Refinish; partial repaint?

[woo]

I'm wondering if it's possible to refinish a body and repaint just one part of it. I have a sunburst bass which I'd like to repaint the front of (because I think it looks cool) and keep the sunburst on the back (for sentimental reasons, really).

I was thinking about going at the thing with a heatgun and a scraper, repainting the front, then refinishing it, but, y'know, I have no idea what I'm doing. Does, like, the color come with it or... ?

Not sure if this is the right sub forum, but there was a refinishing question in here when I searched for "refinish."

 

[friskinator]

I'm a novice refinisher, and that sounds like more trouble than it's worth. Even if you managed to cleanly strip the top, getting it to blend with the back would be tough.

 

[Jon Clegg]

It's doable. The transition area will be tough; essentially you'll need to sand things down around whatever line you decide on. The heat gun will probaby peel up any existing color. Like this:

What's peeling up there is the remnants of the factory poly finish as well as the poly I applied about 30 years ago.

 

[woo]

Thanks. It does sound like it's past my ability level.