backyardburial Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Hi all, my special is from 95, but the body finish is still lookin pretty good, however the headstock is rooted. By that I mean the clear coating stuff is all cracked and peeling off. Its a black finish by the way. I have heard about this 'nitrocellulose' (I think) is that the clear coat on top of the finish? Any way, how do I go about refinishing my guitar, or even just the head? Also, if I have to sand, how do I re apply the 'gibson' logo, or for that matter where do I get one from, if I can? cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dynadude Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 First thing, you need to be sure what type of finish is on your guitar. It would be a HUGE disaster if you try to put nitro over some other finish. Lacquer is very "hot", and will act like a paint stripper if applied over most any other type of finish. You could spray a poly finish over the lacquer, and it will do fine. The logo, you can probably get from Ebay as a decal. What caused the finish to come off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS90 Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Loads of info for you here... http://reranch.com/basics.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGman94 Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 what u could do is buy a new neck all together and have it refitted on it. but im not sure how much that would cost or how hard that would be to find Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS90 Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 what u could do is buy a new neck all together and have it refitted on it. but im not sure how much that would cost or how hard that would be to find If you get a flat tyre do you buy a new car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backyardburial Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 hi cheers for replys, there is no way I wanna replace neck, I'd never find one in New Zealand anyway, as to how the finish came off I don't know, it was like that when I got it, but I think its just general wear and tear, kinda looks like its spent some time in the sun. Guess I need to find out what the finish is, The guitar is a 95 Special as far as I know, but that nitro was not used on all guitars? Have to do some more research, thanks for the link shown, will check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS90 Posted January 11, 2009 Share Posted January 11, 2009 Gibson only uses nitro. All you need to do is sand the face of the headstock back, if it still looks nice and black or even grey you can move on to the clear coat if it looks bad you can just spray it black with an acrylic from a rattle can. Once dry add a few light dustings of clear (again, acrylic from a rattle can will be fine) add the new decal and let it dry for a couple of days, if you carry on spraying clear while the decal is wet it will curl up. After a couple of days carry on with the light dusting of clear, one quick pass over every 5 mintes will be fine. I usually do this for a hour, let it dry over night and do it again the next day. Leave it to cure for a week. Now the sanding starts, lightly wet sand with 600 wet and dry, you will see the lacquer go cloudy, if any parts stay clear you have missed them or they are small holes where the lacquer has sunk, you can drop fill these with a blob of lacquer on a match stick and leave them to dry again or just leave them if they are small. Now move onto 800 wet and dry followed by 1200. Finish off with t-cut and it will look good as new. Heres one I did... Its an old SG so I went for the faded look with not much lacquer, a few more coats and it would have had a deep glass like finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.