syxxstring

The problem is it's not a spatter technique at all. Its a flake or effect paint like HOK's Metajules. Simple if your used to spraying flake, but flake is at least 2 sessions, not 2 coats, of clear to be able to bury and then level sand and polish. There are some other tricks to it as well. Plus lots of extra time cleaning the booth because flake goes everywhere, spray it outside a booth and you'll be finding it for years. You really see how much flake there is in this pic:

Quick quote without seing the condition of the original finish and using the original finish as a base about $250 plus return shipping. Obviously you'd want a lighter shade of blue, using a candy more fading can be done. We can work out an exact paint plan and quote.

Are the dimensions given for each 1/2 on the top sets? interested in the first four listed.

To my eye, it looks like blue base under a sliver flake then a transparent black burst. There are lots of ways to do it depending on exactly what result you want and the $$ you are looking to spend. Still needs another clear session and leveled and polished.

I talked to Craig Kennedy recently, owner of Autoair/Createx they make Fascolor for Parma. Here's the deal, Fascolor used to be the exact same stuff as autoair. But as they have improved autoair a ton in the last few years for tip dry and flow etc... They have not at Parma's request improved the Fascolor. Buy Autoair or Createx as long as its fresh its much better paint, much. The labels have changed, I can't remember how though. If you buy from Coast Airbrush they only have the new stuff. I spray it all the time through big guns or my detail guns as do several custom painters. I would check before using a lacquer over it though with Autoair, it is formulated and tested for an automotive urethane system. The difference being uro's will have a thinner film build and greater elasticity than lacquer if applied correctly. These were done with autoair: and and and this Ignore the solvent pop. I tried a can of alsa's killer cans clear and the very last pass the can went dry and....

Looks like no stain to me. Just natural wood.

Pick a paint system and stick with it all the way through. Are you rattle canning it or using a spray gun. What type of finish effect's are you considering?

A lot of the top airbrush guys I know all started with nitro back in the day. It can be used through an airbrush quite well you just have to reduce it to the right consistency, where it gets hard to use is the dry times and such. Remember too that using nitro over graphics will require a lot more build than a solid finish to bury the edges etc... So plan on extra coats. Its hard to develop a paint plan with out knowing what kind of graphic you want. Candies may be required depending on the effect you want. There's a long lacquer thread over at the Kustom Kulture Lounge regarding lacquer and the uses. A guy named Doc Cyber knows a lot about its uses.

I had my paint guru visit this thread, since he wrote the HOK tech sheets I figured he'd be able to shed some light. The stuff in quotes is from his email back to me. We then talked on the phone, so I'm adding in some comments. Grain filling: "The use of clear for filling the grain is valid. For deep grain I recommend the System three." System Tree is a marine epoxy if your unfamiliar. UC35 vs UFC35 "The clear to use would be the UC35. It's build is more stable in a shorter time and has a slightly harder surface. Although little value in the Guitar venue, it has better chemical resistance." UFC35 is meant as a flow or final clear. It has a longer flash and dry time and lays out more evenly. However the benefits are lost on small objects like guitars and motorcycles, because the surface are is too small. It also has different spraying properties than does UC35 so to get a great finish requires some readjusting how you spray it. Often times it i used over UC35 after it has been color sanded on large objects.(Boats, cars, helicopters) When he painted the Pimp My Ride Cars he used UFC35 because he needed it to flow and was very limited on buffing and sanding time. If you don't have the experience to make it flow you will loose all its benefits, I won't be busting out the UFC35 anytime soon. Uro's vs Lacquer: "The stability of a urethane is the selling point. When doing custom finishes, where a common flake size may be bigger than many coats of lacquer, a solid material will stay put when dried. Since lacquer dries by evaporation the initial dry is very quick. As it dries the film "locks up" actually slowing down the rate of dry. Therefore, one could say, the longer it takes the slower it dies. Consequentially the squooshing, around screws etc., will be worse in a given time unless the film build is kept very low which, on something really cool, it won't be." Tinted clear vs using SG100 "The KK in the urethane clear thing is more a matter of film build, time, and stability. Without the concern for UV the SG100 does a fine job in this application." Basically SG100 has a lower film build, which can be a huge concern in custom paint jobs, it gets too thick and the solvents don't work. The goal of a paint like HOK is that the solvents bite through each layer and lock the whole thing together as one film. Which is where mixing brands will come back to bite you, sometimes they won't bite or over time may even repel. Also the windows for a hardened clear are very short, so for things like artwork it is very limiting and your ability to sand back or remove mistakes are limited. Think of it this way, if you nail the burst the first time your golden. If you want to add more candy or additional faces or touch ups with a tinted hardened clear its going to be way harder. You don't have to buy a full quart of SG100 either...

I mistyped the UFC35 I think, I'd have to recheck the tech sheets. You could tint the clear with the Kandy, I think, but Sg100 is much cheaper and you get better depth clearing over the kandy.

Are you following the finishing schedule recomened by the manufacturer? Not some made up guy's idea on the internet. Are you staying within product lines?

