rooster

Have you got a better/bigger pic of it? I was thinking silver leaf, but looking at it, it looks more like plain old aluminium foil glued on and painted over. Would like to see a bigger pic though.

The cracking that occured had nothing to do with Krylon as a brand. It has everything to do with THICKNESS of the paint on it. Lacquer "checks" as it ages and creates "lizard skin". All the old show cars that had 50 coats of lacquer on them look like this now due to material thickness. That's why polyurethane came into the forefront of painting and refinishing. The shine and sprayability of Lacquer with the hardness of enamel with out the build up. Rattlecans are fine for most, but will NEVER offer the durability of a properly sprayed Poly finish. Oh, and most of the Krylon I've ever used was enamel.

Spray the base color, and let it dry. Then mix your red a bit thinner than you would spray it. Pour it on and let it go. Get creative, you can use an air hose to blow it around if you want. I'm still waiting on temp conditions to finish this one...... I hung it at "playing position" and let it have it. I sealed it with an inter coat clear and will level sand it as best as I can before the Clear goes on it.

Well, not looking for a pissing contest, just pointing out there is more than ONE way to skin a cat. I can achieve 100% DOI on my paint jobs and that's WITH graphics underneath. You'll never remove all the orange peel in paint without using a lower grit. I do have more pics of that and other guitars I've done for MCS, you can click here.....Heavymetalhotrods and see for yourself. The red V in the pic above is NOT a Rico, it is a Moser V. You can check them out at MCS site Rico didn't have a booth this year. I painted the Flag Bastard V. I do more than guitars, and have been painting professionally for over twenty years. I checked out your website Rhoads, and you have some nice stuff, just hard to judge the paint with small pics and the angles. If you want to see my other stuff here's the link to the whole site.....Full site I use PPG Concept Urethane base and clearcoats and the method I described has not failed me in all my years of painting. Just trying to offer up a little advice, save folks some time, and make stuff shiny.

Pretty simple. Build the booth next to the window, but not against it. Put a fan between the booth and against the window. Build an exhaust vent from your booth to the fan and seal it really well. Heat the air inside AND outside the booth with preferred method. Spray paint, when through, turn on the fan after you open the window and exhaust the fumes out. It will pull air thru and the outside air will still be warm so it shouldn't "shock" the paint with a drastic temp change. After the fog has cleared turn off the fan and allow the outside room to heat up again before the next coat. Don't let the temp drop below 60 degrees until the paint is cured.

400 and 600 are for PRIMER not PAINT! I never go below 1000 once clear is on it. And for God's sake, don't use that cheap assed Turtle Wax crap! Go to an auto body supply store and pick up some 3M Perfect-It COMPOUND and THEN polish it. I finish sand with 1200 and then buff. And I damn well take exception to the above comment about "If you need to start with anything heavier than that, you havent sprayed the guitar properly." Really. How many years have you been shooting paint? How many of your paint jobs got featured articles in NATIONAL magazines? I've had a few and even had several Best Paint awards at shows, and I'm not talking some Autozone parking lot either. Darryl Starbird 5A events. I ALWAYS start the final sanding with 1000 grit to remove ANY orange peel with a hard pad, switch to a soft pad with 1000, then to a soft pad with 1200. Buff and instant mirror. Starting with anything higher is just wasting time to get the same result anyway. Here's one of mine that was displayed at this years NAMM booth if anyone thinks I'm blowing smoke. Back to the original topic, you've probably destroyed the finish. You didn't mention what type of paint/clear you used. You may have to sand it again with 1000 and reshoot it.

I've owned the same gun for over a decade and have rebuilt it ONCE! It still shoots better than half of the Sata's my buddies have and looks like it is less than a year old. I have sprayed guitars ( and lots of other stuff ) slicker than most people get their stuff AFTER buffing it. Buy a GOOD gun and TAKE CARE OF IT. My next gun will be an Iwata. Sata's are way overpriced and way overhyped. Get as big a tank on the compressor you can find. Also find a cast iron headed motor with a LOW rpm rating. They last MUCH longer than an aluminium headed compresser runnig over 2500 rpms.

Prime, base, lay out flames, mask rest of guitar, shoot flames as desired, clearcoat. Allow that to cure for a week or so depending on paint used, sand and buff. I use PPG Deltron Basecoats and Clears. You have a 24 hour window with this but like was stated earlier, you can use a mid coat clear or clear base to cover your work if more time is needed or you want to level or "bury" the edges left by the tape. Remember when you mask the flames you're taping a negative image. Everything INSIDE the tape is your flame. Here's what it looks like taped up. and after it's unmasked... If you use a sheet type mask it'll save you a TON of time taping in between all the flames. Take your time and have fun.

I use an old clothing rack with a hole drilled in the end of the hanging arm and run a 1/4" extension thru the hole and into a tuner hole on the headstock and secure the extension with a pair of Vice Grips. Haven't dropped one yet!

So I do a lot of paint and body work, and I've done a lot of work on different things but guitars are kinda new to me. I was asked to do quite a few custom paint jobs for Moser Custom Shop on some damaged in shipping guitars. Here's two of my favorite ones.....Flame and Flag Bastard V's

This should answer your questions.....How to add a graphic to your guitar

Don't try to shoot the whole guitar in one pass. Shoot the face of it, let it catch up. Shoot the back of it, let it catch up. Does this compressor have a tank on it or is it just the compressor with the hose coming out of it? You basically need it to keep 35-40 psi at the gun as you're shooting. If you don't already have one get a little regulator wih a gauge that reads the air pressure at the gun. If the compressor you borrowed won't keep it at that pressure the whole time, you may not be able to use the spray gun after all.

