darwinphilosophy Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 Well I have a p-bass that I am refinishing and have been sanding the body forever, as you all know there is three layers of blue crap I have to get through. Well anyways I have done the top and back with an electric sander, took awhile though. Now I am getting to the sides and I must say hand sanding them is a horrible horrible thing to do...Now I have been reading the tutorials and looked at all the ways to remove paint. I wanted to do the sadning because I thought that it wouldnt hurt the wood at all, but now this is getting harder than hell and I am wondering if I can use some sort of stripper on the sides to get it done. My question is will the chemicals hurt the wood such as effect the look because I am going to use dyes so you will beable to see the wood? Also if I do use chemical stripper what is recommended? Thank you very much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted March 17, 2007 Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 Theres lots of info in the finishing section about this. From my experience I found that getting medievel on the old paint is the only way. I tried the "sanding first" bit and its just too much time and effort not to mention having a big pile of clogged up sandpaper afterwards. The heat generated by friction and pressure melts the finish which sticks to the paper rendering it useless. I've done the heat gun route for those real thick finishes and peeled off large slabs at a time with a putty knife. But care must be taken when applying heat and nicking/scratching the body with the knife. And I've used strippers like aerosol spray "Circa 1850". I found a combination of all three, in the right order of course, is the best prescription ie. quickest and most thorough for stripping a body down to bare wood. Use the heat gun first and peel/scrape the thickest of the material away, just avoid burning and digging into the wood. Then a couple applications of stripper and more scraping, lightly this time. By then you should have most of the wood exposed and you can continue with a relatively coarse sandpaper working down to 320 or so. There are difficult areas like inside horns (I used a soupcan wrapped in sandpaper for an SG ). All effective wood strippers are caustic and should be used with care. You should not have any problems with wood damage from strippers as you are only using it to soften up surface material. It usually takes more than one application anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darwinphilosophy Posted March 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2007 Well thanks the only problem is I dont have a heat gun and I really dont have the money. Also it is just the sides left to do. So what I will probably do is use stripper and then go on to sand paper. Atleast the striper will get most of the crap off...But any other points I would appreciate. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Preston Swift Posted March 18, 2007 Report Share Posted March 18, 2007 Well thanks the only problem is I dont have a heat gun and I really dont have the money. Also it is just the sides left to do. So what I will probably do is use stripper and then go on to sand paper. Atleast the striper will get most of the crap off...But any other points I would appreciate. Thanks If your strapped for cash and need a heat gun (great for paint striping) i suggest you get one from Grizzly (www.grizzly.com) they were having a sale on a good heat gun for about $20. Also I know what your going through only i'm doing it on an acoustic (again). Just tear through it with coarse sandpaper. I honestly don't know much about paint stripper. I wish i had the power to look at paint and instantly vaporize it and command the fumes to do my bidding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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