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Rattle Can Refinish Club

#962
Tim Hall said:
That looks great! I'm about to start a refinish on a spare Squier VM Jaguar SS for my wife's birthday, and have been trying to decide between the ReRanch Crown Royal and locally available Testor's purple. How did you find the Crown Royal to work? Do you think the Minwax is just as good as the Reranch clear?
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I have done two finishes so far, a Lake Placid Blue P bass I built using a Warmouth Alder Body and the refin on the RB850. I did them both using Reranch products, in particular their Primer and the respective paints. Both have been very easy to apply and work with. I highly recommend using their Primer and Paint. The Minwax clear is excellent it applies very well and easily you can get it in Matte if you want for different finishes. I have never used the Reranch clear so I cannot comment on theirs but I would imagine it is excellent as well based on their other products. I will say that the Reranch Primer and Minwax clear were recommended to me by a guy in this thread whose name escapes me at the moment and had done a bunch of amazing refinishes.
 
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#963
Tim Hall said:
That looks great! I'm about to start a refinish on a spare Squier VM Jaguar SS for my wife's birthday, and have been trying to decide between the ReRanch Crown Royal and locally available Testor's purple. How did you find the Crown Royal to work? Do you think the Minwax is just as good as the Reranch clear?
Click to expand...

I'll pass on basically what I learned from my conversation with him and have applied to the 2 that I have done as far as application goes. Both of mine were started on the bare wood. Apply your primer and work your way up to around an 800 grit paper. Wipe the body down with Naptha prior to spraying your color coat. Lay your body flat when spraying, I use an old broken neck as a handle and mount it in a vise and turn back form one side to the other. Apply your metallics from 8-10 inches away and when you are spraying start off the body, progress over the body and lift off the button when you are clear of the body. This will help prevent spattering. Alternate your passes from different directions, across the body from from the width, next coat from the length, next coat from an angle in one direction and next coat from a different angle. This will prevent "stripping" in the finish from the metal flakes. Do not apply any coat to heavily and be careful not to disturb the metal flakes. Mist on your last couple of coats to help lock the metal flakes in. This will probably require two cans of color to do all this but it is well worth it. Let it dry for a week undisturbed.

When you apply your clear do all of the same steps as far as the paint goes but make your first couple of coats fairly light to help lock the metal flakes in. After that you can progress to heavier coats. I usually use 3 cans of clear and will spray two cans in the first coats of clear just dont rush it and apply to heavily. After done let the body sit for a week again, after that wet sand starting around 400 grit and work up to 1000 grit. Wipe the body down with naptha and spray your remaining clear. Let the body sit for two weeks to completely dry then repeat your wet sanding but go all the way to 2000 grit paper. Polish out the remaining sand paper scratches using a good rubbing compound and your done.
It uses a bit of clear but it is worth it to not have an accidental sand through.
 
#964
Here are a couple of pics of what I started with.

DSCN2089.JPG DSCN2086.JPG DSCN2083.JPG DSCN2079.JPG
 
#965
TinIndian said:
I'll pass on basically what I learned from my conversation with him and have applied to the 2 that I have done as far as application goes. Both of mine were started on the bare wood. Apply your primer and work your way up to around an 800 grit paper. Wipe the body down with Naptha prior to spraying your color coat. Lay your body flat when spraying, I use an old broken neck as a handle and mount it in a vise and turn back form one side to the other. Apply your metallics from 8-10 inches away and when you are spraying start off the body, progress over the body and lift off the button when you are clear of the body. This will help prevent spattering. Alternate your passes from different directions, across the body from from the width, next coat from the length, next coat from an angle in one direction and next coat from a different angle. This will prevent "stripping" in the finish from the metal flakes. Do not apply any coat to heavily and be careful not to disturb the metal flakes. Mist on your last couple of coats to help lock the metal flakes in. This will probably require two cans of color to do all this but it is well worth it. Let it dry for a week undisturbed.

