83 Kramer Pacer Special Refinish

[cullenszoo]

Last fall I lucked up on a vintage Kramer Pacer Special from a guy on CL. For my whopping $150 I got a Made in the USA Vintage guitar that needed a refinish and restore. I'm gonna share a little of the process with you. The coolest part about this find was an early german made Floyd Rose and a neck with little fret wear in great shape.
This was the pic in the CL ad.
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I couldn't tell if the paint was factory and I didn't notice until I saw it in person that the controls had been altered at some point.
The Pacer Special model came with a vol, tone, and 3 way micro toggle for coil tapping. early models had the jack on the front of the guitar while later ones had a barrel jack on the side. It turned out the barrel jack I had wasn't original.
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The chrome cover pick up was also not original. but, it turned out it was a SD Seth Lover signed pup. I sent it to a buddy of mine who is a pup guru who sold it for me and found an original Schaller Golden 50.
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the body consisted of two pieces and the seam in the middle was rippled so I started by drilling out the plugs where the controls should be and filling the cracks, dents and the hole where the jack was.
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I'm not a pro painter and don't have the nice spray set up so I went with rattle cans. I checked out the color options from an 83 catalog thanks to vintagekramer.com and decided to go with cream.
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I started the long process of priming, sanding, priming, etc before finally applying the color coat.
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I had a few bloopses along the way but all you can do is let it dry, sand it out, and keep going.
I picked up new pots, cap, and toggle to replace the old ones. While I was waiting for the new pup I couldnt help but do some fitting to see how it looked.
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needless to say there was some paint dust floating around the room. after I applied some clear gloss I started cleaning up the neck with gorgomyte. I love that stuff.
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after a whole can of clear I wet sanded with 2000 grit sandpaper and polished with Scratch X car polish. and this was the result.
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The pup came in and I started putting her together. it's been a while and the clear is just now solid and ready to take a buffing wheel too. No clear enamel on the next project. takes too long to cure. Anyway, this is how she looks now.
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[Nimitz]

Great Job Man!!!

Looks like a dream to play.

[Prince Vultan]

Nice work! I've got a real soft spot for that Kramer body shape. Must be great to look at that tasty guitar and think 'I did that'. Awesome.

[cullenszoo]

thanks guys. Yes it is a dream to play. the old esp neck is lacquered and smooth and it is cool to look down and see a nice glossy finish. Always fun bringing one back from the wood pile no matter what the brand.

[DonP]

I'm curious why you chose the Krylon Fusion instead of the regular Kylon paints. I've used Fusion before on pickguards, but not on a guitar body. Of course I've already bought a bunch of regular Krylon so I guess I'm already screwed if I bought the wrong stuff.

[Frfurter]

Nice job on bringing that guitar back to it's former glory.

[CowboyFromHell]

Great job. Just comes to show you what you can do with a small budget and some patience.

[guitarguy2237]

I've got a stock red pacer 2000, great guitar, low serial number too. This thing look pretty sick!

[cullenszoo]

I'm curious why you chose the Krylon Fusion instead of the regular Kylon paints. I've used Fusion before on pickguards, but not on a guitar body. Of course I've already bought a bunch of regular Krylon so I guess I'm already screwed if I bought the wrong stuff.

I picked the fusion because I wanted something that would apply to multiple types of surfaces. Any Krylon should work. just check to make sure what it is. I'm pretty sure they are an enamel paint. you can clear coat with enamel, lacquer, or polyurethane.

[moku]

beautifully done. congrats!

[DonP]

I picked the fusion because I wanted something that would apply to multiple types of surfaces. Any Krylon should work. just check to make sure what it is. I'm pretty sure they are an enamel paint. you can clear coat with enamel, lacquer, or polyurethane.

Thanks, makes sense.

No, it's not enamel. I've learned enough from painting projects in the past to stay away from enamel for guitars at least.

[Amerturk]

Nice rescue. It reminds me of my pacer special (Kramer) that I got a few years ago. Some knucklehead decided to hack it to near death and create a strat style (Kramer Deluxe) guitar. Man it was bad. Here are some pics of it...and yes, that is a complete hole through the guitar for the electronics cavity! WTF!

[leftykingv2]

That's an awesome find and a major steal for the price! You really did a great job repairing it as well. Looks awesome and I'm sure sounds great too! I have an old Kramer Stagemaster deluxe and it's still a great guitar till this day.

[straycat]

Nice save!

[warlok]

Nice job!