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How to strip er down?


drumrnmuzik

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Beyond my cheesy attempt to get noticed here, I have a real issue and I hope that someone can help out.

 

My new old Gibson S1 is about to get a complete fret job and that will get her playable, BUT, the finish has almost 40 years of hard abuse.

 

- The original nitro cellulose finish had been attacked by turkey numerous platter belt buckles so the back is in extreme poor shape

 

- Some dweeb spray painted polyurethane on top of the nitro, complete with runs and wrinkles

 

So I guess that I have two options

 

- Leave it as it is and let it reflect the glorious past that it has had

 

- Strip it down and get it in pristine condition

 

If I strip it down, how in goodness name do I do it ?

 

- Chemical strip on an adler body?

 

- Sand it down and maybe mess up the fine lines and bevels?

 

Has anyone had good experiences with striping down a gee tar? (BTW, the neck finish is in good shape)

 

Thanks if someone can give some good suggestions

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No offense intended on two counts bro, so stay with me here:

 

#1) If you don't even know how to get the paint off, it will probably not be a very satisfying project by the time you are done. It is a piece of wood like any other, so I'm guessing you haven't even stripped an old dresser or anything. I'd pass on re-finishing a guitar if I were you.

 

#2) Even if you could refinish something just fine, I'd pass on re-finishing that guitar and I'd leave it as is. It will be of precisely the same value whether you do it or not.

 

Stripping and painting guitars becomes a real hassle, especially if you don't have the right equipment and place to do it, and I'm guessing you don't. It is time consuming, it is sometimes painstaking work, and it can get expensive.

 

Good luck with it.

 

rct

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Chemical strippers are generally not very effective against nitro, or rattle-can automotive finishes, although they do ok against Krylon and similar hardware store paint. I have striped 10+ bodies, and I generally use a heat gun and scraper. You have to remove all the hardware from the body, and do this in a garage or similar place where glops of hot sticky paint hitting the floor are not a problem. Always keep a spray bottle of water handy in case you overheat the paint and it catches fire. Don’t get impatient and press the scraper too hard. . It takes 10 seconds to make a gouge, and half an hour to fill it or sand out. I can usually get 95% of a finish off with the gun and scraper, and then I use fine sandpaper and/or lacquer thinner to remove the rest.

 

If you have no experience of spraying, the best thing to do once you have a clean body is to sand it with the finest grit paper you can find until it feels very smooth, then use a rub-on sealer and leave the body in a natural matt finish. This covers a lot of small imperfections. Under no circumstances spray it with any of the paint you find in hardware stores. That stuff never gets hard enough to provide a durable finish.

 

 

 

 

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Some great suggestions here, thanks.

I have striped down an Ibanez with chemical strip and the acid had a funny effect on the wood and darkened the viens. I covered it with tung oil and it came out "ok". Iwant this to come out perfect.

I have seen the heat gun and scraper used, but on thick oil based paint. That scraper scares me on those delicate S1 lines.

Hope about a rotary sander?

Will chemical stripper mark adler ?

Thanks again for your helpful comments.

 

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when I stripped my junior, for the same reason, the original finish was shite.

I used a regular household blow dryer to soften the nitro, the you can CAREFULLY use a small pointed tool ( I used a #11 xacto blade) to get the first bit up on the BACK of the guitar, and just slowly worked my way around the guitar till it was all off. a light sand, 10 coats of linseed oil followed by 50 coats of Butchers wax.

if you take your time and work slowly this is what you can end up with.

Picture010-1.jpg

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Holy snikies sinner! Nice job, actually excellent! You really have a nice looking axe there.

 

I just know that my S1 wants to grow and look like your junior. Ok, Im convinced. I'll give it a go.

 

I'll bet that the coat of poly on top of the nitro will peel off with the heated nitro. Yessir, now I'm psych'ed. Gonna try it.

 

Thanks to all for the good ideas. eusa_clap.gif

 

BTW, Merry Christmas to all.

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Holy snikies sinner! Nice job, actually excellent! You really have a nice looking axe there.

 

I just know that my S1 wants to grow and look like your junior. Ok, Im convinced. I'll give it a go.

 

I'll bet that the coat of poly on top of the nitro will peel off with the heated nitro. Yessir, now I'm psych'ed. Gonna try it.

 

Thanks to all for the good ideas. eusa_clap.gif

 

BTW, Merry Christmas to all.

 

Make ABSOLUTELY sure you work in a well ventilated area, because the nitro smell we all know and love, is the volatile organic compounds gassing off!

and by applying mild heat will accelerate this process. work in small passes, TAKE YOUR TIME AND MOST OF ALL WORK SAFELY.

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Make ABSOLUTELY sure you work in a well ventilated area, because the nitro smell we all know and love, is the volatile organic compounds gassing off!

and by applying mild heat will accelerate this process. work in small passes, TAKE YOUR TIME AND MOST OF ALL WORK SAFELY.

 

Excellent advice - and remember to post pictures of your progress. Good Luck!

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Chemical strippers are generally not very effective against nitro, or rattle-can automotive finishes, although they do ok against Krylon and similar hardware store paint. I have striped 10+ bodies, and I generally use a heat gun and scraper. You have to remove all the hardware from the body, and do this in a garage or similar place where glops of hot sticky paint hitting the floor are not a problem. Always keep a spray bottle of water handy in case you overheat the paint and it catches fire. Don't get impatient and press the scraper too hard. . It takes 10 seconds to make a gouge, and half an hour to fill it or sand out. I can usually get 95% of a finish off with the gun and scraper, and then I use fine sandpaper and/or lacquer thinner to remove the rest.

 

If you have no experience of spraying, the best thing to do once you have a clean body is to sand it with the finest grit paper you can find until it feels very smooth, then use a rub-on sealer and leave the body in a natural matt finish. This covers a lot of small imperfections. Under no circumstances spray it with any of the paint you find in hardware stores. That stuff never gets hard enough to provide a durable finish.

 

 

 

 

 

Huh??? blink.gifblink.gif Uh...... Never had any trouble with chemical strippers removing any kind of finish especially nitro... Took me about 30 minutes or less to strip a studio down to bare wood without risk of it erupting into flames.... msp_biggrin.gif

 

Regards,

 

Andy

 

To the OP LEAVE IT ALOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!!!! msp_biggrin.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is a chemical stripper that smells like oranges...the name has the word ORANGE in it, but I can't recall it completely. I used it to strip my Les Paul Special Faded very easily and successfully, finished the mahogany with boiled linseed oil.

2 points-

 

 

1. Do NOT use power tools to remove the finish AT ALL. I guarantee you will screw it up- it is way to easy to do so with a power sander of any kind.

 

2. I have used a heat gun to remove factory poly from a Strat. The result was terrible...I ended up buying a used body and just using the neck, easy with a Strat, not with a Gibson.

 

Take care, take time, proceed slowly.

 

Good luck.

 

mark

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  • 9 years later...

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