Transparent White Wipe-On Finish...

[milhouse]

I just built a rear-routed, swamp ash strat and i've begun the finishing stage. I'm really happy with the results, as its the first body I've made incident-free, so I'd like a little advice on the finish before I go too far down the wrong path.

I am shooting for the brightest transparent white i can achieve via a wipe-on stain. I purchased Minwax water-based white tint base from Home Depot and wiped a few coats... It's nice - kind of a slightly-brighter Mary Kay finish. I really wanted a brighter, transparent Arctic White finish though.

I did a few tests on scrap and got really nice results by thinning Kilz latex primer with water. 2 coats on the sample pieces and the finish is exactly what i wanted. Do you think its a bad idea to use this on the Strat? I'll be doing a wipe-on minwax poly finish.

Any advice?

Thanks.

[Ripthorn]

You could get the Mixol tints and mix them into the wipe on poly. Or you could put the mixol in shellac and then wipe on poly over the top. I have also heard good things about the minwax whitewash, but have never tried it. Thinned Kilz is likely going to pose some sort of an issue with the wipe on poly unless you put a shellac barrier coat between the two. Just my 2 cents.

[milhouse]

Thanks Ripthorn. I think that i will be in the vicinity of a woodcraft tomorrow, so i will grab some mixol and give it a shot.

[jowilmei]

I am interested in doing something similar. Can you tell about your process? I want to use water based wipe on poly to achieve a trans white finish.