Refinishing my PC1 (pics inside!)

[vklobucar]

I stripped my PC1 completely down this evening and started to do a light surface sand to get rid of the sweat and oil stains that were on the face.

Given that it is an Au Natural and does not seem to have any polyurethane, I assume that it took all those stains rather easily.

Nevertheless, the top cleaned up quicker than I expected and I'll give the rest of the guitar a hand sand tomorrow. I am not going for a total factory mint restoration but rather a "refresh" look.

Debating if I should mix up some stain or just make it look stock. Either way I will dilute some poly and shoot a light coat or two to protect the finish this time around.

I suppose that with all this work I could have just been patient and scooped up a clean PC1 (like the one that sold this week for $1240) but this is truly a labor of love for me.

Nothing makes a guitar more personal than bringing it back to life!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/ninja1195/SandedPC1.jpg

[Wayniac]

WOW ! LOts of work there - looks great!

[jacksoncsplayer]

Looks awesome, FYI PRS uses alot of leather dyes on their wood and it really tends to bring out the depth in the flame then put on some poly and it will sing. really well done.

Marc

[vklobucar]

Really?

That sounds like it would work pretty well.

Do I need to seal the body if I only shoot some poly?

[jacksoncsplayer]

What they do is take some 3M blue 1/4 inch fineline tape and place it around the edge so they get the natural binding, then they select the color they want the top. They then dampen a cloth with dye and lightly rub it into the wood until they get the color they're looking for then pull off the fineline tape and look for bleedthrough. If you get some bleeding take some 320 and lightly sand the areas where you have the bleeding til it goes away. In your case you'll probably want to fineline the mahogany and stain all the maple, you'll get very little bleeding just tread lightly with the stain. They then use a transparent grainfiller to fill and seal the wood. after it dries they sand it with P600 til the orange peel is gone and then hit it with P800 so you dont have any sanding scratches the clear won't bridge. They used to use Dupont G2-4500 clear with G2-4507 hardener, i'm not sure if they're still using it or not but it works well. after you clear it cut and rub it and it should look pretty good.

[ashden]

Yes you will want to spray some sealer on after you apply the dye.Look on Guitar ReRanch they have some nice products and I have sprayed acrylic urethane over most of Bills products.I would also start with the highest grit you can.I usually start with 1500 wetdry if I have some orange peel or applied a graphic,2000 wetdry if I'm doing a solid or transparent color.A sealers good for levelng the body and giving a nice pallet to work with.Urethane is very high solids(unlike lacquer) and you don't really need grainfiller(just my opinion)even if its mahogony.I use PPG Omni products(PPG's lower end)they work great and not uv resistant but your doing a guitar not a car.Any bleedthroughs I usually only drysand with wetdry 1000 grit so I avoid sand through on the binding or graphic.The blue fineline tape does work great.Nice job stripping thats a pretty essential part of the refin process.I think a nice soft amber dye would look great.Remember to always use a sanding block to avoid unlevel areas.I use a gummie eraser for this and I wetsand urethane with mineral spirits so the wood doesnt swell and crack the finish where the holes are.Just my 2 cents.I love 3M Perfect it and Finess it for rubbing and polishing compounds.Medium cut

[Bengal65]

Really?

That sounds like it would work pretty well.

Do I need to seal the body if I only shoot some poly?

If you use dye's, I would recommend Stew Mac http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishin...id_Stains.html
I would test them out on scrap wood (maple top in this case, available at woodworking supply houses) first an experiment with colors and dilutions of dye if you decide to go that route. You can seal it with the Birchwood Casey Gunstock Tru-Oil, which Jackson uses for oiled necks, or a polymerized linseed oil or go with a more neutral color protective finish as Ashden suggests, especially on stained wood finishes. When you start getting into the Pro finish acrylic polyurethanes with names like Dupont and PPG your getting into the professional application realm and they take specialized gear and training (practice) to do properly.

[vklobucar]

What would the original Au Natural's been finished like?

Can I really assume that there was indeed no stain/sealer/finish on these guitars?

[Bengal65]

I can't say exactly, maybe Rick can chime in here, but I assume the Birchwood Casey Gunstock Tru-Oil was used on those. JCMI uses the Tru-Oil on oiled necks and the Music Zoo Natural's (body and necks, I have one also) I can say this for sure. My source? Mike Kotzen, JCMI Custom Shop Coordinator. You might contact (PM) (email) Mike Learn since he is a member here. I'm sure he knows for sure what the Au Naturals are done with.

[sully]

wowee. you may have been able to clean it up with some naptha and then add some gunstock oil to the top (assuming that's there's no poly on there) and been all good.

[charvel750]

Yeah, that was really an unusual call to strip that axe. The one Wayne sold you, right? The dude from Savotage? Man, stripping something like that is really a bad call...

[Bengal65]

Man, stripping something like that is really a bad call...

Why? It's his guitar to do what ever he pleases. I don't think he is lowering it's value any, plus I think Viktor bought it as a player. Heck, I never heard of that band (Savotage?)till I hung around here for awhile.

[vklobucar]

Stripping it may be an overstatement. I used some light sandpaper wrapped around a sanding block and just cleaned up the stained areas. Really though I spent maybe 20 minutes to make it look like that.

I did not sand out ever nick and gouge from the body and just figured that reapplying whatever oil was initialing installed by Jackson would freshen up the guitar a bit.

I actually did try some napha but the stains were really stubborn. So I figured a light sanding was in order.

Sort of like a compound and wax of a vintage car, you know? Not a ground up restoration where the car ends up looking showroom new but rather a detailing.

Above all I meant not disrespect to neither Wayne nor the fellow in Savatage. I just saw it as a player guitar that I could have a little fun with.

[Wayniac]

No disrespect taken at all.. she is yours to do with as you please. I just left it in almost the exact same condition I got her in. I just cleaned/degunked/scraped the fret board a hair, did a tweak on the set-up, and polished the hardware as best as i could.
I thought the road MOJO was cool, and probably could have made a killing had I gone to the "Bay with that - I just needed to unload it...
Enjoy it !

[sully]

hey vk, a nice easy way to add some cool tint to it would be to use a tinted oil; watco has a variety of oil tints that can add a really nice hue to the wood, while protecting it as well. for example, i added some cherry tinted danish oil to a mahogany star and it went from this:



to this:



and after a few coats, it warmed up even more.

sully