hexa-db Posted June 4, 2008 Report Share Posted June 4, 2008 I'm not sure if this belongs in this forum because it's a repair & refinish rather than a scratch build but here goes. I originally started a project thread on reranch but my account kept getting deleted (happened about 3 times even after getting a mod to reset it each time). Anyway... About 6 years ago the guitarist in a band I was in smashed his BC Rich 7 String. It was a bit of a Spinal Tap moment. After someone forgetting to bring some of my synth gear to the gig in time for soundcheck, him breaking a string in the soundcheck and suffering Floyd Rose induced tuning issues throughout, and then having a dodgy monitor speaker and finally having his wireless transmitter fall off his strap (causing the battery to fall out and the receiver to start scanning/blasting white noise) he had enough and threw the guitar one the floor and stormed off. I bought it as it was for £50 and did nothing with it for ages. The first thing I did was remove and reglue the fretboard as it had come away from the neck, then I moved house and didn't touch it for a few years. Then I set about stripping the poly finish to see how bad the cracks in the body were and again didn't do much for ages. Earlier this year I finally got around to gluing the cracks and smoothing out with woodfiller. As well as two big cracks running from either side of the neck pocket (right through) to the bridge pickup routes it also had numerous big gouges, dings and dents. A piece of wood between the neck pocket and neck pickup had also broken and fallen out (and later got lost). I made a new piece to replace it and did a lot of filling and sanding. I'm not really a big fan of modern BC Rich guitars and it never really played that nice so I decided I wasn't going to bother aiming for perfection, just get it playing. It's also a good learning experience. I filled and sanded most of the problem areas and sprayed some primer. The primer sunk into the grain so I realised I probably should have grain filled. A lot more sanding, then some slightly moistened woodfiller spread over the body got it a lot smoother. I then sprayed it again with Halford Filler Primer and a coat of black paint. More sanding to 800 grit and another coat of black. I decided to go for chameleon/colour flip paint because I wanted to see how well it worked and I thought the bevelled shape would show it off well. I got a 400ml can Liquid Red from specialistpaints.com. This didn't seem to be enough and I ended up with a slightly streaky finish. I also got a run which I sanded back a little and tried to cover up but didn't really have enough paint. I then did a really stupid thing and tried to use the last bit in the can - that caused a few huge grey streaks of residue to splatter over the front of the guitar Luckily they almost completely disappeared as the paint dried and the clear coat was added. I bought what claims to be 2k clear coat in an aerosol. Some of the ones I looked at had a seperate compartment in the base and have a mechanism to cause the hardener to mix in. The one I bought wasn't like this - it was just a standard can so I'm not convinced it's 2k. It did stink though and made me glad I bought a respirator!! I gave it a couple days and started wet sanding. I thought the laquer would be fine as I've had car parts resprayed and fitted them 24 hours later (from a place with no oven for baking the paint). The laquer was too soft and I now have a thumbprint in the laquer on the back, and a few more defects. I'm now going to leave it a few days in a hot conservatory and get it polished up. Here's how it looks now: Is it right that you can only add 1 pic per post? If so I'll wait for replies and add some in-progress pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RestorationAD Posted June 4, 2008 Report Share Posted June 4, 2008 pics please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexa-db Posted June 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2008 Rather than post one pic every time someone replies, I'll stop being lazy and add them as links You can see the filler where I'd started filling most of the dents etc, and some of the cracks (between the pickup routes, in the neck pickup route). You can also see bit of wood missing from the bottom of the neck pocket. Bigger pics: Paint stripped, some repairs started (front view) Rear view after stripping paint & starting repairs After the first coat of black paint... (bad run from a dodgy can of paint that splattered suddenly Rear view after first coat of black (repair still visible, more sanding was done to get rid of that) After paint and clear, before proper flatting and polishing (quite a few different defects/issues, not all visible in this pic though) Another angle.. Big version of the pic in my first post I haven't got any pics of the work done on the neck unfortunately. I'm really pleased with the flip paint, it looks fantastic (apart from the defects I caused) in direct sunlight but I don't think one can is enough for a guitar like this. Might be enough for a smaller body like a strat though. Partly for my own reference, but some things I've learned.. - Heat guns work well for stripping poly but risk damage to the wood if you get too scraper-happy (try Nitromors next time) - Make sure the grain is filled - Sand more than you think you need to (except on the clear coat!) - Make sure the sandpaper is cleaned. Big gouges from gunked up sandpaper are not good. - Buy more paint than you think you need - Don't try and get the last bit of paint out of a can - Make sure everything is dry & hardened before moving to the next step - A respirator is worth every penny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan316 Posted June 4, 2008 Report Share Posted June 4, 2008 This is a PERFECT learning experience. You've already got five items learned that I maaaaybe coulda recommended or suggested. Yes, cleaning sandpaper is key. Yes, allowing lots of curing time will save your paint problems. And I'm glad to see you're treating this as it should be... just a beater guitar revival, for experience and with a little luck, a fun stage guitar. I'm sure you knew this wouldn't be a studio recording project! Heh heh. Great results so far, and seems like it was a very affordable option for a customized axe. \m/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donut Man Posted June 4, 2008 Report Share Posted June 4, 2008 You were selling this on Jemsite wern't you? I remember being interested since I used to own a 7 string Mockingbird, but then you decided to repair it yourself right? I dunno if this might help or not, but here is a pic of the Mockingbird that I used to have http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3209/pict9409xp8.jpg It is looking good, especially the chameleon paintjob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexa-db Posted June 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 You were selling this on Jemsite wern't you? I remember being interested since I used to own a 7 string Mockingbird, but then you decided to repair it yourself right? I dunno if this might help or not, but here is a pic of the Mockingbird that I used to have http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/3209/pict9409xp8.jpg It is looking good, especially the chameleon paintjob. Yep - Sorry about the jemsite ad. I got a bit fed up, posted the ad and forgot about it - then I decided to repair it (forgetting I had posted the ad). The paintjob doesn't look that good in real life, there are quite a few dodgy bits but at least I learned a lot and can get it back together soon. Yours looks like the same model as mine - N7. Is yours blue or is it just the pic? Also, I'm not sure if my truss rod cover has "Mockingbird" on it (but it's been packed away for so long I can't remember!). Bryan - I kind of knew a lot of the things (like not using the last bit of paint etc) but I think I needed to make the mistakes to learn exactly why you have to do/not do all these things Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan316 Posted June 5, 2008 Report Share Posted June 5, 2008 Yup! I've learned many times, no matter how shallow a cut, no matter how thin I'm going in, I cannot push a router quickly through hard wood. Heh heh. There's been quite a few projects that have proved that little tidbit to me, so I think from now on, I'll just admit that I MUST go slow! Heh heh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hexa-db Posted June 27, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 27, 2008 I just found my own thread when searching for something and realised I hadn't updated it for ages. After leaving it for over a week and attempting to wetsand I realised that the clearcoat was nowhere near thick enough so I sprayed another can of acrylic laquer over it and have left it for nearly three weeks so far. I'm going to make absolutely sure it's cured properly before attempting any wetsanding. In the meantime I've grabbed a couple of beaten up Squier strats from ebay to work on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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