Should I document my kit builds here?

[Mickey666]

Kinda got that late 60's made in Japan vibe...

 

[Markshan]

Kinda got that late 60's made in Japan vibe...

It's not 100% what I pictured but for a first attempt I do feel pretty good about it.
This and the Beatle Bass restoration are heading toward completion, then I have a kit that will be going into a very different direction. The mistakes on this kit are all ones that I made. The headless bass kit is actually fairly poorly done and I will learn some lessons in correcting the mistakes that were made by the company. Ironic given that the bass kit was three times more expensive than the Tele kit. If anyone reading this is contemplating buying a kit I can wholeheartedly recommend the Bex Gears kits, at least based on this one experience. It's much better than I was expecting.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

A little piece of me is tempted to sand the high spots just a touch and give another coat but I don't trust myself to not get carried away and sand into the logo.

It’s (almost) always better to spray some extra clear before you sand. If I may paraphrase Bruce from my thread recently, just sand the high spots. Don’t try to immediately get everything down to level. Take down the high spots, spray more clear and hit the high spots again. Repeat as needed and it will eventually be nice and smooth.

 

[Markshan]

It’s (almost) always better to spray some extra clear before you sand. If I may paraphrase Bruce from my thread recently, just sand the high spots. Don’t try to immediately get everything down to level. Take down the high spots, spray more clear and hit the high spots again. Repeat as needed and it will eventually be nice and smooth.

That's what I did on the Beatle Bass headstock, but the high spot here is the decal. The low spot is between the crown and the cove.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Right. I was trying to say to just sand the high spots on the decal instead of leveling it all to the headstock. Then spray some more clear and knock down the high spots on the decal again. Keep doing that until the whole headstock is level. I just had to do something similar on an archtop body with binding and another body with a complicated paint job with lots of tape lines. Build up a little clear and knock the worst parts back until it’s all good.

 

[Markshan]

Right. I was trying to say to just sand the high spots on the decal instead of leveling it all to the headstock. Then spray some more clear and knock down the high spots on the decal again. Keep doing that until the whole headstock is level. I just had to do something similar on an archtop body with binding and another body with a complicated paint job with lots of tape lines. Build up a little clear and knock the worst parts back until it’s all good.

That sounds good but how do I keep from scratching the logo?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

That sounds good but how do I keep from scratching the logo?

By just taking off the least you can until there’s enough built up. Let me paste Bruce’s answer here. He’s more articulate. Note: he’s taking about the Kay archtop I’m working on but it can still apply.

How do you level sand the clear coats on a complicated curved surface, where there's complicated color scheme underneath that you really, really don't want to sand through? I've faced this on some of my Scroll Basses.

My method is: Don't try to level sand it in one shot! I prefer to use a small fairly firm rubber block under the sandpaper. Sand lightly, watching carefully. Try to just find the high spots and sand them down a little bit. Don't try to sand down to the low spots. That gets dangerous. Just level off the highest lumps.

Clean it and spray another coat or two of clear. Light sand, spray. Repeat, repeat. With each cycle, you are sanding down the highest spots, and then filling more clear in the lowest spots. Not building up the overall thickness of the clear too much. Bringing it to an even thickness with a flat surface, safely above the color coats.

After a few cycles, you'll reach the point where a very light sanding hits the whole surface, and it's level. Then move on to a light sanding with the finest paper, and buffing.

It takes some patience. And it helps to be using a finish like VU, where you can leave it in the gun and just walk over any time and shoot another coat.

 

[Markshan]

This is coat five of the tung oil. This is the first coat where almost all of it seemed to lay on top of the other coat and build a surface as opposed to just sinking into the wood. I'm really happy with how it's starting to look. I'm not sure the pictures even do it justice.

 

[Mickey666]

so digging that color...

 

[Markshan]

so digging that color...

Thank you.

I still can't believe how close I was able to get to what I saw in my mind's eye before I started this. You all may have noticed that I tend toward the pedantic, and definitely can be tenacious with a vision once I get one. Unlike the headstock which didn't really turn out badly, but at the same time definitely didn't turn out how I wanted it, the body is pretty much how I wanted it.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what coat six does.

