Frankenstein Aged Finish Question

[DivebombInc]

I have done this paintjob before, but I really want to get it to look like Fender did. I have a spray rig and I use PPG auto paints. My question is this...

How the heck did they accomplish this look? Can I seal the body with clear and wetsand it and then spray color over the clear? I guess I could spray a thin coat of clear over each color so that the colors don't "stick" to each other.

Does anyone know the answer? This pic is of the Fender.

Edited May 26, 2010 by DivebombInc

[DivebombInc]

I know this really isn't what some would consider a beautiful finish on a guitar. I'm really looking for the technique more than how to do this particular guitar.

[WezV]

a google search for 'EVH guitar finish' is your best bet

http://www.guitarattack.com/mattocaster/vanhalen/sagavh.htm

http://www.crazywebbys.com/~5150/index.htm

http://www.shredaholic.com/painting.html

the rest is repeating (black, tape, white, tape, red) and relicing

[DivebombInc]

Thanks for the response, but I can put my paintjobs up against any of those and probably do pretty well.

I'm looking for more technical info on the technique used to get this look like possibly doing a coat of clear in between colors and body prep.

Here's one of mine-

[Narcissism]

I'm gonna be brutally honest:

The finish isn't that hard to achieve, even by fender standards.

Wrap it

Paint it

unwrap it

repeat

The next two steps are negotiable as far as order of opps goes:

clear

relic

Armed with a chisel, spray paint, a quarter, a nail and some masking tape, I believe you can achieve this finish pretty easily!

[WezV]

so what is is about the look you are not getting? yours looks like a great replica

I dont think you want to spray anything differently as that will take you away from what EVH did, and i guess what fender did to replicate it too!

how was his done: aftermarket body (most likely already sealed, possibly grainfilled), sprayed black, played for a few years, sprayed with white stripes, played for a few years, sprayed with red patterns after that and played to death

and i assume fender repeated this, with relicing at each stage to simulate the wear

So i reckon its reasonable to get a nice even basecoat down first to work from, but definately not clear between stages as i am almost certain EVH did not do that and i doubt he cleared it at the end either.

So tell us what it is you dont like about yours? because so far you have asked how to get the finish and then shown a better result than a lot of people here could do. if we know what it is about yours that isnt making you happy we can offer specific advice

[WezV]

Armed with a chisel, spray paint, a quarter, a nail and some masking tape, I believe you can achieve this finish pretty easily!

he has already - thats why i am confused

[Narcissism]

Gotcha... 5 hours of sleep, gimme a break.

[DivebombInc]

I guess I'm looking at the details on the Fender. The paintjob just has an interesting look to the layers of paint and the seperation of each color. I know the steps to recreate the paintjob, it's just that look that Fender acheived that's escaping me. I use masking tape and liquid latex masking to make all those weird little shapes. Maybe the body prep is what I'm not doing right. Because I use automotive paint I used automotive clear and then wetsand smooth before spraying the first color. One of my issues is when I age the white/black stage as soon as I get through the white I go through the black too and expose wood. In some places I want to take off the white and still have some black.

Here's an example:

maybe I'm over thinking it. Would allowing each color to cure more before spraying the next maybe make a difference. I do know that Ed said in an interview that he did clear it after it was red because he saw some pictures of it and the grain was showing a lot.

Edited May 26, 2010 by DivebombInc

[DivebombInc]

Someone just posted this pic on another site. Based on this I think Fender cleared over the black (it's pretty glossy), I would guess they did the same for the white. If they cleared over the red they steel wooled it and rubbed it out to take off the shine. That's what I'm thinking now. That would allow some aging of each color without the danger of going through the underlying color unless you wanted to. I'm trying it over the next week. I'm sure they used basecoat/clearcoat automotive paint for this project.

Not sure how interested anyone is in seeing the results, but I'll post them anyway.

Edited May 27, 2010 by DivebombInc

[Tim37]

you can buy flat clear that wont have the gloss to save you that step you can also mix it with normal clear to get diffent amounts of flatness (i dont think thats a word) to your finish

[DivebombInc]

I think the clear over the black it an important step to the look that Fender acheived. Once you spray the white and do the aging some of the areas where you go all the way to the wood have black around the edges and there are some areas where you just sand the white to expose a hint of black underneath too. If you spray the white directly on the black it's hard to do this and in some cases it all comes off together. The clear in between helps.

Edited May 28, 2010 by DivebombInc

[WezV]

unfortunately the pic of a glossy black guitar doesnt prove anything about clear - black paint buffs up shiny too... but even so, we know the original was black first, and probably cleared and played for a while like that

the amount of sand through is going to be harder to control - i would imagine it was easier on the original because of the years between each stage... cure time may be playing a role and its also possible you are spraying a little thin (i.e better than eddie of fender did )

clear between each stage may help you control the wear, but i would try it on scrap first to see if it works more as you expect