Rattle Can Refinish Club

[swagbotbilly]

Try it in the oven for 15 minutes....see if it helps?
Rustoleum always seems hit or miss with
All depends on whats underneath...or in the air.....shook up enough?
Too thick?
yadda yadda

Definitely too think I think. Color may have been too think/not cured enough before I did the clear, and I'm sure I did too much clear.

I ended up putting it in the garage, OVER the radiator heater this morning to see if that helps, can "toast" the sides a little.

Oddly enough it seems a significantly harder today, AFTER I turned the heater off yesterday. Not cold here at all, mid 70s.

 

[FatherTrucker]

I never have the patience to let the clear cure for long enough. By the time I get to that point I just want to be done and play it!

I beat the hell out of my basses anyway so I don’t worry about it.
Post some pics!

I started using 2K clear for this reason. Cures really quickly and goes on pretty smooth as well.

 

[swagbotbilly]

I started using 2K clear for this reason. Cures really quickly and goes on pretty smooth as well.

IF (big if) I ever do this again, I'm not screwing around with "matching" the paint brands, and definitely doing 2K

 

[FatherTrucker]

IF (big if) I ever do this again, I'm not screwing around with "matching" the paint brands, and definitely doing 2K

As long as you have somewhere to safely spray it, it really is the way to go.

 

[BAG]

I had a look at the 2k stuff and, while it may be a better product, a can of clear here in NZ is $50 compared to a can of Rust-oleum at only $14. Add to that the fact that once you activate a can of 2k it needs to be used within 48 hours so I wouldn't be able to spray a few coats, let that dry for a week or two, and then use the rest of the can to spray another few coats. To do the two colour burst I'm doing at the moment would be a minimum of $150 (one black can, one red and one clear) and probably more....... once it gets to that cost I might as well pay a professional to do the job and it would turn out a LOT better than my efforts.

 

[FatherTrucker]

I had a look at the 2k stuff and, while it may be a better product, a can of clear here in NZ is $50 compared to a can of Rust-oleum at only $14. Add to that the fact that once you activate a can of 2k it needs to be used within 48 hours so I wouldn't be able to spray a few coats, let that dry for a week or two, and then use the rest of the can to spray another few coats. To do the two colour burst I'm doing at the moment would be a minimum of $150 (one black can, one red and one clear) and probably more....... once it gets to that cost I might as well pay a professional to do the job and it would turn out a LOT better than my efforts.

Oh, I only use 2k for the clear but yeah, at $50 a can that's rough. I always spray the entire can of clear in one day. You can put the 2k on a lot heavier than you would with regular old 2x Rust-Oleum.

 

[BAG]

Oh, I only use 2k for the clear but yeah, at $50 a can that's rough. I always spray the entire can of clear in one day. You can put the 2k on a lot heavier than you would with regular old 2x Rust-Oleum.

For just the clear coat it might be worth it for a better finish.
I've already got two cans of Rust-oleum clear for my current project...... which will probably be my last refinish project..... so I'll not give the 2k a go yet.

 

[BAG]

Well, pretty much finished my Dodgy Ray refinish.

While a learned a lot the biggest thing I learned is that painting isn't my forte by any stretch of the imagination. I practiced first on my travel bass refinishing that which on the whole didn't turn out too badly. This on the other hand was a nightmare.
I thought I'd done a pretty good job in prepping the surface and the first few black coats on the body went pretty well..... or so I thought. I started doing the redburst and alternated between red and black and just as I was pretty happy with it the red blew a spatter or bits onto the finish! There was no way I was starting again on the body so I let it dry for around three weeks before hitting it with a clear coat.

The headstock also copped a splatter of bits of paint on the last coat so I decided to let it dry, sand back and try again. When I hit it the next time with a different can the finish crinkled which usually means that the last coat hadn't gassed off properly, but I'd let it sit for days, sanded it and it still crinkled. I let it sit for at least a week, sanded again, hit it again with the black and immediately with the red burst around the edges. I'd gotten to the point of frustration so I decided it was good enough. It had a week less than the body when I did the clear coat and again got a little crinkling. Bugger it!!!! That'll do good enough.

