How To Holoflash Finish

	Start out with your plain holographic material cut down to the approximate size of your guitars body. This particular finish is easy to do but will require plenty of patience and a massive amount of clear coat
Peal the backing off and slowly roll the material onto your body. It is not necessary for you to start out with a bare wood body, as a matter of fact it is much easier to start out with a finished guitar body since the surface allows the adhesive to stick easier. You can either rub it down by hand or using a spatula (I prefer hand myself).
	Trim all around the outside just like you would if you were doing a material finish using a brand new blade which makes the job that much easier. If you need to cut lines and lap the material down around odd curves on the body (you can see that has been done on the arm rest area of this particular body due to a contour that wouldn't allow a simple adhesion).
While it would be nice to have the surface smooth all around your going to encounter spots that look like miniature bubbles or bumps. Just pierce through these and press down to make sure the material is adhered to the body fully (don't worry they will disappear in this finish or make a spectacular ray of reflection later).
	After you have trimmed all the excess off your ready to get started on the painting part. Give your body a complete single coat of which ever color you desire covering the material as well so it is barely visible or gone from site completely (funny how the flash shows the rainbow but without the high intensity light it's a completely black guitar).

We are going to start working with Acetone now, while it is harmless to the holographic material it will wipe the paint off and also destroy you in the process if you do not take the proper steps to work in a well ventilated area with proper gear.

While your body is still drying take out a tin or glass container along with protective gloves and acetone. Here is where your going to have to decide what style of image you want to appear on the body be it thin swirl lines or big wild swishes.
	For big thick graphics use a clean cloth and rotate the clean part often dipping it into the acetone as you wipe away your personal design on top of the holographic material
To the right is the type of result you would get using the cloth method
	Use Qtips if you would rather have thinner or shaper lines darting across the body and change them out often.
This is the type of result you would get using the swab method. Either way you go after the image appears that you want it is time to let it dry completely for a minimum of a couple of days.

Now for the hard part which really isn't but it does take a lot of patience. Start out by spraying 3 coats of clear over the top and yes your going to have a disaster of a finish on your hands but don't worry. On your third coat go thick and allow the clear to pool in the image but be sure you allow each set of spraying to dry completely between coats. Allow this to dry and cure.

Now that you have waited a few days for your clear to dry repeat the clearing process over (do not start sanding yet). Yeah looks pretty nasty on top I know, plenty of nibs sticking up and all but hey it'll all smooth out in the end.

Now that your clear has had a couple of days to cure you can start leveling off the top with a block sander. Do this by hand so that you will have plenty of control over the process. Read the advice below and also keep in mind the picture you see to the right is at the 800 grit stage so don't try to achieve this right off the bat cause you will destroy your finish.

The best advice I can give you at this point is to start out with 320 or 400 grit (yeah I know the pro-finishers are saying WTF your crazy) but the only thing you want to do at this point is knock off just the tips of the hills and DO NOT sand down to the bottom of the valleys. You want to do this using dry paper not wet. Blow off the dust often so you can see the progress your making. Once you have taken off just the tops of the ridge's it is time to clear again with 3 good medium coats and allow the paint plenty of time to dry.

Repeat the process of block sanding once your clear has dried using the next highest grit of paper so were on 600 or 800 now. After you have knocked off the tops of your hill's and started to see the valleys disappear stop. Time to give the top another 3 good coats of clear.

By now your getting the idea of why it takes patience and tons of clear to get this finish to a point you can be proud of. At this point you may or may not have gone through an edge or two depending on your skill level. Edge's are usually the hardest part to keep intact while sanding without sanding through the paint (especially for beginners as well as more experienced painters). Whip out your spare color and burst if you have to or spot paint where you have sanded through. After that has had a chance to dry clear over the top again with 3 medium good coats and allow to dry.

Keep clearing and block sanding down until your at a minimum of 1000 grit, from there your ready to start the wet/dry 1200 grit and buffing process and you will be finished!

Your body will change colors completely as you walk by it or appear silver in color head on in low light. It never looks the same and you will love the result's!