syxxstring

You could use seral paper, like they do for pinstriping to lay it out.

How are you planing on painting the image? If you paint it with the correct paint you could do it before clearing, then clear over it and make it smooth.

First let me say. Whoa. Slow down there speedy.

The key to any of this being a success is project managment.

You have a goal now you have to map out a few other critical things.

1. Budget

2. Timeframe

3. Risks

4. Stakeholders ( key people, you, your dad, any help you may need or get)

5. Requirements (the eventual desired outcome in detail)

Once you've figured this out you can start filling in the blanks. Yes you can run off half prepared and things come out alright, sometimes. The thing I've learned as a professional project manager is that it doesn't matter if I'm installing 25 million dollars worth of technology or building a pedal. If you approach it like a chess game and think a few steps ahead your success rate is much higher.

The graphic you want to do could be done simply with an airbrush. Kustomshop.com even has a pretty decent wolf stencil. If you think stencils have to look bad check out some of what Frasier does with his stencils at gotpaint.com. However if you've never used an airbrush before don't expect to pick one up and spray a perfect image day one.

My other advice is pick a system and stick to it. Once you start mixing systems and brands you are playing junior chemist.

As far as the e-book on guitar painting, I haven't read it. But I would say go border, barnes and noble, and your library and look into some books on custom autopainting. You will find most of the materials we use for guitars are either automotive or wood finishes. Since you want to do a solid color with a graphic, your probably going automotive. Jon Kosmoski, founder of House of Kolor, has a couple of great books.

You could also look into the disposable cup systems. Im considering them when I start doing more work in bulk.

I use Auto Air and Hok. I know other people and myself have used other brands of clear, do so at your own risk etc.

The candy's from Auto Air don't work as well as the House of Kolor, but they work pretty well if your just after a transparent over silver etc...

This is all Auto Air pre clear:

http://syxxstring.shutterfly.com/action/pi...e21b357b88745f8

As for Hokpaint.com. That is TCP Global, they sell prereduced paint. This is a really bad idea, once you reduce it the shelf life has begun. You don't know when they reduced it,etc... Its only good for a week or so at best.

Also you don't know what they've reduced it with or what percent. If your going to do any graphic work you probably would over reduce it anyways. Custom painters will reduce up to 500%.

There is no one involved with custom paint that would recomend this. Plus the prereduced paints don't work out to be that good of a deal compared to the authentic Hok small quantities.

Syxx-I am located in Eastern Pennsylvania and have a few good sources I am finding but not nearly as many as if I lived closer to Philly. I can basically find one source for each of the major brands locally.

Wes- I remember reading your review of the Conversion Varnish. I am glad to hear that it is holding up so well. I was giving that serious consideration until my build schedule ran long and I am not getting about 55 degrees outside now. I do not want to spray anywhere inside my house, so that is out of the question. My garage would work well, but I do not have power running out to it. I currently do all of my work with a pair of worklights over my bench and one power tool at a time because I have to run everything off 25 feet of extension cord. I have a few of those nice oil filled radiators that I can plug in, but I give it about 5 minutes before I trip the breaker if I run two of them at the same time. And I am not even close to being stupid enough to run the Kerosene heater. Even though it would probably result in a nice mushroom cloud. So I do not think I can get the garage above 70 degrees. I liked the urethane because with the fastest hardener I could spary down to 55 degress and with a heater running I should be able to easily keep the area around the guitar warm enough. I guess at this point, I have to try hooking up a pair of heaters and seeing what they can do for me.

Coast will work with you to keep shipping costs reasonable, if you decide to mail order.

It is intended to spray on....

Urethane compatible?I don't know,but I don't see why you would need it to be?You can use it as a base to make any color you want with universal dyes and pigments...

Wes,

I use a lot of products from House of Kolor, Alsa, and Autoair. Basically automotive finishes, but would love to find a clear thats a little cheaper and less dangerous than the automotive stuff.

