Refinishing Advice

[voodoo_child]

So, someone has asked elsewhere for some refinishing advice, and got some conflicting advice. I thought id run it off some people who actually have experience in this field:

The guy wants to refinish his black guitar in a white colour.

Which would you guys suggest -

1) 'Scuffing-up' the laquer on the black guitar, and just spraying white over it, or

2) Sanding all the way down to the bare wood, grain-filling, primer etc. and THEN doing the respray.

Any opinions would be welcome

[Xanthus]

I might go down all the way to the wood, if only to be entirely certain of the results. I think that spraying such a light color over such a dark color would take a LOT of paint/coats/time to do, not to mention the thickness of the paint on the body. I'm no Ed Roman, but I'd say the thinner the final product, the better off you'll be.

[croaticum]

I might go down all the way to the wood, if only to be entirely certain of the results. I think that spraying such a light color over such a dark color would take a LOT of paint/coats/time to do, not to mention the thickness of the paint on the body. I'm no Ed Roman, but I'd say the thinner the final product, the better off you'll be.

Agreed

[Mike Navarro]

So, someone has asked elsewhere for some refinishing advice, and got some conflicting advice. I thought id run it off some people who actually have experience in this field:

The guy wants to refinish his black guitar in a white colour.

Which would you guys suggest -

1) 'Scuffing-up' the laquer on the black guitar, and just spraying white over it, or

2) Sanding all the way down to the bare wood, grain-filling, primer etc. and THEN doing the respray.

Any opinions would be welcome

Hello Vodooo! My name is Mike Navarro, I own a custom guitar shop it's name is Guitar Zone, my advise is to use the old finish as a undercoat by different reasons, first, the mess of striping the paint, second, if you aren't a experimental guitar painter the undercoat and wood preparation it's crucial of the final product, the paint can get wavy etc, third, paints, including undercoat gets time to cure and delay the process of painting, if you use the old paint as a undercoat, it will be a very strong resistable undercoat with out curing fumes under the finish and you goin to save a LOT of work, the trick is, you first, check all the dents scratches etc in the original finish and repair with bondo or fiberglass resin in big damages, spot putty for dents and scratches, then sand the whole guitar with 320 wet sandpaper, sand it with out fear until you don't see any of the previus damage, use a rigid sponge as a block sandpaper handle for the plane surface (front and back), then, apply white undercoat, sand it again but not complete, this step will show you some spot you have to work more and will fill some small scratches the putty didn't, it's goin to look as a pinto, and thats the idea, that means that the surface now is even, now put just one coat of the white undercoat overall, remember that this white undercoat will replace the coats you sanded in previus step and doesn't going to add thikness, now you are ready for color coats, 2 or 3, white color is tricky to apply if you don't have a painting room, so I assume you'll doit in your backyard, well the best time is very early in the mourning when theres no wind, air dust is a problem in in white finishes, then the top coats around 5 or 6 if it's acrilic laquer, 2 or 3 if is urethane, don't use enamels in paint cans, because probably you'll have a "nice" crackle paint job, in acrilic, one coat in the mourning, one in the evening for 3 days, urethane just one coat daily. When it;s cure about 48 to 36 hour, sand it with 1000 wet sandpaper, then 2000, and use 3M final cut to rubbing out, don,t use any wax or polish after the rub out until 2 or 3 weeks, just a clean cloth, cotton t shirts will do the job. Any cuestion you can write me to Guitarzonepr.com, and also get a tour inside my shop.

Mike Navarro- Guitarzonepr.com