Painting my pickguard

[Flipsnake]

Tomorrow, I'm going to paint the boring white pickguard on my black Squier P. Because I'm too poor to buy a delicious Tortoise-shell PG. And I'm not even sure if a Fender PG will fit on the Squier.
Here's a couple of mockups:

I'm planning to do the first red tiger-stripe. Although the orange is looking tasty too.
So Krylon would be good enough for this...right?
If it is, how many coats of the stuff should I apply?

And about the last 3 designs, the ones with letters is taken from the Kryptos Sculpture in the CIA headquarters. It apparently contains a coded message that has yet to be cracked.
And the last is the legendary Big Boss, from the Metal Gear Solid videogame series. A single-eyed badass who single-handedly takes down entire fortresses full of tough mofos and giant robots.

 

[5string5fingers]

I'm simple and like the plain dark red and the one on the far right looks cool.

 

[pica]

Before you paint your pick-guard, check out Invalid Link Removed their pick-guards are not expensive and they have some cool s***.

 

[EagleMoon]

I've painted several pickguards and they came out okay. Krylon is all right, but Rustoleum seems to make a better product, IMO. I did a couple of pickguards with their Hammered Metal finish and it came out really well.

 

[Flipsnake]

Well, I spray-painted it yesterday.

Here it is slapped onto the body.

I used Krylon Fusion spraypaint and according to the can, it takes 7 days to become "chip resistant".
I assume that's the total curing period. Also says that coats should be applied within 24 hours of the last application, or 7 days after it.
For anyone with experience: How long does it take for the smell to go away? Or at least become faint?

 

[CultofJay]

Are you going to topcoat and wet sand it too? It's more time and work, but the results can be nice. These are two of the first guards I did for fun. The crazy-a$$ p bass guard is mostly acrylic paint with a waterslide and the "crashocaster" guard is a mix of krylon and acrylic. You can see the topcoat more on the strat pg.

 

[Flipsnake]

I'm liking the matte surface, and I want to put the PG back on the bass ASAP, so I'm skipping out on the sanding/topcoat.
And how soon after the paint job did you put your Strat's PG back on the guitar?

 

[CultofJay]

how soon after the paint job did you put your Strat's PG back on the guitar?

It wasn't long. Just let it dry somewhere with airflow for 24 hrs and you should be fine.

 

[Flipsnake]

Well, I'll wait 'till tomorrow (or maybe even a couple days later) to put it back on.
It's the smell that I don't like, and I'm willing to wait until it's at a minimum.
In the meantime, I whipped this beauty up from some cereal box card:

Just beautiful! It's got me thinking about a Jazz-like PG setup...with the metal where the knobs are.
If I get my hands on some aluminum sheets, I may just do that for this bass!

 

[KayXero]

I about to try this over the weekend on my SX PJ bass. Does anyone else have more any info on Krylon vs Rustoleum?

 

[tkcthulu]

BIG BOSS

 

[BeauZooka]

Here is an off the wall idea. On my rick I used fingernail polish to paint my pickguard. It's hard as nails and it has weathered 30 years of abuse so far. I used a few different colors of the cheapest nail polish that I could find and just drizzled it on until it covered the whole thing. here it is:

 

[dogbluedrummer]

Krylon Fusion is specially designed for plastic. Otherwise, use Rustoleum hammered and a clear topcoat. Either way, scuff it up with scotchbrite before painting.

I used Rustoleum.

 

[KayXero]

Here is an off the wall idea. On my rick I used fingernail polish to paint my pickguard. It's hard as nails and it has weathered 30 years of abuse so far. I used a few different colors of the cheapest nail polish that I could find and just drizzled it on until it covered the whole thing. here it is:

youre lying...you must be....THATS fingernail polished?....im baffled by the beauty....let alone the 30 years its held up.

Could you describe any prepping or finishing you had to do?

Touch ups over the years at all?

brand of polish used ?

Krylon Fusion is specially designed for plastic. Otherwise, use Rustoleum hammered and a clear topcoat. Either way, scuff it up with scotchbrite before painting.

I used Rustoleum.

Nice work....how long has the job held up?

And if I go krylon....outside of scruffing it up with the scotch pad...what other prepping or finishing did you yourself do?

 

[UnfortunateTony]

No advice but I can't wait to see how it turns out!

And fyi: Metal Gear Solid rocks!

 

[Blacksack]

best advice i can give comes through doing airbrush work on plastic bike parts and through advice given to me by a pro painter

1st off you need to flat down your plastic
get some rubber gloves and some fine sandpaper (800 grit should do it)
now then put a little water in a backet with your wet and dry 800 grit and add a little washing up liquid this will stop the paper beading up and will also help degrease to pickguard
next flat down the whole surface untill the shine is gone and rinse clean

once dried get yourself some plastic primer (you can get it in a spray can from most paint factors and suppliers)
undercoat your pickguard (3 coats should be plenty remember put it on thin and in layers dont try to cover in one)

once dry give it a light rub down with the 800's and apply your colour

 

[Asyme]

Here is an off the wall idea. On my rick I used fingernail polish to paint my pickguard. It's hard as nails and it has weathered 30 years of abuse so far. I used a few different colors of the cheapest nail polish that I could find and just drizzled it on until it covered the whole thing. here it is:

That's brilliant. I like that you used the cheapest stuff posible. NICE.

 

[dogbluedrummer]

I sanded off all the original paint with scotch brite, then smoothed it out with a finer grade. Then put on 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, and 2 clear top coats.

I did this about a year ago and it still looks as good as day one. I only play with my fingers, no picks.

 

[BeauZooka]

youre lying...you must be....THATS fingernail polished?....im baffled by the beauty....let alone the 30 years its held up.

Could you describe any prepping or finishing you had to do?

Touch ups over the years at all?

brand of polish used ?

Thanks Asyme and KayXero.
I actually didn't do any prepping besides taking the pickguard off the bass. If I was to do it again I would probably go over the guard briefly with a really light sandpaper first.
I there is no clearcoat or anything on it either. Just the nailpolish. Wet-N-Wild was the brand I think.
No touch ups have been needed either, and I never babied the bass. I play with a pick. It's got alot of dings in other places on the bass. Its a '77 4001.
I friend of mine got the same bass and color as mine and I wanted to make mine look different. The pickguard was a bright white that didn't match the binding, which had yellowed a little. So I used Cream, Blue and Black nail polish. The hard part was that I did the same thing to the truss rod cover, which has raised a Rickenbacker logo. I had to get the nailpolish around the logo and still keep it legible. I'll take a pic of that later and post it.
Nowadays nailpolish colors are endless. Neon, glitter or any color you want. Mix em too.
Funny thing is I can't remember how I thought of the idea in the first place. Have fun.

 

[BASSATTACK]

It's 20 bucks. If you really want tort, just save up for it!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ELECTRIC-BASS-G...Accessories&hash=item335d4ca54e#ht_1114wt_925