Sunburst Layers And Poly And Coats Of Clear

[jlarremore]

I'm going to try a sunburst for the first time. I figure I've read plenty to know not to do the template over the body.

Anyway, my questions are as follows.

1. First coat is going to be amber. Once I seal the bare body, can I apply an amber poly stain to the bare wood and how will this affect subsequent coats of lacquer?

2. Will a coat of clear lacquer between each burst color of lacquer help "fade" the colors so that I don't have hard lines between each color transition?

3. Is there any type of sealer or treatment that will work best on the bare wood BEFORE I start this whole process?

Jef

[MiKro]

I'm going to try a sunburst for the first time. I figure I've read plenty to know not to do the template over the body.

Anyway, my questions are as follows.

1. First coat is going to be amber. Once I seal the bare body, can I apply an amber poly stain to the bare wood and how will this affect subsequent coats of lacquer?

2. Will a coat of clear lacquer between each burst color of lacquer help "fade" the colors so that I don't have hard lines between each color transition?

3. Is there any type of sealer or treatment that will work best on the bare wood BEFORE I start this whole process?

Jef

First off POLY and Lacquer DON'T mix, period. If you want to use amber then either mix trans tint dye or some other Non Poly stain/dye with shellac or lacquer. then work your way to your next color. remember start with the light color and work to dark. A clear coat between will help, but is not necessary. it depends on the depth you are trying to achieve between the colors and toners. It's a balance ACT as best Practice on scrap first, multiple times to get your set down. otherwise plan on a lot of sanding back to wood.

Just my .02cents in a small nutshell!!

MK

[jer7440]

What kind of wood are you sunbursting? This video is a pretty nice tutorial on bursting with wipe on dye.

bursting with dye

[jlarremore]

Ok, don't mix poly and lacquer as far as coloring goes. I'm using poplar right now as a practice. I didn't want to invest in an expensive wood and screw it up. I've never worked with dyes, but it looks a lot more forgiving and easier to work with.

Jef

[Mattia]

1. what others have said.

2. I usually apply the base coat as a stain (say, yellow for a traditional burst), seal that with a clear (so you can sand off the burst without messing with the base stain if you screw it up). Clears don't help with 'witness' lines or fading, your spraying technique, gun settings (fan, feed rate) and paint colour (degree of opacity) determine that. Practice on scrap until you get it right.

3. For 'traditional' bursts, I usually start with the stain and seal, then do the black edges, and then the transition with the 'in between' colour afterwards. For a traditional Fender burst, tinted red is the last thing to go on, over the black.