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refinishing neck

E

EaglePoint

Jan 25, 2009
6
3
#1
I currently have a neck with a "tung oil" finish... I suspect it's the tung oil/varnish blend.

Will a nitrocellulose lacquer adhere well over the "oil"? Or do I need to take the 'oil' finish all the way off?

EDIT: I'm also hoping to do the headstock, which, like the fretboard, has an epoxy coating. Would the NC lacquer have trouble adhereing to the epoxy on the headstock?
 
#4
Hmmm, well, I already put the first few coats of nitro on.

I have another question. This is my first time nitro-ing a guitar (I'm using stew-mac's stuff. I've got the sanding sealer down, and some coats of black gloss), and all the how-to's make sense and everything, but I'm a little hazy on one issue...When do I apply the clear coat?

Do I apply the c.c. immediately after the black gloss? If that's the case, wouldn't the tiny bumps (the resultant of using aerosol instead of an air brush I believe) in the black gloss show through?

Or do I finish with the black gloss, polish, swirl remove...And then start with the clear coat going through the process of spray, wait 2 weeks, sand, spray, wait...
 
#5
I am assuming you let the sanding sealer dry for at least 24 hours and then level sanded it quite well. When you put on the Nitro black, how many coats? What has been your drying time between coats. Did you sand well prior to appling the next coat? Some people, apply the first clear coat while the last color coat is still wet. Some let it dry throughly and then sand with fine paper before the first clear. Any blemishes, pits, lumps or dust in the color coat, will be magnified with the clear. I would not use any kind of polish/swirl remover prior to clear coating. With lacquer, each coat melts into the previous coat.
 
#6
Yup, I let the sealer dry for 24 hrs. I currently have 2 coats on the neck and 3 coats on the body. I haven't been sanding between coats (I guess I skipped over that paragraph...I'll go sand, I still have half a can left), I've been letting the nitro black sit about 1.5-2 hrs between coats, per the instructions on the can.

Thank you for the help
 
#7
Black is the absolute worst color to show blemishes. I takes a lot of sanding to get a flawless finish. Good drying time, sanding each coat and not applying clear intil you get a near perfect color coat. As you start your clear coats, you will need to graduate paper grits from about 600 to 2,000. All of your sanding should be done wet,(water with a few drops of dish soap works well). Super fine sanding paper will make the rub out (polishing) easier and will show less sanding scratches. Some painters use finer paper than 2,000 but I don't think it is necessary. How do you plan to buff it out?
 
#8
I was going to use car rubbing compound I got from walmart and try buffing it by hand. It's not very abrasive stuff. It's the same stuff I've used to make the epoxy on my fretboard glossy. Would rubbing compound be too rough for the nitro?

When you say "not applying clear intil you get a near perfect color coat", do you mean "perfect" to be a high glossy finish that I'd be content with if that was how the final product looked? or by "near perfect" do you mean it just has to be close, with no bumps or blemished, and the clear coat will bring out the glossyness?

Once I get the "perfect", bump free, color coat and start on the clear coats, how many clear coats should I do? Should I just go untill I get that smooth, high gloss look that I'm going for, then buff and polish? Or should I do a coat for every grit I have, then buff and polish?
 
#9
Rubbing compound can be a first step to polishing. A very fine auto polish will be necessary to bring out a high gloss. A near perfect color coat would be one without lumps and bumps from dust or dirt in the paint. I would only put on enogh color coats to get a good color base without dark or light spots and dust free. If you want a great high depth gloss finish you may have many clear coats, because you will sand off 75% or the coat just by wet sanding and leveling. I usually consider a "coat" as two passes of paint to achieve a "wet look" Total number of coats could be 4 to 8. Some painters put on 30-50 coats. Graduating to finer sandpaper is used to remove the scratches of the previous paper.
 

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