Refinishing over old finish?

[sjaguar13]

I have three guitars I need to refinish. One is a black BC Rich Jr. V. I want to refinish it black. Can I just sand it until it isn't shiney, spray some black, then add some clear, or do I have to sand down to wood?

The second guitar is red, but has been refinished already. It was a purpleish color, then painted red. There is some huge dings in the paint that go down to wood. It looks like the paint is really thing. I was holding it and more paint started coming off. Should I sand that down to the wood, and refinish?

The third is a nasty pink and white marble bass. I want that any other color except pink and white. Should I sand it til it isn't shiney, spray some primer, then paint and clear, or would that be too thick?

[butnut]

Yes you can. I do as the old paint, especially if it's poly, serves as a good smooth base. When you remove the old finish completely, you'll have to seal the wood. If you just shoot primer, it will get fuzzy, grainy and the wood will soak up a lot of primer. Save yourself the grief, sand and prime. I let the primer dry at least a day and if the sanding scratches show up, I'll sand smooth with 400, wipe clean and shoot the color. Here's a Strat I did, short cut as I used a special sealer that I shoot over 'soft' to bond the top coat. You can just use primer and go...

Strat refinish

[sjaguar13]

I can just prime and paint over all three? What about the second one with the dings? Would I fill that with wood putty, or what?

[butnut]

That 2nd one sounds cabbaged...i'd sand that one clean as it's peeling already, nothing worse than painting over someones bad paint. You'll need to putty any damage if you want it looking good.

[sjaguar13]

There is no damage other that paint chips, but the paint is so thick that it would need filled if I were just going to paint over the finish. Sanding it clean should fix everything right up.

The BC Rich has a couple of small dings in it. Should I just fill those then sand, prime, and paint?

[Drak]

My opinion on wood putty is totally Blechhhhhh........

Auto-body BONDO is THE **** for repairing little dings when you have to fill in spots.

It dries rock hard, sands easy, sticks to pretty much everything, and no shrinkback. My vote for Top Dawg No.1 dingo filler.

PS, you can sand the paint back (if it's really that thick) ...to the point where a lot of the chip marks dissapear, and still not go all the way thru to bare wood, just use a bit of caution when sanding it back. Try to sand back to the original factory finish, whatever color it was, and try to stop at that point.

[Devon Headen]

Or you could always do what you're trying to avoid. Strip the guitar, then seal and refinish.