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I thought this may be of interest to some of you who may be considering a refin. This is a project I've been working on for the past couple of days and I thought I'd take some pics along the way just to show MY method for a quick, good looking, and very durable refinish. Sorry about all the pics (dial-up users) but this was as few as I thought necessary to show the basic steps. This is an old model 3DR body I bought off eBay a year or so ago, and I'm finally doing something with it! I'm doing a lot of mods to this one but this post is just about the basic prep-n-paint process. It's an import body so I'm not taking a lot of time with it, just want it to look good and last!
Here's the first step, I stripped all the old paint off and filled the neck pup cavity, the top trem cavity (semi-recessed trem), the volume control and slider switch holes, and the trem post holes (which I've already re-drilled, more on that later). Yep, BONDO! No delicate woodwork here, just scraped out all the old paint, tapered the top edges with a razor blade (very important step unless you want those lines to come back and haunt you later!) and sanded her flat with a block and 180 grit. (the block is important here) For this project I want a (seemingly) 1 hum dinky body and this one will work nicely!
The next step was three good wet coats of a catylized primer surfacer (your choice, I used Diamont DP20) and let it harden over night.
Total time spent so far, approx. 2 hours. the next day I block sanded it again (this time with 320 grit), shot a coat of base color, and two coats of clear, and let it harden over night (about another hour spent). The next day (today!) I wet sanded the body just to get rid of any high/low spots (600 grit, soap and water, and yes....a block!)
I then applied two wet coats of clear and let it harden the rest of the day. About three hours later this is what it looked like:
The finish is hard as a rock, shines like glass, and PERMANENT! There will be no further shrinkage or haunting little lines showing up later down the road. The bondo will never shrink, nor will the catylized primers/base coats/or clear. Forget all that tedious cutting wood chunks to fill holes (pup cavities etc.), that new wood will shrink and swell and give you much headaches later! Here's the finishing products I use. There are others on the market but this is what I use on all m y classic car projects. This stuff hardens to a rock-hard glass-like finish! It flows so well that you really don't have to wet-sand and buff it unless you get a lot of dirt in it! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I hope someone here gets some good from this!! It works, and it's quick (under 4 hours spent from start to finish). Black is a hard color for me to photograph but this finish looks as good or better than any factory guitar finish I've ever seen! Just BE SURE to wear a respirator approved for poly paints! The Nason system is VOC (volatile organic compounds) compliant in most states but please check.
Here's the first step, I stripped all the old paint off and filled the neck pup cavity, the top trem cavity (semi-recessed trem), the volume control and slider switch holes, and the trem post holes (which I've already re-drilled, more on that later). Yep, BONDO! No delicate woodwork here, just scraped out all the old paint, tapered the top edges with a razor blade (very important step unless you want those lines to come back and haunt you later!) and sanded her flat with a block and 180 grit. (the block is important here) For this project I want a (seemingly) 1 hum dinky body and this one will work nicely!
The next step was three good wet coats of a catylized primer surfacer (your choice, I used Diamont DP20) and let it harden over night.
Total time spent so far, approx. 2 hours. the next day I block sanded it again (this time with 320 grit), shot a coat of base color, and two coats of clear, and let it harden over night (about another hour spent). The next day (today!) I wet sanded the body just to get rid of any high/low spots (600 grit, soap and water, and yes....a block!)
I then applied two wet coats of clear and let it harden the rest of the day. About three hours later this is what it looked like:
The finish is hard as a rock, shines like glass, and PERMANENT! There will be no further shrinkage or haunting little lines showing up later down the road. The bondo will never shrink, nor will the catylized primers/base coats/or clear. Forget all that tedious cutting wood chunks to fill holes (pup cavities etc.), that new wood will shrink and swell and give you much headaches later! Here's the finishing products I use. There are others on the market but this is what I use on all m y classic car projects. This stuff hardens to a rock-hard glass-like finish! It flows so well that you really don't have to wet-sand and buff it unless you get a lot of dirt in it! [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I hope someone here gets some good from this!! It works, and it's quick (under 4 hours spent from start to finish). Black is a hard color for me to photograph but this finish looks as good or better than any factory guitar finish I've ever seen! Just BE SURE to wear a respirator approved for poly paints! The Nason system is VOC (volatile organic compounds) compliant in most states but please check.
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