Also check out the Devilbiss Sri-W it's also one of my favorite guns.

I'd think about painting it black. Masking off your design and then using a marbelizer. You could work it in small squares even.

Your looking at a lot of work. Read the tutorials and posts around here and you'll figure out a lot of what you need to know.

I get most everything from Coast Airbrush. I've never shot nitro, I've never liked it on the guitar's I've owned using it as a finish. The CAT gun is probably an Astro or one of the other lower end guns rebagged. I really like my Iwata LPH-80 and Devilbiss SRI-W, I have a Sata 3000 that is taking some getting used to being a big gun it flows a little better than the others but puts out tons of paint making it difficult. Anyways your CAT gun is fine if you dial it in. Brian Lynch wrote a Rod & Custom article a few months back that lays out how to adjust a gun properly, it shouldn't really matter what your shooting as far as tuning the gun methodology. The big difference you'll find with most 2k uro's is that you have much smaller recoat windows and much shorter cure times. HOK is ready to buff in 24 hours if you have too. Also they are not reactive finishes, meaning once cured the original solvents wont effect them. It's a big bonus to me having seen many nitro finishes damaged by straps, stands, etc... The modern automotive paints also maintain great elasticity which is why they don't check etc...

My companies new "paint guy" is House Of Kolor's former tech leader. He wrote the HOK tech sheets. I will be doing my bodies with artwork and he will do most of the soild color, bursts, etc. We're still sketching out the details. Talking to him about doing some of this kind of stuff, here's how he would approach it, I believe. Clear the body with HOK UFC35, your basic clear, untill you have enough built up to level sand. Over maple probably 2 or 3 sessions. Level sand, don't polish wax or anything else. Next would be color coats: Maybe 1 coat with SG100 (intercoat clear, required for the HOK Kandy Koncentrates) mixed with a touch of Pagan Gold, if your center isn't dark enough for your tastes. I'd probably leave it. Then mix sg100 with either magenta or violet. Depending on which color suits your taste better. I'd go magenta based on that picture. Fade your first coat evenly for the whole distance you want color. (oops forgot a K color) I'd choose a small HVLP gun like my LPH-80, or the Kustom TH Airbrush. A regular airbrush has about a 2 inch fan, for even coverage Kandies require about a 50% overlap. I have the equipment to do it more effiecently so I would. Then keep fading more burst color until you have the depth and pattern you like. Maybe for the final pass on the edge just a touch of BC25(black) added to the mix to give it a little extra dark. It won't kill the kandy effect but will give you a "black" kandy. Then UFC35 clear 2 sessions or more depending on your gun skills, cut buff and polish. If you tape off the Faux binding and base coat the back black like they have you might need another session to make sure your tape lines are burried. Don't confuse this with the same tonal and film build as factory polyesters. This is show car quality Polyurethane, the total film build in mils would be the same or less than most Nitro finishes. Just with out the fading, cracking, wait time and all that of Nitro. For candy finishes you gain a huge depth and shine and a ton more durability and UV resistance. Nitro has it's place, maybe, but a custom quality uro isn't going to be a disadvantage over it.

Yup, there is tutorial on the main site.

No, just a hard to strip finish. The heatgun is the only option I've ever found for them.

Shoot me an email syxxstring@syxxstring.com.

You can apply HOK UFC35 directly over wood according the person I am partnering with on some builds. He wrote the HOK tech manual and headed their testing and tech support before leaving Valspar about 7 months ago.

You really couldn't fix it without a total refinish on at least the body. To maintain a constant base for a paint job I would remove the rest of the paint and work from there, you probably are better of selling it as is. It's hard to predict what someone would want in a refinished guitar and it will harm the resale value probably way more than you would spend.

Evercoat Gold is the stuff a lot of the pro painters I know like and use. But its as arguable as string brands or Gibson/Fender or Ford/Chevy. I would go with what the painter your working with likes and uses, if your working with someone stick with his system. You will use so little filler anyways it shouldn't be a big deal to get a little from him. The key with filler is to use it in very small amounts. Where Bondo gets a bad name is people using it to fill golf ball size dings with out doing the proper work to straighten the metal as much as posible first.

Have him prime it for you, this guarantees you a compatible primer, and since it's likely a 2k primer a much better than rattle can primer. Then shoot a guide coat. A guide coat is simply a misted on layer of paint that you use to see low spots when block sanding. Googling block sanding and guide coat will get you more info than you need. But this is how top dollar custom cars and motorcycles are painted. You can then sand back with his prefered grit to get a level surface. From there then use body filler (bondo for lack of a better term) to fill your low spots and reblock sand. He can probably help you do the filling since he will have a filler of his choice around. Then its paint and clear. If he's using a system like House of Kolor, there will be a sealer coat as well. You can tint the sealer coat and clear over it. This is the way that House of Kolor's head tech guy painted a guitar in a class I took from him. People will put down the use of filler, but in very small amounts used correctly it can't be beat for getting a level surface to paint on.

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