Refinishing Project

[avengers63]

Well, now that the telecaster is finished, I need something else to work on. Fortunately, I've had a few months to decide what to do. Yes, I'm going to post some pics of the finished tele. I haven't been able to take it outside and ger some nice pics yet due to the weather.

This is my main guitar. It is a kit I bought from Carvin about 11-12 years ago. It's a fairly standard ax: alder body, maple neck, ebony f/b, chrome hardware, 2 Bartolini HBs. It was stained with a mustard-like yellow. I originally thought I finished it with tung oil & steel wool. I now believe it was a wiping varnish. You can feel the grain on everything. I really didn't do a very good job on it, but it's been OK so far.

I'm bored to tears with the way it looks. I'm not overly fond of strat bodies anyway, but it is pretty light & comfortable to play, so I'll keep it. Plus, there's some sentimental value in it. BUT... having grown up in the era of hair metal , I have a sentimental desire for an ax that would do the era proud.

This is a Charvel with a crackle finish. Yea... this'll do nicely. A nice crackle finish for a hair metal shredder ax. I'm having visions of poet shirts, leather pants, and mullets standing on end with Aqua Net. Mmmm - high school had some good memories.

Anyway, these cans of paint are what I bought to do the deed. With the help of this tutorial on burst finishes, I plan on going from a yellow center to red edges with a black crackle over the whole thing. This'll be another great learning experience for me. Nothing like going off the deep end on your third finish, huh? I figure even if I hose it all up, I can just sand it all off and try something else.

[avengers63]

Sunday was incredibly productive for me. My wife laid down for a nap around 1:30, then left with the kids from 4-7. That's right, I had over 6 uninterrupted hours to play!

Disassembly only took about 15 minutes or so. I grouped pieces & screws in baggies for the sake of sanity later. I found the orbital sander in the garage and the stock of sandpaper and went to town on the body! I anticipated a little aprehension when attacking the guitar I've been using for 10 years. I was wrong. It seems that doing the little yellow thing and the tele gave me enough confidence. Cool.

I had no intention of sanding through the yellow-ish stain to bare wood. I only needed to remove the old finish & level out the minor bumps. & scratches. It IS getting painted.

Unexpected surprise: After wiping the body down with mineral spirits to remove the dust, I really like the looks of the alder. I wouldn't want it as a wood toned guitar body, but for other woodworking projects, it looks nice.

Anyway, this week I figure to tape off the neck & control cavity and primer the thing white.

[Andronico]

Hi, good job ! Glad to hear that you enjoyed your Sunday I spent yesterday morning watching the Tennis Davis Cup on TV and then with my family. About the guitar, will you fill the pickups holes with wood and re-route them or use a pickguard like now ?

[avengers63]

I'll be using a pickguard. I'd much rather have a solid front to show off the paint, but it'd be more work than I'm interested in doing to fill in the body. If I were going that route, it'd be just as easy (maybe easier) to make a whole new body.

[avengers63]

I got the body & headstock all primered up. Or at least I THOUGHT I did. I got out some 320 grit and went to smooth the primer coat. I was using a pretty light touch, but even that was too much for the edges. Two swipes sanded through most of the corners. I'm not the least bit upset, though. I'd rather learn about this now than when the final painting is done. Man, I'd be HACKED if I was smoothing the last coat and went through to the wood! Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to get to the yellow Monday.

[avengers63]

The body is all primered & smoothed out, and the center yellow has been sprayed. Last night, I cut out the templates. I did the initial outline, then did two more. The smallest is to cover the yellow when I spray the orange. After that, I'll tape the next one to the "core" and use that whole thing to do the red.

Cool. I laid a fre coats of orange on the headstock. I'm trying it on the headstock first because if it gets totally hosed & I have to strip it, there's less to do. Anyway, the whole think looked OK...

... until I took the template off...

WHOOPS!!!! OK... THAT didn't go according to plan. I'm going to try doing it backwards tonight. I'll put the other pieces together to make a window and try to put some more yellow onto the center. If htat doesn't work, I may strip it sown and start from scratch.

[Xanthus]

Too bad about the "sun-spots" (oh I crack myself up!) but I like the method that you're using, making progressively smaller templates. It seems like a good way to get a more "controlled" burst. I'd want a little more blend on the final product, if it were me though. I'm keeping an eye to see how this one turns out!

[avengers63]

I went forward with the headstock last night. Out came the red paint!

Hmmmmm. That's pretty dark. But I have a plan! Let's reverse the templates, making a window for the yellow. Maybe the whole thing will be lightened up and the sunspots will be eliminated.

Well, it's lighter. The sunspots are still there, but not so pronounced. Maybe the black crackle will give enough camoflage to hide it.

Whaddya think, guys? Blow up & start over or hope for some crackle camo?

[Xanthus]

If you have enough paint, I might start over. If you know how to definitely fix the sunspots, I might start over too.

Or maybe make a logo for the headstock? That'd give you some camo.

[avengers63]

The paint was >$4/can. Even if I run out, I'm not concerned. I'm not 100% sure how else to do this. The tutorial that's on this site said to use push pins about 1" from the sides of the template. After getting sunspots on the headstock, I tried doing the body, but with the pins at least 3" from the sides. I still got faint sunspots.

I'm wondering if using straight pins might do the trick. Push them all the way through point down. The area for the spot would literally be the size of a pinpoint.

I'm figuring to do a M.O.P. inlay on the headstock once the paint is finished.

Thoughts?

[WezV]

sand the overspray to even it out

[avengers63]

I'll try that on the body. I blew up the headstock last night & started it over.

