wander Posted September 28, 2010 Report Share Posted September 28, 2010 (edited) I am ready to finish coat a custom guitar i put together. This is the first I have attempted any actual finish work on a guitar, but have spent years doing cabinetry and such. I used a Rustoleum Gloss Black Enamel Spray Paint as my base colour, but want to put a clear lacquer over it to toughen and protect the finish. I am getting a quart of nitro cellulose lacquer from stewmac and am having a buddy spray it for me. My concern now is that the lacquer will interact with the enamel. Does anybody have any input on this? I know i didn't use the best method and such and i intend to be a little more orthodox next time, but for now any input will be appreciatted as cold weather is prohibiting me from starting over and i would really like to get this project together before the snow flies. Edited September 28, 2010 by wander Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 I'm pretty sure that enamel - when cured - is a harder finish than nitro? Not sure if it would react - scrap test! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spudler Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 I'm pretty sure that enamel - when cured - is a harder finish than nitro? Not sure if it would react - scrap test! If you are talking about The Crystal Clear Enamel 7701 or some # like that. I tried it and I had terrible luck. I am not sure if it needs a few months to cure like Laquer or not but I did a headstock with it and I would say a month or so later I was claning teh guitar and when I looked at the headstock to clean teh dust and stuff of I noticed my fingerprints so I used my buffing cloth I use on all my other guitars and as I wa attempting to buff off what I thought were oily fingerprints I noticed it started acting like there was adhesive on it as I realized the finish was coming off as if It was adhesive from tape or rubbber cement. To this day it has not seemed to cure and it has been 3 months since that happened. I decided since the good cans of Urethane with hardner are about $40 a can and it takes about 3 cans per body, I bought a spray gun and am going to start using auto quality Urethane from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wander Posted September 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 I actually just called Rustoleum. The Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer B611-1406 has too much MEK and will eat thr rustoleum finish away. As will any other MEK based finish. HOWEVER the Behlen water based will work with the Rustoleum Hard Hat/ Industrial line of enamels. Thanks for the help and i'll post pics when it's done. This site is the best resource i've encountered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Bennett Posted September 29, 2010 Report Share Posted September 29, 2010 I actually just called Rustoleum. The Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer B611-1406 has too much MEK and will eat thr rustoleum finish away. As will any other MEK based finish. HOWEVER the Behlen water based will work with the Rustoleum Hard Hat/ Industrial line of enamels. Thanks for the help and i'll post pics when it's done. This site is the best resource i've encountered. I saw your post this morning before any replies had been posted. I was going to come back and say that YOU will probably be the one telling US about this before it's all over. Experience is a good teacher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samhell Posted October 8, 2010 Report Share Posted October 8, 2010 (edited) I used that Rustoleum Enamel a few years ago on a guitar. It NEVER cured. Sat there up until a few weeks ago when I finally stripped it off. It stayed soft the whole time. Years! So I suppose if the nitro actually stuck to the enamel it would still be soft. I'd like to know if someone gets this to actually work though.... theres all kinds of tasty Rustoleum Enamel colors! Edited October 8, 2010 by samhell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wander Posted October 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2010 I used that Rustoleum Enamel a few years ago on a guitar. It NEVER cured. Sat there up until a few weeks ago when I finally stripped it off. It stayed soft the whole time. Years! So I suppose if the nitro actually stuck to the enamel it would still be soft. I'd like to know if someone gets this to actually work though.... theres all kinds of tasty Rustoleum Enamel colors! What sort of Rustoleum? They have quite a few lines. I bought the Industrial/ Hard Hat line. According to the Rustoleum Tech Support it is able to be coated with any lacquer within a few days, provided it doesn't have too hot of a base to it. I intend to let mine sit for a few weeks before i coat it with a water based lacquer, and so long as you don't try and use the clear coating (7701 or the like) for a final finish you should be okay. We'll see in a few weeks...hopefully all turns out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 I tried Laquer over Enamel when I was first learning...it ate the enamel all up and caused it to crackle ,then the laquer hardened over the top of the mess... I had a fleeting thought at the time that it could create some interesting finishes if controlled somehow,but I discarded that thought as useless and moved on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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