weird translucent end layer after removing paint

[cloclo]

First of all, I'm a newbie in all this.
Second of all, I'm a bass player for 30+ years but I started on guitar and want an electric guitar to noodle on.
So I found one that I want to remove the paint from (sunburst), which took some elbow grease to remove the thick blackish plasticky layers but worked out. But slowly I noticed that the wood grain underneath is really faint, like there is a translucent layer over everything. So I chipped away a little square where the neck plate sits and it seems that the real wood is still buried underneath this translucent layer.

Is there a way to remove this layer without taking away from the wood underneath?
What is this layer anyway?
Is this common?

Thanks for any advice,
Cheerio!

 

[T_Bone_TL]

That will be a factory-finish polyester sanding sealer, or something similar, I believe. Heat and/or abrasives are likley the only effective ways to get it off, to the extent it will come off. Abrasives (taking some wood with it) are the only way to get rid of it. (OK, to be picky, if you are more than average skilled with scrapers, you can perhaps scrape it off without causing more headaches than you save. Which is what happens to unskilled and average-skilled with scrapers folks, generally.)

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Yes. The sealer coat. Depending on the age of the body it's probably a polyester or polyurethane. Getting to be good friends with some 80 grit or a heat gun are about it. If you go the heat gun route try to use a plastic scraper or round off the corners on a metal scraper to help with it gouging into the body.

 

[Beej]

Yup, as above, it's a sealcoat, in most cases, it's polyester and impervious to most chemical concoctions. If you are repainting, it's worth noting it makes an excellent base over which to paint again.

If you want a natural finish, then mechanical removal is in your future.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Yeah, I meant to put that down. If you're going with an opaque color just spray over the existing sealer. Good thing @Beej was here!

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Ugh. That stuff is friggin bulletptoof. My son stripped an MIM p with that sealer, and er.....re-sculpted the body body a bit, unintentionally, sanding it off. We tried heat and various common strippers, which didnt seem to touch it. As described, dont strip it at all unless you really need to. Its rare to find anything worth leaving transparent finish on under that stuff, anything made of nicer wood gets stained and clearcoated in the first place, and its really difficult to get it up out of the grain anyway, leaving a blotchy stained surface.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Might be worth throwing some naptha or something on to see what clearcoating over it would look like - depends how much of the milky look is surface finish (that clearcoat or just polishing would clear up) and how much is in the film.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

Some vinyl sealers work like semi-transparent primers. Yours looks like one of those.

Scrapers are not for newbies. I suggest sanding, but taking your time with higher grits, like over 100-120. It'll take a lot longer, but you'll be safer and less likely to cut through any veneers that may be there.

 

[BAG]

What brand is it?
I only ask as I came across the same thing just the other week on a Greg Bennett bass body.
I ended up using a heat gun and scraper. As it turned out the scraper wasn't needed too much because once enough heat was applied the bass coat literally cracked and exploded off the wood. Only needed a small amount of pressure on the scraper to keep it cracking off. Definitely wear some eye protection when you do it.... I had a small piece of very hot clear coat hit me in the eye.

All those yellowish pieces in the pickup cavity are clear coat and you can get an idea of how thick it is from the piece at the bottom left of the body.

 

[cloclo]

Woah, you're all amazing! Thanks for all the info and experience.
I was planning to stain and oil it.

Let's see how the layer removal works by applying some heat and go from there.
And see if I can get rid of it, don't fancy a blotched end result like Gilmourisgod mentioned.

Again, thank you all

 

[N4860]

I'm not a luthier by any means, but I'm curious from the experts, could you put something like this through a planer to get rid of that and then put a veneer on top to give it a nice grain?

 

[T_Bone_TL]

Perhaps someone else that you didn't like much's planer. Or router plane with a bit you didn't love much. Either would only deal with the flat parts, you'd still have all the edges to deal with.

Given that the stuff is supposed to get into the wood (that's part of it's job) if you plan to stain, you'll be taking wood off to get non-blotchy.

It begins to approximate building a new one and selling this one on to be a painted body might actually be easier.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Your best bet for a see through finish on that will be a tinted or candy clear. Think the traditional Fender burst. It's going to take a lot of effort to get all that sealer off of the body. It's meant to get down into the wood and the grain.

 

[Theobald]

Its rare to find anything worth leaving transparent finish on under that stuff, anything made of nicer wood gets stained and clearcoated in the first place, and its really difficult to get it up out of the grain anyway, leaving a blotchy stained surface.

Even with a sunburst you might have surprises. I sanded a MIM jazz bass, and discovered a 7 pieces body, covered with a really thin veneer of alder for the look. Fortunately, I was able to remove the clear coat without removing the veneer in the back. And on top I got 4mm of wood removed to glue a nice flammed maple top.
Since it was flammed maple, I used black ink to get the flamming visible, and simple used extra ink on the edges to hide the multiple pieces.

Oh by the way, now the body is indeed thiner than a standard jazz bass. But I find it to sound better than my home made 2 pieces ash body jazz bass, despite those anoying 7 pieces.

 

[1n3]

... I was planning to stain and oil it.

Let's see how the layer removal works by applying some heat and go from there.
And see if I can get rid of it, don't fancy a blotched end result like Gilmourisgod mentioned.

Sorry, but I recommend a new plan. Even if you could get all that sealer removed with no residual effects (unlikely), that wood, which appears to be something like Poplar or Basswood, is unlikely to look good stained, in my opinion.

You could leave the sealer coat and repaint with much less time spent, and a better result.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Sorry, but I recommend a new plan. Even if you could get all that sealer removed with no residual effects (unlikely), that wood, which is appears to be something like Poplar or Basswood, is unlikely to look good stained, in my opinion.

You could leave the sealer coat and repaint with much less time spent, and a better result.

This ^

Chances are, the wood was selected for this type of finish for a reason. To me this sounds like trying to re-wind a pair of OEM Squier Affinity pickups. For all the trouble, you'd be better off getting a quality piece of wood and doing the staining/finishing yourself. Otherwise, pick a color you like and paint it over the sealer coat for best results.

 

[BAG]

I was planning to stain and oil it.

As others have said, there is a very good chance that the wood underneath won't be a very good basis for a natural finish so you might not want to get your heart too set on that.

And see if I can get rid of it, don't fancy a blotched end result like Gilmourisgod mentioned.

As you can see from the photo in my previous post, using a heat gun may cause blotching. In my case it appeared as though the clear coat cooked into the wood a little bit. I probably did use too much heat in places but it worked very well taking the clear coat off. Quite a bit of sanding was involved to get rid of the cooked wood, then grain filler, then a coat of primer, then more sanding because the primer seemed to soak into the wood a little in two places, then more grain filler, then another coat of primer. There's still a little bit of grain showing in one area but hopefully it will be filled by the colour coat I'll do when the weather is better. It's been a lot of work but i've been enjoying the process and even if I stuff up the painting a bit, it will be a lot better than it was.

This is what it is currently looking like.

 

[cloclo]

Hmm, a lot of valid points here, I'll keep you guys posted

 

[T_Bone_TL]

You could always paint it - with a wood grain faux finish. Or take the "modern" vinyl wrap approach.

 

[Max Bogosity]