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Using Automotive Paint And Sanding Issues


turbo411

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I have a couple questions on finishing my guitar. I appreciate all help!

1.) I was thinking about using automotive paint because I like a certain color of green, are there any problems with this?

2.) I have the previous finish removed to the bare wood, do I need to do paint anything before the automotive primer?

3.) what grits should I use to sand the primer?

4.) what grits to sand the color coat?

5.) what grits to sand the top coat?

I've done a lot of searching and have found only bits and pieces about the sanding process. Also, since I do not have a spray gun I assume I can use a fine roller brush and just sand the brush marks off, is this true?

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Also, since I do not have a spray gun I assume I can use a fine roller brush and just sand the brush marks off, is this true?

Not the preferred method to get a great finish at all. But if that's all you got to work with, You can give it a crack. Just expect a lot of time spent on the wet and dry. :D

With Auto paints (2 pack I'm referring to) there is no substitute for a spray gun when it comes to

producing a great finish.

Cheers, Stu

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I have a couple questions on finishing my guitar. I appreciate all help!

1.) I was thinking about using automotive paint because I like a certain color of green, are there any problems with this?

2.) I have the previous finish removed to the bare wood, do I need to do paint anything before the automotive primer?

3.) what grits should I use to sand the primer?

4.) what grits to sand the color coat?

5.) what grits to sand the top coat?

I've done a lot of searching and have found only bits and pieces about the sanding process. Also, since I do not have a spray gun I assume I can use a fine roller brush and just sand the brush marks off, is this true?

I'm not sure if you have ever heard of it or not, but Dupli-Color automotive paints work great for refinishing guitars. They make some awesome colors and they look fantastic when done.

I am currently using 2 of their products. The first one is called Effects. It comes in black and clear.

I am using both the black and clear on one guitar. The Effects type has color-changing metalflake in it.

The flakes change colors in the light, especially sunlight or stage lights. It has a rainbow effect.

I sprayed about 15 coats of the black, wet-sanded, wiped it all down, and I have just started spraying the clear, which has the same rainbow effect flake in it. I have sprayed about 4 coats of the clear and have dry sanded with 1000 and 2000 grit wetsand paper. I have no shiny paint spots left, and will wipe it down lightly with mineral spirits, and then spray about 4 more coats of clear.

Depending on how it looks after those last 4 coats will determine whether I sand again and reapply more clear. This will be a "working guitar" and needs a LOT of protection from the stage abuse.

I am building it for a semi-famous friend who is on stage and touring more often than not. :D

She's hard on her guitars, so I sure hope this automotive paint holds up.

The 2nd guitar is one of my personal guitars and the Dupli-Color paint for this one comes in a 3-stage kit.

It's called Mirage, and it's the red/blue kit. It comes with the base-coat primer in flat black, the red/blue mirage paint, and the clear coat. The paint changes colors under the light from a red to a purplish to a green/blue. Really kinda cool. It looks better on the guitar than it does on the kit.

Here's the link to the Dupli-Color site http://www.dupli-color.com/

I hope this helps someone. I'll post pics of both guitars when they are done and put back together.

Roddey :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

My bass teacher "back in the day" bought a lot of secondhand guitars and redid them to sell at a profit. He would do his own pickups and hardware, but everytime he did a painted refinish (which was almost every single time) he would mask the body off and take it to a local automotive paint shop where they would do the job for him. He said it was actually really cheap since they use so little paint (compared to a car) and since those guys REALLY know how to handle a spraygun, the results were absolutely astounding. I say if you don't know what you're doing and you want a top of the line paint job... do what he did. He sold some of the most gorgeous guitars I've ever seen this side of a natural finish!

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Same as what I'm considering Vade. I can't justify the cost of a clean room or the preperation for one so I'm going to be using a local custom bike painter and airbrusher to do my solids and perhaps a few effects. He's up for it and the quality of his work is awesome. The example piece he showed me was a crazed effect gunmetal bike tank with a light blackburst and pinstriped tribals around the filler cap. Those were in turn bursted with twelve coats of clear over the top before baking. If I could get that finish on a guitar, I'd be happy as hell. Twelve might be a few too many for maintaining detail and angles on a more defined body design I reckon, but hey.

The overall cost of somebody else doing it *professionally* vs. the actual cost of doing a few jobs on a hobbyist level isn't that different. As you say - the quantity of product used is tiny. Time is the cost factor, and finding somebody who would do it out of pride reduces that most of the time :-D

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