 

[Markshan]

I had given up worrying about a second coat on the headstock. In part this was because I knew it wouldn't fix the major issues of the color matching, but the fact that I didn't anticipate another opportunity to spray outside until spring also entered into my thinking. This is the last warm day we're supposed to have, but we were supposed to have showers. When I got up this morning and looked on the radar and saw they had passed to the north I quickly took the opportunity to do some light sanding and spray another coat. Again I don't know how much comes across in the pictures, but it is significantly smoother than it was. Definitely worth the 15 minutes I spent this morning.

 

[Markshan]

No photos tonight, in part because I didn't think to take a before image and also because I didn't think it would come over in a photo.
I either put the last coat of tung oil on too thick or I didn't do a good enough job wiping it afterwards, but I had several spots that instead of looking shiny they looked very dull. At first I thought they were spots where the oil had soaked in too much. But then I thought about that and that didn't make any sense on the fifth coat. Maybe if it was the first coat that might make sense. So not being sure what was happening I got out Scotch-Brite pad. I worked on one spot for about 15 minutes and it made a huge improvement. I thought I was done but upon close inspection I realized that almost the entire edge had that kind of thick crust on it. So I just spent about 2 hours watching TV and rubbing out the thick spots with the Scotch Brite pad.
I know I could have done it much quicker with sandpaper, but I was concerned about taking any more of the green off. This didn't do that, and it polished it up really nicely. Another coat or two I should be good to go.
Now my fingers hurt.

 

[Markshan]

Here is coat six. I didn't get a chance to do any other work this weekend. My church had a full band service (generally we are just a part singing congregation) and I think I was the only one there who has actually had any experience playing in a band. So I wasn't just working on my parts but I was helping other people work on theirs too.
Anyway, I think this sixth coat could be the last one if I had everything else ready to assemble. However, I haven't even started dressing the frets on the neck yet. Plus I do find rubbing the oil into the wood to be cathartic, so I'll probably just keep adding coats until I reach the point that everything else is ready to go and then at that point I'll wax and buff. Could be seven coats could be 12 coats. Time will tell.

 

[Markshan]

Coat 7, shimmering in the morning sun...

The photo really doesn't do it justice. The grain kind of looks like a mirror ball at this point.

 

[Markshan]

I dressed the frets tonight. Basically I think I'm at the point of assembly and start playing it. I'll probably wax and buff it first.

 

[Markshan]

I finished the fret work the other night so tonight I did a final wax. I used random orbital sander and I started with turtle Wax cutting compound and an orange polisher then after removing that I went with regular old turtle Wax, the kind that's thin and your grandfather used with a gray pad. Then I finished with turtle Wax by hand. I found that this process leveled the sheen. The parts that had been very glossy are a little less glossy and the parts that had been very flat are a little more glossy. And it feels wonderful now. It's just sumptuous running your hand across it.

My hope is to find time tomorrow or on Sunday to assemble and start enjoying the fruits of my labor.

 

[Markshan]

One man's fastidious is another man's psychotic, but I figure I'll never be out at a gig and think to myself I wish I had put less shielding in there.
The copper really works with the green. I almost wish all my hardware was that color. It would look amazing.

 

[Markshan]

The E string kept jumping out of the nut and I was like oh crap I'm going to have to make a new nut. Then I remembered I didn't put any string trees on yet.

 

[Markshan]

Well, this is irritating. My plan has been to initially run this with everything stock from the cheap kit and see how the stuff worked out, but before I've even strummed a chord I already need to replace a piece. This came with one of those famous Chinese Bridges that won't adjust for intonation. There's literally 1 cm of adjustment. In this picture they are all the way back and I still need for it to go back quite a bit further. Amazon prime to the rescue I guess hopefully it shows up tomorrow.

I suppose it doesn't need to be intonated for me to go test the electronics.

 

[Markshan]

I hit it with some compressed air and then a drop of Lock lubricant and managed to get just enough more turn to get it intonated. It's at the absolute end of its throw and it just went into intonation so I'm not going to swap it out yet, but if I start making upgrades it will definitely be on the list.
Plus I suppose I could just use the hacksaw and take off a centimeter of the screw.