Step AWAY from the KRYLON!!! If you're shooting something as small as a guitar, that compressor you borrowed SHOULD be big enough. It won't stop running and you WILL have to wait for it to catch back up before shooting or you won't have the pressure you need. If you go slow it should work fine. Go get that gun and get after it!

If you don't clear it in a 24 hour period, there is a chance that the clear won't adhere to the color coat and delamenate (peel off!). Also, on the recoat time, If you shoot a coat of PPG Polyurethane Clears, and you don't spray your next coat within one hour, you're done for 24 hours before you can touch it again. If you shoot it after an hour it will lift and ruin everything under it. Simple rule, shoot it within an hour or don't touch it for 24. As far as what you CAN use without the 24 hour window, any of PPG's Concept single stage paints can be cleared after the 24 hour period, butwould need to be scuffed with 600-1000 grit before clearing. The most effective solution is to spray a clear base coat (DBC 500) over your swirl when it's finished and dried ( but still before your 24 hour window is up ) and then you can sand and respray the DBC without disturbing your finish under it and clear when you're ready. You could also try using some of the airbrush water based stuff. I have zero experience with that, but it would eliminate the window issue. Hope that helps.

The big question is....how long ago did you finish the swirl? ALL of the PPG clears I use have to go over the basecoat within 24 hours or you have to resand and shoot the color coats. I haven't worked with the Global stuff and if you used a single stage paint instead of a base you may still be able to shoot a clear on it and have good adhesion. Most body shops would be able to shoot it and buff it, but don't expect it to be ANYWHERE near $30. The clear is expensive as hell and worth it. IF you can find a shop willing to throw it in the booth with another project that's getting cleared, you can save some money that way.

If it's chipped up and scratched to hell, strip it down to the clear sealer coat. If you just want to change the color of it and it's in good shape, sand it down with some 400 grit to take the shine off to a UNIFORM dull finish. A red ScotchBrite pad works well too. I hate rattlecan jobs with a passion, but they can turn out ok if you take your time and don't rush it. Sanding between coats is silly and unnecessary and usually will double your chances of screwing something up. Make sure you have a place to let it dry where it won't get bumped or touched. The more coats you put on, the longer it will take to dry. I use a basecoat/clearcoat polyurethane on all my stuff. The clear has a hardner that locks up the clear and makes it very durable. I've been a custom painter for over twenty years and have ALL the equipment you'd ever need for painting. I don't recommend trying to use the auto paints unless you or someone else is familiar with their use. It's expensive and can kill you without a proper respirator. Here's a link to some of my more recent projects.......Heavy Metal Hot Rods Good luck and have fun with it!

Second hand info is WRONG! Most manufacturer's use ONLY polyurethane bases and clears on the cars and trucks out, because it is more durable, much nicer looking, and remains FLEXIBLE for all the plastic bumbers and such. Laquer and enamel are the ones that stay brittle and chip off ....ever seen a really old LP that's original and the clear is cracked to hell? The clears out in the auto industry right now are nothing short of amazing performance wise. Why people still use nitro baffles me.

The airless set ups are designed for house paints. Latex, Oil based enamels and such. Those paints are THICK! You wouldn't want to use that type of paint on a guitar body! Look into getting an adjustable pattern touch up automotive gun and a small compressor. You'll like it much better!

It's always easier to start with your lightest color and go from there. For that design you probably could've used automotive pinstriping and then just cleared over it. As far as the ridges, it would help to know if you're using an automotive clear or not. If so, find a nice 3M rubber sanding block (turtle shaped) and put a piece of 1000 grit wet paper on it and GENTLY and SLOWLY sand it down smooth. It depends on how much clear you laid down as to how far you can take it without having to reshoot it.

what is saran wrap? It's a clear cling wrap that is normally put over left over food and stuck back in the refrigerator. Sorry, it's just a common name for it over here, like Coke or Band aid.

Whenever you use the chemical strippr, brush it only one direction and lay Saran Wrap over it as soon as it's spread. That keeps it from drying out as fast and lets it penetrate deeper.

Well, the clear will fill up 1000 grit scratches, so I'd say you should be good. Clean it really well and start clearing.

What type of paint are you using? Is it a basecoat/clearcoat system? If it is there should be no sanding in between them.

I'm new here but thought I'd share a few I've done...... MCS BVi-B with Zakk graphic My custom BVi guitar

Hi, I'm from the MCS forum also and I did leave a little message in your guestbook. I believe you have borrowed MUCH more than just the wave from the top of this particuliar guitar, as do most others. For those who haven't seen both put up side by side..... The body angle is the same, the upper carve is the same, the shape is amost EXACT except for the added lower wing. Anybody else see why we might be upset about it? If it weren't for sale, we'd have made comments on how nice a job you'd done. The Shredder forum just watched as BC Rich filed a two year long lawsuit on Neal for building his OWN designs after screwing him out of royalties on the Bich and Virgin shape since 1993. So we tend to watch out for him on things like this. Some of the members can be rabid at times. Neal IS a real friend to many on the forum, and is a truly nice guy. I'm sure the two of you can work this out amongst you.