Partial refinish - does such a thing exist?

[doran.dragic]

I'm having a modifying one of my Warmoth basses. It's being converted to headless.

The neck (maple) is finished in clear satin nitro finish and the body (swamp ash) colour is fiesta red. No idea what type of finish this is, could it be poly?

So by cutting off the headstock I'm going to be exposing some of the end grain. How should I finish this? I don't care how it looks and I'm not going to be touching it anyway, I just want to protect the wood a bit. Can I simply use a gun stock oil or would this be dangerous if it get's in touch with the part of the neck that's finished with nitro?

Same question with the body. There will be some wood routed out so that the hardware can sit deep enough and so that I have access to the tuners. Again, I don't care if the colour doesn't match the body colour because nobody is going to see it anyway. Can I use some sort of oil finish? Does a grain filler need to be used?

 

[Beej]

A great many questions may be answered around a fretless conversion in this thread. @Reedt2000 is active here and I'm sure will be happy to share. Off with its head! 6-string headless conversion/parts build

Regarding nitro on the neck, nitro is very easily seamlessly blended as it burns into the old finish and builds on it.

 

[Reedt2000]

With some trial and error I managed to blend new poly over matching stain and get it cut and buffed so it's pretty seamless. If it's a Warmouth body they can probably tell you what it was finished with. I'd think a solid color should work out well provided you get a good color match. Lay it down, thick clear over it, cut it back and polish to blend into the original.

 

[Beej]

With some trial and error I managed to blend new poly over matching stain and get it cut and buffed so it's pretty seamless. If it's a Warmouth body they can probably tell you what it was finished with. I'd think a solid color should work out well provided you get a good color match. Lay it down, thick clear over it, cut it back and polish to blend into the original.

And in the end it turned out brilliantly. Plus it was a fun ride.

 

[doran.dragic]

Brilliant, thank you very much. I just skimmed through the thread and it looks very detailed. Also @Reedt2000 the bass looks terrific, you are a skilled handworker.