Painting guitar...2 questions..

[alphadog808]

haha! So how much do you suggest? Also, if I have orange peel on the current layer of lacquer, can I keep shooting and then at the end do the sanding? Or do I need to take care of the orange peel after every coat?

Dang it, you guys are slowly convincing me to shoot again...haha

Oh, and I put a couple coats of car polish on it; if I wanted to start relacquering, I figure I need to try and strip that polish? If so, any suggestions on how/what to remove it with?

[sully]

Generally speaking, you should shoot at minimum of 9 coats; 3 coats per day, shot 3 hours apart for 3 days. However, since you’ve got tape lines and stripe tape in the mix now, you need to make sure that the lower levels of the finish (whatever your first base color was) is as level as the highest. Does that make sense? If you want it to be perfectly flat, you’re going to need to lay on more clear. Then let it sit for at least a month before sanding and buffing it out.

I wouldn’t worry too much about orange peel with lacquer; keep shooting until you’ve got enough on there. If you’ve already polished it, you’ll want to wipe it down with a cleaning solvent before adding more clear.

[alphadog808]

thanks for the info, I appreciate it!

[alphadog808]

K, so I bought 2 more cans and have been spraying. A tip I learned at least for the minwax stuff is every time you start shooting, fire off a few "warning shots" to get the spray working well. I was wondering why I would keep getting drips in the same spot every time I shot, and come to find out I guess the can doesn't shoot really smooth in the beginning. Much better now.

So, now I'm shooting heavier coats, saw some blushing last night, I let it dry overnight and till I come home from work to see if I can get it to clear up..crossing fingers...

BTW, the minwax seems to dry pretty fast, I swear with light coats it's not even tacky within 10-15 mins!

[sully]

Keep the cans in bowls of hot water and rotate them; it'll help it spray more evenly.

[alphadog808]

Oh...thought that was a reranch/nitro only thing, didn't know it was relevant for lacquer. Thanks!

[sully]

yep! Nitro is lacquer, so warm it up a little.

[alphadog808]

So...it's done. Just to close up this thread, here's a couple pics of the final product. It plays well, even better after a pro set up.

Ended up using:
- Schaller chrome bridge
- Air norton S for the neck. Had to do some major dremeling to make the pickup fit. Should have opened the pickup hole before painting...
- ToneZone in the bridge. Very surprised how good this pup sounds; glad I gave it a try.
- Gotoh chrome tuners
- Aftermarket big brass block..the stock block was too big anyways, so it worked out well
- Got a charvel wiring kit off ebay and used that.
- Various parts and pieces from Stew Mac
- ebonized the neck.

As fun a project as this was, I think it's a much better, "deal" to buy a completed guitar...unless you have alot of parts lying around. Learned alot about building and painting, next one will be nicer!

Thanks to all the forum members for all the help and advice!

From this...


To this...

[Force]

Oh wow, that is the shit dude, well done indeed. My only niggle (just my personal taste) is I would've gone with black hardware but the chrome still looks cool. Reap the rewards of hard work man, enjoy her, she's hot.

[alphadog808]

Oh wow, that is the shit dude, well done indeed. My only niggle (just my personal taste) is I would've gone with black hardware but the chrome still looks cool. Reap the rewards of hard work man, enjoy her, she's hot.

I agree! I guess I thought it'd be nice to have one guitar with silver hardware... It was too late to return the hardware, so I just rolled with it.

[JACKSONFREAK]

looks good man. I did a similar thing to my 275dx.

[alphadog808]

Very nice, I dig!