Man, I would not try to recolor that bass. It is very unlikley you will be pleased with the result. Try to purchase a used body if you must. You may be able to sell the original if you want. (personally I would just play it as is.)
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Painting a Natural Finish Squier VM?
- Thread starter Pauly McCartney
- Start date
You can do it. If it had a super cool grain I wouldn't but the maple bodies on the VM's are kinda bland. Easiest to paint over the poly. Do some googling and you'll find videos and instructions. That goes for just about everything.
This is quite lovely. Thank you @J Wilson. I'll definitely follow your guide if I can just muster the courage to begin. It's a fragile thing, you know- a first bass and all.
Because it works.
The prep is 80% of the labor, minimally.
If you are just painting, you are better off not stripping it but sealing it first, then prime, then paint, clearcoat if necessary. No sealing of the wood means the grain will pop through in an uneven way.
You will also learn to final wet sand with 2000 grit paper, and some of the smaller number/heavier grits.
Read a little on the subject. You'll be fine.
If you paint over the poly, you can always strip it back to the original finish with goof off paint stripper - it won't even dull polyester in my experience, but will melt the spray paint right off. It'll also look cool as the spray paint wears away (which it definitely will), revealing the original finish underneath. I've had good results with spray painting basses, I chose to make a paint booth out of cheap sheet plastic and a box fan to keep dust away and direct overspray. One mistake I've made is not cleaning properly between coats when using 0000 steel wool.. those tiny little pieces of steel suck in the next coat, end up having to sand it back down and negating that coat. That said an air compressor works well to remove steel wool and dust/paint. Hope you have another bass to play in the meantime because this process takes a while, one day per coat at least. You could also buy another beater bass and leave your first one alone. For example, I found a (very) crappy old Biscayne bass for $20, stripped the paint and pulled the frets, filled the slots, now it's hanging in my garage for the paint to dry and once it's set up no one will recognize what a craptastic bass it once was or that the body is plywood, and my only risk was $20 and my own time. If you have patience and decent tactile skills, you'll have good results, but if you rush or allow yourself to get frustrated with your first efforts then it might not be as positive an experience. My $.02
I would strip completely bare and use wood dye, and rub each coat on.I am very much a novice at this but I did one that came out pretty good
+1 on the guitar reranch. They are generous sized cans of real nitro lacquer colour matched to Fender colours for reasonable prices. They won't ship outside the US, otherwise I'd have about 20 cans of the stuff. Whether you can spray nitro over that finish is not something I know. You might have to lay down some shellac based primer like white BIN's first ( probably should anyway).
What a great set of diy instructions. After reading this I now feel like painting something...
I can give lots of reasons why I wouldn't paint 'My' Natural body guitar but goodluck if you choose to.
I should add to my previous post, be sure to use the correct primer before your color goes on. Someone else mentioned primer as well and is totally correct. You need to prime it, then sand the primer smooth.
I have used this paint on a motorcycle helmet before and it is pretty cool if you want bold flake. Lil' Daddy Roth Metal Flake
I have used this paint on a motorcycle helmet before and it is pretty cool if you want bold flake. Lil' Daddy Roth Metal Flake
It's not like it's a one-off custom, or even a US Fender or something. Go nuts, you can always start over if you screw it up. That said, you should know that just roughing the surface and shooting away almost definitely won't give you a satisfactory result.
If you know anyone who does auto body work, they should be able to put a damn fine finish on it, whatever color you wish, at a fairly reasonable price. That said: that's pretty good looking grain, have you thought about stripping the existing finish and maybe applying some sort of oil/stain type finish? That can be achieved with minimal tools in any (WELL-VENTILATED!!!) room for a few bucks. Has to be bare wood first, though.
If you know anyone who does auto body work, they should be able to put a damn fine finish on it, whatever color you wish, at a fairly reasonable price. That said: that's pretty good looking grain, have you thought about stripping the existing finish and maybe applying some sort of oil/stain type finish? That can be achieved with minimal tools in any (WELL-VENTILATED!!!) room for a few bucks. Has to be bare wood first, though.
I agree completely, now that I think about it. I'll bet you could trade for a pro-finished body. If getting your hands dirty is your thang, though, it can be done with a bit of knowledge, patience, and understanding that you might have to start over.
^this, to a 'tee', is exactly how I painted the only bass body I ever tried my hand at. For the booth I used my laundry room and a couple tarps with a HEPA filter to make it positive pressure (no potential airborne stuff to worry about). It was an old Hondo P that my roommate got for like a stick of gum. I made a diamondplate pickguard for it, painted it flat black, and had a hot-rodder buddy pinstripe it. I gave it to said roommate after I put a 1/4-lb'er and new electronics in it because (at the time) I was totally anti-P bass. I wish I had it now, silly as it was.
'This' was referring to the Boa's post, not sure why it didn't show the quote.
Hopkins
Commercial User
No, you do not need to sand off the current finish, in fact I would highly recommend against it. What you do need to do is to sand the finish with 400-600 grit until the gloss is removed, so your new finish has something to bite into.
Its as sturdy as anything else.
It depends on what finish you use, most of your time will be spent waiting for it to dry.
Some rattle can paints are perfectly fine, some of them are complete junk that will never fully harden.
The more time you spend on your prep work, the better your finish will be. Tack cloths are your friend, wipe the body down with a tack cloth to remove any dust before each coat. Invest in the best spray paint you can find. I personally recommend Spraymax. Its expensive, but its automotive quality paint in a rattle can, and the clear is a 2k catalyzed finish. Just be warned that once its mixed it has about a 12 hour pot life, so you will need two cans for two coats of clear, and you will have some wasted finish.
Hopkins
Commercial User
Not everyones cup of tea but I lurve my purple funk machine 
VM is a great platform to express yourself and do it at a reasonable price. I've toyed with the idea of painting mine as well so this thread is perfect for me to glean information from the talented TB luthiers.
VM is a great platform to express yourself and do it at a reasonable price. I've toyed with the idea of painting mine as well so this thread is perfect for me to glean information from the talented TB luthiers. 
