Acryllic Clear Coat

[Dirt Folkie]

Howdy,

I am in the process of refinishing my brother-in-law's Fender guitar. Please keep in mind I have never done this before, so I need to ask some really dumb questions.

My brother-in-law took on the task of sanding and putting on a coat of gray primer on the guitar body. The guitar has a pick guard, so we ended up sanding this as well to remove the shine. We then started out with acryllic based airbrush, and painted the entire body. I then used acryllic paints and a brush to paint a shark (Bruce from the movie Nemo) on the guitar.

Everything looks cool so far. We are now down to putting on the lacquer. But I need to order some, sooooo....

1. What type should I use? I want to have a clear finish on this as much as possible. I thought I saw something about an acryllic lacquer. Do I get this from an autobody store?

2. Is it okay to clear over the pick guard as well? Did I screw up painting it?

3. Is there anything that I mentioned in this email that raises your eye brows? Any red flags, gotchas, or things you need to watch out for?

Any assistance here would be very much appreciated since I am in uncharted waters.

Sincerely,

Pete

PWeigler@Yahoo.com

[thedoctor]

Did you paint the body seperate from the pickgaurd? Or did you have to paint the pickgaurd while it was on to get your design? Krylon CrystalClear is a good easy topcoat but you have to be sure it will not react with the airbrushed paint you have already put on.

[Gorecki]

1. What type should I use? I want to have a clear finish on this as much as possible. I thought I saw something about an acryllic lacquer. Do I get this from an autobody store?

2. Is it okay to clear over the pick guard as well? Did I screw up painting it?

3. Is there anything that I mentioned in this email that raises your eye brows? Any red flags, gotchas, or things you need to watch out for?

←

Logically acrylic on acrylic is your best bet but my only experience involves rattle cans and it takes many cans and many coats to build it up. Yes you can get it at an auto store, I've used Duplicolor Truck & RV (I think).

With the guard still attached to the body? No! It's not okay, mostly because you'll likely never get the guard off the guitar, also, if the guards chemical composition doesn't agree with the clear, it will eventually chip, splinter or simply come off.

As above you really don't want to spray a guard (that is already most often acrylic), replace it with a desired guard or polish the existing one if it's not pretty.

[Dirt Folkie]

Gentlemen,

Thankyou so much for your replies. Bummer about the guard, but hopefully I won't get a negative reaction with the clear.

Sorry for the misinformation. I painted the pick guard separate from the guitar body. But then I replaced it to paint the shark. I was planning on removing the pick guard and clear it and the guitar body separately. Next time, I won't even bother trying to paint over the guard.

Thankyou for the tips on Krylon Crystal Clear and Duplicolor Truck and RV. I'll check those out.

If I can figure out how to get an image out here, I'll post a picture of the project.

Thanks

Pete

[marksound]

You can paint the pickguard. Example: http://www.stratcollector.com/scn/ec3.html Also, Fender's Splattercasters were painted with the pickguards on.

Probably anything you want to do can be done, you just have to plan it out and be prepared to try different things until you get the result you want.

[Dirt Folkie]

Hey out there!

Well I finally got my guitar project posted out on Polk Musicians.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. I ended up getting acryllic clear coat spray from a hobby store (very expensive considering you only get a few ounces in each can).

Anyway, this was my first project. Hopefully you guys dig it.

Thanks

Pete

Here's the site:

http://polkmusicians.com/phpboard/viewtopic.php?t=89