Refinishing Guitar Bodys

[SATCH1967]

What do you do - it - yourselfers Use when stripping a a body. DO you sand or use chemicals to bubble-up the paint and putty knife it off.

I am thinking of doing one myself.


Thanks
D

[jacksonaxes]

I have used a heat gun.

[rjohnstone]

Depends on the finish. If it's Polyurethane finish, I use a chemical stripper to get it started, then I use a putty knife to get the bulk off and then sand the final layers off by hand.

I strip Nitrocellulose finishes with straight sandpaper, but there are chemical strippers that work very well with too.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I haven't done one in a while, but I used a hardcore version of Bix stripper ("Tough Jobs") on poly. The regular Bix barely dulled the finish after hours, and this stuff ate most of the finish off inside of a day. Not even sure you can get this anymore, but if you can, it works.

I think it would take a long, long time to sand a poly paint job off of a guitar.

[SEAN RAF]

Are you painting it again? If so, there's no need to take it back to the wood.

[rjohnstone]

Are you painting it again? If so, there's no need to take it back to the wood.

Good point.
If you're just going to re shoot it, simply scuff the surface and fill any holes.

[missionguitars1]

I have used a heat gun.

+1 - if you are looking to go down to the wood, use a heat gun. Expect it to take up to 2 hours your first time, let the heat do the work, don't start chiseling with the scraper! Also, make sure to keep the gun moving so you don't scorch the wood...

If you're looking to go over the current poly on there, then follow the others suggestions, it is MUCH less time consuming!

[Joelski]

Don't forget too that wood that is painted is 99 times out of 100 paint grade wood and you really don't want to know what's under the coats of stuff.

[Model1VH2]

Don't forget too that wood that is painted is 99 times out of 100 paint grade wood and you really don't want to know what's under the coats of stuff.

That may be the case if you're considering some sort of transluscent finish.
Otherwise ... who cares?

The less paint, the better resonance and tone IMO.
For that reason, I never paint over an existing paintjob.
Yeah, some may consider it more work, but I just accept it as part of the prep stages.

I hate sanding, so unless a body has binding, I almost always use a chemical stripper.
Chemical stripper WILL melt your binding.

[Axewielder]

The less paint, the better resonance and tone IMO.
For that reason, I never paint over an existing paintjob.
Yeah, some may consider it more work, but I just accept it as part of the prep stages.

+1....well worth the extra effort IMHO.