Kelly Project (Pics)

[BayRocker]

I guess the resurrection of this thread is the kick in the ass I needed to get back on track with this project...thanks.

This morning the first coat of white went on.

[jacksonkellyfreak]

oh hell yes, cant wait to see it

[cullenszoo]

I guess the resurrection of this thread is the kick in the ass I needed to get back on track with this project...thanks.

This morning the first coat of white went on.

see, nothing like the help of your friends to get past a broken heart.

[BayRocker]

Ok, I've been back at it. I'm posting progress pictures figuring if I keep updating this thread, I must be making progress...:think: right?!?

Here's the laying out of the graphic. Btw...nothing is more metal than painting using an Ariel Little Mermaid sheet as a drop cloth!!



Masked off.



First coat of red.



And that's where this project stands as of the moment....

[BayRocker]

Alrighty then, second coat went on and masking tape came off....

As George Costanza would say, "I'm back in business, baby!"





Going to let this sit and cure for a week or so.

[wilkinsi]

Lookin forward to seeing this completed.

[jdr94]

Yeah what he said.
Looks awesome. Makes me wanna paint somethin.

[Metal Spawn]

Lookin' good, mate!

[cullenszoo]

Sweet! I'm glad to see you are back at it. You have the right idea, take your own sweet time. I know it's hard to do cause I can almost see it finished myself. I was thinking about what happened before. I think the run that started the last nightmare was still soft underneath and that's what caused the hole. Anyway It's looking good.

[BayRocker]

Sweet! I'm glad to see you are back at it. You have the right idea, take your own sweet time. I know it's hard to do cause I can almost see it finished myself. I was thinking about what happened before. I think the run that started the last nightmare was still soft underneath and that's what caused the hole. Anyway It's looking good.

That was part of the issue...it's what you said, I could see it completed and wanted to rush it a bit. Only ends up taking longer that way. Anyhow, I'm kind of glad I had to redo it. I also didn't really give the route filling a whole lot of time to settle the first time, and well, it settled. So while the guitar sat there doing nothing all those months with the botched paint job on it, I started to see the outline of the neck hum appear in the paint. The filler that surrounded the wood piece I put in there had shrunk. So I had the opportunity to fix that when I sanded it down a while back, and let it sit, and sit. Then it was primed, and it sat and sat until I was sure that route wouldn't rear it's ugly head again. Got it to where you can't tell this thing ever had a neck pickup. So in the end it all worked out for the better, cause had I finished it up the first time, that would have ate at me. Also, the first time I painted it, I decided to leave the trem route black as it was originally. I wasn't real sure about that the first time, and the more I looked at it as it sat, decided I wanted to continue the white and red through the route. So, to me, improvements have been made this go round, however small they may be.

[chuckbat]

Wow. You guys are talented. I couldn't do that. That is going to be a badass fiddle.

[CowboyFromHell]

Sure you could IF you took your time and didn't get in a rush. That's where too many people mess up. Getting excited and rushing it will almost always lead to some mistake that winds up ruining the project. Sometimes it's painting the next layer too soon. Sometimes it's laying on the paint a lil too thick resulting in a run. As long as you use quality materials and have patience you can do it.

As with anything experience comes with practice so don't expect your first project to look like a factory finish. My advice to you if you want to try this is watch your local CraigsList and pick up one of those really cheap FirstAct guitars. While not much good for playing they offer a good base to practice refinishing on. The contours of the body will offer you plenty of practice sanding while not sanding too much as well as painting on the different curves and edges. I think the guys will agree that it's always better to lay on many thin layers as opposed to fewer heavier layers. Also when sanding, watch around edges on which the paint will almost always get sanded through faster so be careful.

[jacksonkellyfreak]

Chuck, I just did a guide to refinishing about a month ago.

[tomanyjacksons]

I've only done one refinish and it failed miserably. I have no place to paint that is dry. It's always so humid here and I didn't wait long enough in between coats it took forever to get where I could touch it and it was still tacky a month later so I got to sanding and found some dry paint in spots. So, I left it like it was and put it back together. It looks like a relic now and not in a good way either. Going to get after it again this summer with a different approach. Sad thing of it is I worked in a body shop for a few years and painted cars with better luck. Yours is turning out awesome. Best wishes.

[jacksonkellyfreak]

whats up with your user name? there is no such thing