I also sanded the neck back to the wood plus a little more in places where there were dents in the back of the neck and then refinished with Tru-oil and rolled the edges a little bit more. This worked out really well and the neck now feels as good as just about any expensive bass.

I've waited nearly four weeks and even though I'm not 100% certain the clear is completely hard I put it back together. Overall, it looks a lot better than the original, and still has cost me very little.

The photos flatter it very much. The finish is has a LOT of orange peel and it shows up scratches if you even just look at it the wrong way.

Considering I've still only got around $350 spent on it (that's around $220 USd) it's still a bargain. (Full rundown of the parts used on this thread here)
I've got an Epiphone EBO mudbucker coming and will next be trying my hand at routing out a neck pickup rout, so it's probably good that I'm not too invested in the finish being perfect as I'll probably do some damage installing the extra pickup.

 

[murphy]

Well, pretty much finished my Dodgy Ray refinish.

While a learned a lot the biggest thing I learned is that painting isn't my forte by any stretch of the imagination. I practiced first on my travel bass refinishing that which on the whole didn't turn out too badly. This on the other hand was a nightmare.
I thought I'd done a pretty good job in prepping the surface and the first few black coats on the body went pretty well..... or so I thought. I started doing the redburst and alternated between red and black and just as I was pretty happy with it the red blew a spatter or bits onto the finish! There was no way I was starting again on the body so I let it dry for around three weeks before hitting it with a clear coat.

The headstock also copped a splatter of bits of paint on the last coat so I decided to let it dry, sand back and try again. When I hit it the next time with a different can the finish crinkled which usually means that the last coat hadn't gassed off properly, but I'd let it sit for days, sanded it and it still crinkled. I let it sit for at least a week, sanded again, hit it again with the black and immediately with the red burst around the edges. I'd gotten to the point of frustration so I decided it was good enough. It had a week less than the body when I did the clear coat and again got a little crinkling. Bugger it!!!! That'll do good enough.

I also sanded the neck back to the wood plus a little more in places where there were dents in the back of the neck and then refinished with Tru-oil and rolled the edges a little bit more. This worked out really well and the neck now feels as good as just about any expensive bass.

I've waited nearly four weeks and even though I'm not 100% certain the clear is completely hard I put it back together. Overall, it looks a lot better than the original, and still has cost me very little.

The photos flatter it very much. The finish is has a LOT of orange peel and it shows up scratches if you even just look at it the wrong way.

Considering I've still only got around $350 spent on it (that's around $220 USd) it's still a bargain. (Full rundown of the parts used on this thread here)
I've got an Epiphone EBO mudbucker coming and will next be trying my hand at routing out a neck pickup rout, so it's probably good that I'm not too invested in the finish being perfect as I'll probably do some damage installing the extra pickup.

Very cool...I feel your pain..
Love the design and look
I would rock that mutha!

 

[BaldyLee]

The parts bass I made for my daughter for Christmas. Color shift paint. Matching headstock. Still needs to be clear coated so it has to come apart again. I’ll probably do a build thread at some point.

She loves it!

 

[murphy]

The parts bass I made for my daughter for Christmas. Color shift paint. Matching headstock. Still needs to be clear coated so it has to come apart again. I’ll probably do a build thread at some point.

She loves it!


View attachment 4920647View attachment 4920645View attachment 4920646View attachment 4920648

Very nice...love the color and color shift.
I notice the Thomas the Tank trains on the floor behind the door?

 

[BaldyLee]

Very nice...love the color and color shift.
I notice the Thomas the Tank trains on the floor behind the door?

Good eye. My sons train table is around the corner. HO scale Bachman trains.