When you apply your clear do all of the same steps as far as the paint goes but make your first couple of coats fairly light to help lock the metal flakes in. After that you can progress to heavier coats. I usually use 3 cans of clear and will spray two cans in the first coats of clear just dont rush it and apply to heavily. After done let the body sit for a week again, after that wet sand starting around 400 grit and work up to 1000 grit. Wipe the body down with naptha and spray your remaining clear. Let the body sit for two weeks to completely dry then repeat your wet sanding but go all the way to 2000 grit paper. Polish out the remaining sand paper scratches using a good rubbing compound and your done.
It uses a bit of clear but it is worth it to not have an accidental sand through.
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Thanks! The info on refin work on the interwebz is voluminous and self-contradictory :) Good to see such good results though. I have until mid-June, so time for at least one major screwup in the process. I have the bass arriving this week; will disassemble and see what I have to work with. I'm not going down to the wood; just scuffing and priming over the existing poly. Will probably start a new thread for advice and mockery of mistakes until I have pics to post in this one.
 
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#966
Tim Hall said:
Thanks! The info on refin work on the interwebz is voluminous and self-contradictory :) Good to see such good results though. I have until mid-June, so time for at least one major screwup in the process. I have the bass arriving this week; will disassemble and see what I have to work with. I'm not going down to the wood; just scuffing and priming over the existing poly. Will probably start a new thread for advice and mockery of mistakes until I have pics to post in this one.
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The Reranch forum is pretty good too. If you have a minute check it out as well.
 
#967
Hey guys. I've skimmed through a couple pages but don't have the time to go through a 50-page thread so I'll ask this:

I have an old Squier Affinity I'm planning on completely rebuilding. I have all the parts that I need except the pickguard but I wanted to start my research on this now so I don't run into problems later. I want to paint the bass red. Not a sparkly red or anything like that, just a solid red. The pickguard I'm getting is also going to be red (red-white-red 3-ply) so while I wait for it to come so I can match it, I was planning on getting cans and spray some wood to see which one matches the best. Is there any specific brand of paint that would be the best for this? How many coats should be put on for it to look the best? Is one coat of clear coat fine? I'm not planning on sanding down the current clear coat or finish, I just want to paint right over it. Any help would be great!
 
#968
You need to at least scuff the surface so your primer will hold. Alot of times you can get away with 1 can of paint. You should use at least 2 cans of clear. You dont want to take a chance of a sand through and the better the finish depth will look.
 
#969
Not a rattle can, but far short of a full blown HVLP compressor. Anybody tried one of these Harbor Freight all in one HVLP guns? Rockler sells what appears to be the same gun at a higher price. Its well reviewed as a furniture grade sprayer, and looks like at least a small step up from rattlecans for around $120.

 
#970
TinIndian said:
Here are a couple of pics of what I started with.

View attachment 1097003 View attachment 1097004 View attachment 1097005 View attachment 1097006
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That's a remarkable transformation. Congrats. Did tiy completely strip the original finish? If so, with what technique(s)? Where there were any wood gouges left what did you use to fill? I have started no less than three strips and refins only to be defeated by the thick plastic finishes and base fillers. I have used chemicals and heat with varying degrees of success but none complete or good enough for me to consider the next steps of applying a new finish.
 
#971
nervous said:
That's a remarkable transformation. Congrats. Did tiy completely strip the original finish? If so, with what technique(s)? Where there were any wood gouges left what did you use to fill? I have started no less than three strips and refins only to be defeated by the thick plastic finishes and base fillers. I have used chemicals and heat with varying degrees of success but none complete or good enough for me to consider the next steps of applying a new finish.
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Yes. I had to take it down to bare wood. I used a heat gun and a scraper. The finish on it was so bad there was no way to paint over it. For the area around the jack I used a structural wood epoxy. Pretty sure the stuff I used was made by Elmers. I built up the area around the jack with the epoxy, I put a straw on the input jack so it would be easy to relocate the hole and let it cure for a week. Then I recontoured the area and smoothed it back out. I was concerned that it may shrink so I let it set for 6 months before I went back to it just in case. Proved to be unnecessary. Did not shrink at all. On the minor surface problems I just used some of the finish bondo. Then it was just sanding and doing the finish.
 
#972
Poly is brutal to remove. I haven't found a chem stripper yet that really does a good job. The finish was so thick on this that it actually doesn't have a real tight neck pocket any longer. When I did the neck I kept the back natural and did a oil and wax on it so there is a bit of a gap on it now.
 
#976
TinIndian said:
That's sweet!

Is it a Music Man body you started with or Sterling? I have a Sterling Ray 5 with a Norstrand pup and a custom pre. Painted Seafoam Green. Love it!
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It was a passive USA SUB. I sanded off the truck bed liner finish and shot it with Burgundy Mist rattle cans from Reranch.
Let's see yours!
 
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