[MzI]

Try turning the push pins around, i.e. super glue the push part to the template and then with enough pins you should be able to support the template just on the pin part with less distortion to the overall look.

[avengers63]

A major snag came up. From Flexner's book, the way to do a crackle finish is to lay a gloss coat of whatever you want, then lay the crackle lacquer on top of it.

Then real-life hit.

I took a test piece of poplar, did the sanding sealer thing on both sides, coated one side with lacquer, the other side with wipe-on poly on one hanf & spray can poly on the other. After it dried for a day, I took turns hitting all the areas with the crackle. I wanted to find out which clear gloss reacted to the crackle best.

NO CRACKLE!!!!! It was supposed to shrink & crack. All I have is matte black over the whole thing. I went back to the store to check out the base coat the manufacturere says to put under the crackle, but it's either white or black - no clear.

So now what am I supposed to do? I have the whole thing painted up great, but I'm totally stuck.

[Bryan316]

Do another test. Spray red onto a piece, and then try the crackle again. Maybe you can get it to work without the clear coat.

Just paint a board half red and half yellow, then try the crackle. Maaaaybe steel wool the red/yellow just to get the surface smoothed out.

Also, the pin idea is pretty good, but use some different pins, through the top, so the points rest on the body. Either find appropriately sized needles or pins, or try bending paper clips. Unbend a paperclip's outside end, and kink it so the paper clip rests flat on the template and the end pokes through. Make the ends of the paper clip too long. Then, use a board as a height gauge, hold the paper clip against the edge of the board, and chop off all the ends so they're a uniform length. Wire cutters, grinding wheel, whatever. As long as after you reform the paper clips, you make them all the same height.

EDIT: Hey, in your first post, your link to the tutorial links to your paintcan photo again. Can you repost the tutorial link?

Edited May 5, 2008 by Bryan316

[avengers63]

Hey, in your first post, your link to the tutorial links to your paintcan photo again. Can you repost the tutorial link?

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/burst.htm

I got the pin situation all figured out.

[avengers63]

This just isn't going according to plan. The crackle isn't working over the regular paint. What a P.O.S. product! I believe I shall write a strongly worded letter to their Department Of Ignoring Customer Complaints.

So... here's what I have so far.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...nt/painted3.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff15/av...nt/painted1.jpg

The yellow isn't as intense in real life as it is in the pics. The flash is washing it out quite a bit. Also, there was a dusting of overspray that went under the templates that tones it down a bit. It seems that witout proper spray wquipment, I'm never going to get a crackle finish on it. I'd like your input on the whole thing. Do I finish up the paint scheme as is, or do I sand it all off and make it a solid color?

Also, just to gloat a bit, all of the pics were taken with the ax lying on my free pool table!!!! I got it from someone who just didn't want it anymore, but couldn't sell it because it was in her basement and hard to get out. She finally got to the point of "just take it", which I did. It isn't in it's final resting spot and isn't leveled yet, so it's currently serving as my staging area. Free pool table baby!

[Bryan316]

Time for an airbrush kit.

I think the color scheme WILL look good with the crackle over it. But, as you've discovered, the crackle process sucks. Here's what I propose instead.

My guitarist has a Fender that his dad painted up for him with some hot-rod muscle car techniques. In his finish, they started with a dark blue base, letting it dry completely. Then they sprayed the thing entirely with silver metallic, and as it was still very wet, they quickly and randomly placed cellophane saran wrap onto the silver. Then they pulled the saran wrap off randomly, creating some wickedawesome silvery markings and ripples and streaks and swirls and dimples all over the body. Trust me when I say, it looks outstanding! It's got the overall solid blue look, with the very faint silver patterns all over.

Now, I'm not saying rip that idea off completely. I'm suggesting you use that idea and run some tests. First, just quickly cut and sand a guitar body, paint it with your sunburst color scheme, and do a serious test. Once the sunbursting is dry, quickly give it a clear coat, maybe even a sanding. Then, shoot the whole body with gloss black, and lay the saran wrap on it. It'll give a different texture and pattern than a crackle, but you could end up with a really unique design. Remember, I'm suggesting a test-body because if you don't like my idea, it's easier to bail out than trying to paint-thinner off the black coat!

[avengers63]

Anyone else?

(crickets chirping)

Bueller?

Bueller?

[anderekel]

Well, I'd say that if you want a burst you should get an airbrush and practice a little bit. The Paasche VL is a great all around brush. Otherwise you might want to do a single color. I'm not sayin' that your paintjob is bad, but it could be a lot better.

[avengers63]

Wel, poop. This clearly isn't going to work the way I want it to w/o spendinf a couple hundred on equipment.

To heck with it. I'm sanding the whole thing down and counting this as valuable experience. I'm going to paint the whole thing purple.

[Bryan316]

BOOOO.

Don't abandon the idea, just cuz you need more equipment.

There's gotta be somebody you know who had airbrushing gear that will let you borrow it?

[avengers63]

Sorry - I just can't justify the expense right now. And no, I don't know anyone with an airbursh or a spray booth. FWIW: I changed my mind on the color. I'm going with a nice medium blue. I know it's kinda boring. I can always strip it later when/if I ever get an air gun.

[avengers63]

I finally have all the paint stripped off. That rattle can stuff is as thick as rubber! I was careful to to lay it too think, but it gummed up anyway. It was incredibly unimpressed with 40-grit on a random orbiting palm sander, so I had to take a wire paint stripper in a drill to it to get the paint off. Now, I have LOT of sanding to do to get out all the scratches from the wire spinny thingie. Maybe the belt sander can help speed things up...

Then I paint it blue.

[killemall8]

i demand pics!

what color base primer are you going to use? greay would be nice i think.