 

[murphy]

Good eye. My sons train table is around the corner. HO scale Bachman trains.

Please share and tell us about the bass in your Avatar.
I recently built a Geddy with a Japanese Geddy neck and am loving it...The feel. the sound of the 70s spacing and I installed Fender PV74 pickups

 

[BaldyLee]

Please share and tell us about the bass in your Avatar.
I recently built a Geddy with a Japanese Geddy neck and am loving it...The feel. the sound of the 70s spacing and I installed Fender PV74 pickups

That’s an interesting bass. I made that before Geddy Lee’s were a thing. I made it because I was in a Rush tribute band and was going for the look (my red PRS wasn’t doing it). It’s a no name ash body with 70’s spacing off eBay, used AllParts neck I got for next to nothing because of a small crack in the headstock, no name vintage tuners and whatever 70’s pickups Fender was selling at the time (20 years ago or so). I sanded the body and sprayed a light coat of black auto lacquer gloss then knocked off the gloss with 0000 steel wool.

then I gigged it to death for 20 years. It started with a light relic but wound up quite banged up after very hard playing.

I didn’t take the “build” very seriously at the time, but it wound up being a STELLAR playing and sounding bass. It’s far and away the best in my stable just by dumb luck. I’ll never get rid of it, it’s an amazing stroke of luck. Plays better than any ‘Geddy’ I’ve ever put my hands on, Mex/Japan/USA or any combination.

 

[claudel]

This one's almost done other than final setup

Rustoleum Golden Sunset on the back & sides.

Goldtop is red Transtint dye + sparkles, sanded back under yellow Transtint with TruOil + red/orange/copper colorshift powder top coat.

Lots of little imperfections along the masking lines and it could stand some more TruOil & colorshift powder but overall I'm happy even though it doesn't photograph particularly well.

There a reason I don't try to do this for money... :^)

 

[Artman]

The parts bass I made for my daughter for Christmas. Color shift paint. Matching headstock. Still needs to be clear coated so it has to come apart again. I’ll probably do a build thread at some point.

She loves it!

That's a beautiful instrument, and beautiful gift from father to child.
Perhaps consider making a logo of your initials or name and have a waterslide or vinyl sticker made for that headstock!

 

[BaldyLee]

That's a beautiful instrument, and beautiful gift from father to child.
Perhaps consider making a logo of your initials or name and have a waterslide or vinyl sticker made for that headstock!

I signed and dated the back of the headstock. She wanted the headstock blank to see the color shift.

 

[BAG]

I should have said in my post above that had I just been doing a solid color I would have sanded the spattered bits back and just done another coat, but as it was a spatter of red on black I didn't want to risk making things worse.
While it's not a great finish it looks good in the right lighting.

The One-man-rhythm-section rig.

 

[don21480]

I have a hollow danelectro type of bass that is already black and a previous owner had installed a thumb rest and then removed it and filled the holes with epoxy and sanded it so now there is a pretty large area where the black is sanded thru to the primer. I'd like to just spray a coat of black over the whole top - not refinish the entire instrument since its older and well used but just get the splotches off the front and spot touching up has not proved something I'm good at 8>) so the question is if i want to spray black over the whole front, what grit paper to knock down the existing finish so I'll get good adhesion? I've read everything from 320 to 600 wet sand. I will use a rattle can and dont plan a clear coat over it - again going for a consistent black finish not a new guitar look. Any advice on sanding/prepping and brand of paint for gloss black would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BaldyLee]

I should have said in my post above that had I just been doing a solid color I would have sanded the spattered bits back and just done another coat, but as it was a spatter of red on black I didn't want to risk making things worse.
While it's not a great finish it looks good in the right lighting.
View attachment 4921035

The One-man-rhythm-section rig.
View attachment 4921037

I think it looks great. Strap looks great with it too. Nobody sees splatter from the stage. (That’s what I keep telling myself).