look passable when it has bubbled like this is to sand it back to below the crackling and then start again. There was one on the back of the body that showed up about 20 min after I had sprayed.

 

[Chaser1]

Well this morning after the clear had dried, I knocked it back on the whole body and sanded down past all the crackles in the finish. It’s not as bad as I expected, I still have a pretty decent base of the green underneath so I should only need one extra can of paint. It sucks cause the custom colour was $34 a can. So now I gotta buy one more can to finish it off. I am going to see if I can find clear made by the same company that does the paint to hopefully avoid this in the future. The paint is called Spraymax and it looks like they do a 1k or 2k clear. I haven’t seen it in stores but supposedly i can find it. I hear 2k is the best stuff to use, it dries quickly and very hard, but the cans really only last a day, so if I am going to do multiple coats I would need 2 cans which sell for about $40 a piece. I will see if I can find the 1k clear should be good enough and not cause the same reaction.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Take those photos to the guys who mixed your custom paint.

They may have recommendations for the most suitable clear coat (for both that paint, and for use on a musical instrument).

Who knows, if they sold you the clear coat, they may feel they should cut you a deal on mixing up a new batch of colour, and the correct clear coat.

 

[Chaser1]

Well long time no update. I went back to the paint place and the clear I am using is what they recommend, they had no idea what would have cause the issue. So I knocked back the finish a second time bought another can of colour and sprayed it. Waited close to 48 hours to spray the clear again and decided I would spray in the morning when it would be cooler (my spray area even in the evening is below the max spray temp, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I tried a new clear coat brand that was also recommended and this time it was 99% perfect except for a small wrinkle right at the upper horn about half the size of a dime. I was furious! So as a last ditch effort I tried sanding back just that spot as I didn’t have much paint in my can and try to spot fill it. Sadly this didn’t work and the spot is a darker colour than the rest of the bass so I have now sanded it back again and am back at the drawing board. I am thinking at this point I am going to try my original flat green colour. I did a test run and with the clear on and it shifts the paint to be closer to the colour I originally wanted, maybe a bit lighter but still workable. I don’t want to drop another $40 on a can of the green to be in the same spot. I will take a pic later of my new(old) colour once I have applied it.

 

[Beej]

Weird it would happen again, and how frustrating - might want to evaluate your process near the end, perhaps there is something contaminating the surface? What were you using to clean it before paint?

 

[Chaser1]

Weird it would happen again, and how frustrating - might want to evaluate your process near the end, perhaps there is something contaminating the surface? What were you using to clean it before paint?

It is strange. I have been using a microfibre cloth to polish and remove any dust and such, then right before painting I have been hitting it with a tack cloth to make sure there is no dust left over after the microfibre. That’s the same process I have used all the other paint layers as well.

 

[Gary_M]

It is strange. I have been using a microfibre cloth to polish and remove any dust and such, then right before painting I have been hitting it with a tack cloth to make sure there is no dust left over after the microfibre. That’s the same process I have used all the other paint layers as well.

That may well be your problem. Never, ever, use a tack cloth before shooting a finish. Press too hard and you've just left a gummy adhesive that finish will not stick to. Blow the piece off with compressed air and then wipe with naptha, acetone, or similar... then shoot your finish.

 

[Chaser1]

That may well be your problem. Never, ever, use a tack cloth before shooting a finish. Press too hard and you've just left a gummy adhesive that finish will not stick to. Blow the piece off with compressed air and then wipe with naptha, acetone, or similar... then shoot your finish.

This is very good info and does make perfect sense. I did only lightly wipe with the tack cloth but I very well could have pressed too hard in one of those spots and done that. There is so much conflicting info out there, because another paint thread had said that You should always use a tack cloth to remove any dust as that will mess up your paint.

 

[Chaser1]

Here is my new colour. As I could bare to drop another $40 on a can of paint and be in the same situation I decided to go with my initial colour a flat army green. I have tested it with my clear coat and there was no adverse effects (although there weren’t any with the other paint either), but it does darken up the colour a bit and gives it a richer tone which I like and can be seen in the attached second photo.

 

[Chaser1]

Success, got my first 4 coats of clear on and no wrinkling!! I am really liking the colour especially with the clear on it now. I will do 4 more tomorrow and hopefully a final 4 on Thursday. That should give me a thick enough clear to wet sand and polish. Hopefully by this weekend I can start reassembly.