Refinished/Repainted Guitars

[animalfarm]

A post by "Mr. E" started me thinking. (That's amazing by itself!).

Used to be a thread here about that, believe it was lost in crash.

SO MANY Excellent gits have been posted, would love to see them

again.

 

I'll post a couple of mine, no great detail, just quick Before/After,

please resurrect them photos!

 

STARTED as Flat Black UGLY String-thru Dean Vendetta XM, ended up as:

 

 

 

STARTED as Black, scratched, paint markered, gutted 1970's Hondo II LP:

 

 

[brianh]

Hey Animal, thanks for posting this! I've had to link to your work a few times lately for folks that wanted to repaint their guits without doing the whole Stew Mac boondoggle.

 

They still look great, love the results!

 

PS: Who is "Mr. E"?

[ratdog8o8]

That LP is awesome! Great work!

[RobinTheHood]

Ha, awesome. I've been thinking about that old thread daily since I started refinishing my LP Jr. I sure do wish those handy dandy instrucciones were still around.

[animalfarm]

Ha' date=' awesome. I've been thinking about that old thread daily since I started refinishing my LP Jr. I sure do wish those handy dandy instrucciones were still around.[/quote']

 

Robin -

 

Please read the following link, has parts 1 thru 10, about repainting

your guitar. I learned a lot from it, funny, too!

 

http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/29/guitar-painting-part-1/

 

READ IT!!! Save it in Favorites!

[BryanFoFyan]

Turned an old beat up epi les paul special 2 into this

[animalfarm]

Bryan - very creative! I love double cut-out LPs. Never

thought about making my own. Hmmmmm........

[cool]

 

You now own an authentic "Road-Worn" guitar,

which means add $200.00 to the selling price if you

decide to sell it!

[BryanFoFyan]

Bryan - very creative! I love double cut-out LPs. Never

thought about making my own. Hmmmmm........

[cool]

 

You now own an authentic "Road-Worn" guitar' date='

which means add $200.00 to the selling price if you

decide to sell it! [/quote']

 

Thanks. i pretty much changed the whole thing but it was worth it.

[Doc Helliday]

Before

After

[animalfarm]

Doc - that IS a massive difference! What are the reactions?

 

OK, one LAST git from ME, still waiting for the Bavarian Dean

to reappear, among others...

 

PLEASE GO TO WEBSITE for LEARNIN'!!!!

 

http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/29/guitar-painting-part-1/

 

HALO Invert Guitar as rcvd:

 

 

As FINISHED:

 

[Doc Helliday]

How did you get the White to come out so nicely?

[BryanFoFyan]

Before

After

 

Doc did you stencil that artwork on? or how did you do the bats and lettering?

[Guest icantbuyafender]

nick 13 from tiger army would go ape$hit for that green psychobilly-esque guitar.

 

(im assuming that was the intention?)

 

Too friggin cool.

 

My dot studio is looking to get a big makeover as soon as I slap a good CTS/Sprague O-drop/switchcraft harness together.

 

I want it to be snotty trash punk weapon for this garage band Im dabbling in. We have a show coming up, and I figure itd be a cool novelty.

[RobinTheHood]

Robin -

 

Please read the following link' date=' has parts 1 thru 10, about repainting

your guitar. I learned a lot from it, funny, too!

 

http://www.bradsucks.net/archives/2006/05/29/guitar-painting-part-1/

 

READ IT!!! Save it in Favorites![/quote']

 

Cool! Thanks! Bookmarked for later.

 

I'm in the clear-coating stage right now. Man, this takes FOREVER! And the rain and moisture this week isnt helping either.

One thing I learned from my days of painting signs and carnival rides (yes, carnival rides): If you paint outside, even under a tent or roofed open enclosure, dont paint on rainy days and dont paint after 5pm. The moisture can reak havok on the paint finish.

[animalfarm]

 

I'm in the clear-coating stage right now. Man' date=' this takes FOREVER![/b'] And the rain and moisture this week isnt helping either.

One thing I learned from my days of painting signs and carnival rides (yes, carnival rides): If you paint outside, even under a tent or roofed open enclosure, dont paint on rainy days and dont paint after 5pm. The moisture can reak havok on the paint finish.

 

Ain't that the truth! My most frustrating job was the 70s Hondo II -

Spray, let cure for a week, sand... Spray next coat, let cure for a week, wet sand....

and on and on. When it came to CLEAR coats, spray 4 coats, cure for week,

wet sand with 800 and 1000 grit, spray next 4 coats, cure for a week.

FINALLY made it to buffing - buffed entire git with 2 different grits of Meguires

scratch remover, then let guitar sit in corner for 6 WEEKS until it "quit" Gassing

out/ giving off odors/vapors. Dry to touch, but put nose up to it, STILL smell the

"paint/Gloss". DANG - HOW LONG is this gonna take? Answer - a LONG time as

I put MANY coats of primer/paint/gloss on guitar. You can reassemble the git when dry

to touch, but the paint will still be "soft" - even the pressure of your pup rings will

make dents in the finish. A refinish job is a "long-term" process...

