Using a heat gun...

[metalprep6969]

Hey guys, I'm going to be removing the paint on my Squier tomorrow using my uncle's heat gun and I'll probably be starting the paint job soon thereafter. I was wondering if this method of paint removal also removed the sealer and grain filler (or are the sealer and grain filler the same thing?) Thanks guys.

\m/

[Devon Headen]

yes, it does...be very careful and don't let the heat scorch the wood too bad.

[metalprep6969]

Ok, I started work today using my uncle's heat gun and I'm running into some problems/questions.

1- The tutorial on the main site says that the paint should be popping off almost like popcorn, and that i'll need to scrape the rest off. Well, no matter how long I leave the gun in one area, the paint always requires me to use the scraper (I'm even using a fan to generate enough air movement so that the pieces will fly away). Am I using some sort of bad technique? Have you guys had this problem? Do some paints (this is the original paint job on a 98 squier strat) resist this "popcorn popping". Is it my heat gun? (i don't think this is the problem, because once I scrape down to the wood, it burns pretty easily, and it is on it's highest setting). Help me out here because I've done a little bit of damage to the wood using the scraper and I'd like to prevent more.

2- As I scraped and scraped to finally get down to the wood, I noticed there were several layers of material before I got all the way through. There's a cream-colored layer which is the paint, then there's a brownish layer that's pretty tough stuff, then there's a blue-grayish layer. The only thing under that is the wood. Am I correct in saying that the brown is the sealer and the blue-gray is the grain filler? Oh yeah, I'm colorblind. so the colors might be a little off