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Vintage Memphis PBass
- Thread starter joshbassistct
- Start date
What happened between pictures 1 and 2???? Did you pull off the finish with a scraper or something?
I would go out and buy a cheap heat gun. For ~$20 you will have a much easier time of it. Wear a face mask! Who knows what Memphis used to formulate their paint! You don't want to breathe in whatever they used!
I've found that there is usually a nasty 'fillerplast' layer under the colour layer which is far trickier to remove. If you intend to finish it a solid colour you don't need to go down to bare wood really. The first thing you could do from bare wood is to grain fill and use sander sealer to remove the imperfections in the wood. I would dine out on Memphis's expense and use their stuff!
However you want the surfaces to be level. I find a sanding block and hand sanding to be the best. I've used a 'mouse' sander before today. It tends to turn small lumps of sanded material into hard pebbles that then draw sharktooth and circle shapes into the sanded surface. These are tricky to remove and paint seems to be formulated exactly to highlight these imperfections to the max.
For grits I would start with whatever it takes to remove surface damage. Maybe 80 grit up 320 grit. If you have to go back to bare wood I would wet the wood a few times once you get to 320 grit to raise the grain. Sand it down each time to get a better smoother surface!
I would go out and buy a cheap heat gun. For ~$20 you will have a much easier time of it. Wear a face mask! Who knows what Memphis used to formulate their paint! You don't want to breathe in whatever they used!
I've found that there is usually a nasty 'fillerplast' layer under the colour layer which is far trickier to remove. If you intend to finish it a solid colour you don't need to go down to bare wood really. The first thing you could do from bare wood is to grain fill and use sander sealer to remove the imperfections in the wood. I would dine out on Memphis's expense and use their stuff!
However you want the surfaces to be level. I find a sanding block and hand sanding to be the best. I've used a 'mouse' sander before today. It tends to turn small lumps of sanded material into hard pebbles that then draw sharktooth and circle shapes into the sanded surface. These are tricky to remove and paint seems to be formulated exactly to highlight these imperfections to the max.
For grits I would start with whatever it takes to remove surface damage. Maybe 80 grit up 320 grit. If you have to go back to bare wood I would wet the wood a few times once you get to 320 grit to raise the grain. Sand it down each time to get a better smoother surface!
Whatever grit qualifies on the hazmat charts … in all seriousness, we have a paint and hydro-dip company locally that goes the whole nine yards for 150. Why not just take it to someone, have them put it in their media tank, and get it done absolutely correctly?
Dang it looks like it sat somewhere moist awhile. Heat guns work ok if you dont burn the wood or gouge it.