[RobinTheHood]

Ain't that the truth! My most frustrating job was the 70s Hondo II -

Spray' date=' let cure for a week, sand... Spray next coat, let cure for a week, wet sand....

and on and on. When it came to CLEAR coats, spray 4 coats, cure for week,

wet sand with 800 and 1000 grit, spray next 4 coats, cure for a week.

FINALLY made it to buffing - buffed entire git with 2 different grits of Meguires

scratch remover, then let guitar sit in corner for 6 WEEKS until it "quit" Gassing

out/ giving off odors/vapors. Dry to touch, but put nose up to it, STILL smell the

"paint/Gloss". DANG - HOW LONG is this gonna take? Answer - a LONG time as

I put MANY coats of primer/paint/gloss on guitar. You can reassemble the git when dry

to touch, but the paint will still be "soft" - even the pressure of your pup rings will

make dents in the finish. A refinish job is a "long-term" process...[/quote']

 

 

I've been taking shortcuts on the Jr. I let my paint coats dry for 24 hrs before the next coat and no sanding between them. I read that it wasnt necessary, but we'll see how this turns out. Actually, the only time I did any sanding between coats was to remove a run. oops.

 

I have 4 coats or clear on as of Monday. Been drying since then. I'll probably do some wet sanding on Sat. or Sun. weather permitting. Thanks for the heads-up on the curing/gassing.

 

BTW, I'm doing a gun-metal gray metallic with black and chrome hardware. The back of the git and the neck will stay black. I'm sure my tape edges are a little rough, but thats ok. Anything will look better than it did.

[animalfarm]

I've been taking shortcuts on the Jr. I let my paint coats dry for 24 hrs before the next coat and no sanding between them. I read that it wasnt necessary' date=' but we'll see how this turns out. Actually, the only time I did any sanding between coats was to remove a run. oops.

 

I have 4 coats or clear on as of Monday. Been drying since then. I'll probably do some wet sanding on Sat. or Sun. weather permitting. [b']Thanks for the heads-up on the curing/gassing.[/b]

 

BTW, I'm doing a gun-metal gray metallic with black and chrome hardware. The back of the git and the neck will stay black. I'm sure my tape edges are a little rough, but thats ok. Anything will look better than it did.

 

Yer welcome - the "dry to touch" angle will fool you! The Nose Knows, you'll smell

the darn paint even though the fingers say "yep. it's dry". Normally this would be OK

on something that's not going to be handled, it would cure over time and you'd never

even be aware of it. But a GIT? Unless FULLY HARDENED, even a gentle bump will dent the

finish, and make you want to grab neck and pull a "Pete Townsend" out of sheer

frustration.

Have you shot any pix of the project? ANY will do - post 'em, plz!

[RobinTheHood]

Yer welcome - the "dry to touch" angle will fool you! The Nose Knows' date=' you'll smell

the darn paint even though the fingers say "yep. it's dry". Normally this would be OK

on something that's not going to be handled, it would cure over time and you'd never

even be aware of it. But a GIT? Unless FULLY HARDENED, even a gentle bump will dent the

finish, and make you want to grab neck and pull a "Pete Townsend" out of sheer

frustration.

Have you shot any pix of the project? ANY will do - post 'em, plz![/quote']

 

 

Er, no. I havent taken any pics yet. To be honest, this git was in such bad shape, I was somewhat embarrassed by the looks of it. I'll take some pics of its current state and post them though. After seeing the type of quality refnishing done by you and others, I'm a little self-conscious about my novice work. But I'll man up and get some pics up. lol

[animalfarm]

Er' date=' no. I havent taken any pics yet. To be honest,

this git was in such bad shape, I was somewhat embarrassed by the looks of it.

I'll take some pics of its current state and post them though. After seeing the type

of quality refnishing done by you and others, I'm a little self-conscious about my

novice work. But I'll man up and get some pics up. lol[/quote']

 

The quality of your work will improve from practice, and messing up.

The Red Dean I posted at the beginning was my FIRST refinish project -

(let you in on a couple of secrets) - I ultimately had problems with 2 areas.

 

First one - the sharp edges at the neck pocket. Dang paint started flaking

off at the 90 degree edges while buffing out. I could have painted the pocket,

but then there might have been problems with neck going back in. Ultimately,

I used color matched Cherry Red acrylic nail polish to hide the small flake spots.

Can't see "repairs" unless you look REALLY close.

 

Second one - String thru holes. I drilled out holes to accept a glued-in wooden

dowel, let dry, then sanded smooth. Looked just fine, felt smooth. But somewhere

during the process, the dang dowels "shrank" a bit, leaving slight concave depressions

on the back side. The dowels were used to fill in the holes so I could install a "Stop-bar"

tailpiece on top. The "shrinking" occured (of Course) AFTER guitar was painted and buffed.

NO WAY was I gonna re-do after all that work, so I just left 'em. I should have hit 'em

with wood filler just for grins, but wasn't expecting the shrinking. Now I know.