painting help

[Niccolai]

I want to put my own water slide decal on that headstock, so that would involve sanding off the clear coat and removing the decal (and possibly the black paint).

My question is would I be able to JUST sand the face of the headstock to remove the clear, apply my decal and then respray just the face?

or would the whole thing need to be repainted?

I was thinking sence it's got binding then I would just be able to clear over it.

[PallarAndersVisa]

what is that thing?

[rjohnstone]

No need to sand it down. Scuff it... mask it off... repaint it black... add waterslide... clear coat it.

Done.

[Bengal65]

No problem, take your tuners off. Use a flat sanding block. Wet sand if you can. A little trick I use is to take a "Q-Tip" and dab it into some Tung, linseed or danish oil and wipe down the wood inside of the ferrule holes. This will prevent any water from penetrating the end grain in the holes. Do this before you start sanding. Start with 400 Grit until you have the decal removed. Take it up to 1200 or higher grit if possible. The higher the grit the less likely you will trap small air pockets under the waterslide decal. I use (Micro Mesh sanding material) and take it to 3600 Grit.
If you sand through the black, no big deal. You can mask off the side binding and apply black. If you sanded nice and level, you can apply the waterslide decal and let dry for 12 hours min. This will assure the glue has cured. Then mask off the sides, neck and put the body in a paper or plastic bag and tape it. This will prevent overspray from getting on the rest of the guitar. Apply 3 light coats 15 mins. apart, then wait an over night, then apply more coats so that the decal is good and buried. Again use the 15 minutes timing. Depending on what type of clear you use, wait for it to cure then level sand moving up it grits as you go. Figure 3 days of cure time for each coat of Nitro lacquer and 48 hours total for clear Urethane. Hint: Also remember lacquer is much thinner than Urethane, so you can figure how many coats your going to need.

[rjohnstone]

No problem, take your tuners off. Use a flat sanding block. Wet sand if you can. A little trick I use is to take a "Q-Tip" and dab it into some Tung, linseed or danish oil and wipe down the wood inside of the ferrule holes. This will prevent any water from penetrating the end grain in the holes. Do this before you start sanding. Start with 400 Grit until you have the decal removed. Take it up to 1200 or higher grit if possible. The higher the grit the less likely you will trap small air pockets under the waterslide decal. I use (Micro Mesh sanding material) and take it to 3600 Grit.
If you sand through the black, no big deal. You can mask off the side binding and apply black. If you sanded nice and level, you can apply the waterslide decal and let dry for 12 hours min. This will assure the glue has cured. Then mask off the sides, neck and put the body in a paper or plastic bag and tape it. This will prevent overspray from getting on the rest of the guitar. Apply 3 light coats 15 mins. apart, then wait an over night, then apply more coats so that the decal is good and buried. Again use the 15 minutes timing. Depending on what type of clear you use, wait for it to cure then level sand moving up it grits as you go. Figure 3 days of cure time for each coat of Nitro lacquer and 48 hours total for clear Urethane. Hint: Also remember lacquer is much thinner than Urethane, so you can figure how many coats your going to need.

That's the long version of what I said.

[Niccolai]

I should have mentioned, I'm using a poly clear.

[Racerx2k]

One in a spraycan?

[Bengal65]

That's the long version of what I said.

Yea, I started to type this before I saw your post, then after I posted it and saw your nice short post, I ended up writing a book

[Niccolai]

One in a spraycan?

nah, my brother paints motor cycle fearings, I'm going to use his gear.