Guitar Project: painting, sanding and buffing

[alerich]

Hey y'all,

I'm starting a new first time project. I have a MIM Squier Strat that is this ugly "somewhere in between Lake Placid Blue and Ocean Turquoise" color. I like the guitar but hate the color so I have decided to refinish it. While I do not intend to make a duplicate of the EVH Frankenstein Strat I will be using the same process of a single backing color which is then taped off and a second color painted over it, then remove the tape and clear coat. I have some questions for anyone more knowledgeable than I.

There are numerous tutorials available about buffing the clear coat. I think I understand the buffing process. When you are clear coating, wet sanding and buffing do you wait until all of the clear coat is applied and cured? I have seen some people make reference to intermediate wet sanding and buffing during the clear coating process. I'll be doing this as a home brew project with spray cans. I'm not striving to make a custom shop instrument and I have seen many home brew examples that came out very nice.

As far as the painted colors go - do you do any sort of wet sanding or buffing on those layers? I have not seen any reference to this but thought I would ask. It would seem that any surface imperfections in the paint would be preserved in the clear coat if you don't wet sand it first.

Tape. One site mentions using 3M tape for best results but there are about a dozen different types of 3M tape available for this purpose. Any specific recommendations?

I am open to and grateful for any suggestions. There are scads of web sites devoted to projects like this but I have not found one yet that is very complete or coherently written.

[G._Hoffman]

First and foremost, your final project will only ever be as good as your prep work.  Make it perfect before you ever touch finish.  Do not sand bare wood past 220 grit.  This is contrary to most of the advice you will find on the internet, but they are all wrong.  Every finish manufacturer in the world will tell you that sanding bare wood past 220 will negatively effect finish adhesion, and they are right.  Never sand bare wood past 220.

I try to avoid sanding color coats (the exception is when dying fancy maples, but that is a whole other thing).  Too easy to mess them up.  On the other hand, if you apply your color too heavy and get a sag in the finish, you have no choice. 

For clear, I spray a few coats (4-8, depending on how you are spraying - I use a process called double coats, so I do 4 of those), wait until it is dry (depends on your finish - for lacquer, one week) sand it until it is about 95% level with a lubricated dry 320 grit;  spray another 3-8 coats, wait until dry, and sand until it is dead level;  spray another 2-4 coats, and wait until it is thoroughly dry (with lacquer, about a month), and wet sand with 600 and then 1000 grit wet or dry, using soapy water as a lubricant.  It must be perfectly level.  Then you can buff it out.  I use a big buffing wheel, you probably don't want to spend that much money.

Somewhere around here I have a much bigger description of my process. 


Gabriel

[G._Hoffman]

Oh yeah, the other piece of bad advice the internet is awash with is, "spray lots of light dry coats."  Terrible advice.  You will never get a really good finish if you don't spray wet coats.  It takes a lot more skill, but is absolutely required if you want the finish to look good.


Gabriel

[alerich]

Thank you, Gabriel! Very good advice. I am taking notes.

[alerich]

Just wanted to touch base and thank you again Gabriel for your advice. My project definitely benefited from it. This is a picture of my finished project. Up close it it readily apparent that it was done with rattle cans on a some guy's porch as opposed to a custom shop piece but I don't have custom shop skills and facilities. All in all it came out pretty well and I am happy with the result. It was a tremendous learning experience and I am sure my next foray into refinishing will be much improved. Thank you again Gabriel for your counsel.

[Slimtim]

looks as nice as any i've seen for sale from that distance,very good job.

[G._Hoffman]

Just wanted to touch base and thank you again Gabriel for your advice. My project definitely benefited from it. This is a picture of my finished project. Up close it it readily apparent that it was done with rattle cans on a some guy's porch as opposed to a custom shop piece but I don't have custom shop skills and facilities. All in all it came out pretty well and I am happy with the result. It was a tremendous learning experience and I am sure my next foray into refinishing will be much improved. Thank you again Gabriel for your counsel.

Your welcome, and by the way, I appreciate the update.


Gabriel

[tubenit]

Looks great to me!  Thanks for sharing the photo and update.

With respect, Tubenit