Things like true candy paints, shimirin base coats, flakes, pearls etc. For the Hok stuff I should really stick with thier clears, but for the Auto-air etc...

The compressor is all about cfm, or how much air it can supply.

Horsepower, tank size, voltage, blah blah blah.

All you care about for painting is how much air can it supply a minute. These other things make up that number. For a guitar you can use a detail or touchup gun that use a lot less cfm. My next purchase will be an Iwata Lph80, you can almost run it off an airbrush compressor.

Wes, is that clear uro compatible? Spray or brush on?

ihocky2 - where are you at? I can't recomend Coast Airbrush enough for supporting the custom painter with small quantities of product, reasonable shipping and all the time in the world to make it work for you. (www.coastairbrush.com)

I got a couple of Killer Cans of mirror chrome from an Alsa Rep at Sema I will be trying shortly. It certainly is a lot of work:

1. base black a gutiar

2. clear and let cure

3. spray mirror chrome

4. wait 2 days

5. clear

Low watt amps are not neccesarily low volume if you want cranked distortion.

My recomendation would be a Valve Jr with a good preamp or distortion pedal. In the past I've naild low volume Boogie tones by using a V-Twin into a small amp.

Weather is and issue the temperature and humidity can cause all sorts of paint problems. Read the manufacturers tech sheets.

If you painting outside still wear a resperator, also you will still need to wear nitrate gloves and such.

For measuring I buy mixing cups that a graduated from Home Depot or my auto paint store.

For rubbing compound and swirl remover you can use a lot of products and methods, do some searching here and google a find a method that fits your time, skill, and budget.

My first choice is Citristrip, Its pretty easy and clean.

Im hardly ever lucky enough to have it work. I then get out the heat gun.

I dont think I'd ever want to sand off the finish, but others do.

Now unless its a rare or unique body shape I just buy them unfinished, way quicker and easier. With some of the companies on ebay now paint quality bodies are stupid cheap.

Id do it with sing vinyl. Easily removable and cheap. You can replace it later on if it gets worn cheaply.

http://www.internationalluthiers.com/electrickits.php

These guys seem to have some nice kits that aren't the standard saga stuff. I haven't ordered from them, yet.

I would have the artist lined up and know what materials they are going to use and co-oridinate your bases and clears.

Also thickness, mil thickness is important for preventing delamination. The tech sheets will be important to figuring that out, you paint manufacturer should provide them.

Personally I would look to an artist that does custom auto or motorcyle work since they are very similar processes. One of the reasons most of this work is done with the airbrush is to keep the paintwork thin and so it can be made level in the clear coats.

My experience, which is limited, is that with a low end gun like that you are going to get peel.

Couple of quesions 35 psi at the gun or the tank?

What diamter hose an fittings?

I only use automotive euros so I cant tell you with the lacquer. I know old school painters used to spray a wet lacquer coat last to make it flow.

I would try a new mirror paint such as the Hok or Auto Air. For the blood I would work with a some candy paints to airbrush the pattern.

It is possible. The chances there will be a noticable difference in tone is very slim. When a pot is at 0 it will read 0 ohms, if fact I would say you would be losing tone by not having the flexibility to adjust volume for each situation. The best sounding bass players I know use thier knobs to adjust thier sound to the room and amp, etc.

My Parker Nite Fly, or one of my custom Squier 51's.

Every good paint manufacturer has tech sheets. These give you recoat windows, clear windows, etc... They also explain what you can do around those windows, in the case of House of Kolor its Sg100. Sg100 is an intercoat clear designed for protecting artwork but also can be used when clear windows are missed.

If it has to be rattle can, try looking at the hobby shops. They will have more colors that aren't the usualy OEM paints.

If it doesn't Auto-air/Createx has some good color choices for what you want.

The clearing window with at aleast the HOK products can be worked around by using intercoat clear(sg100) and scuffing first.

It is a good point to think about what paint you used and compatable clears.

Using automotive paints I would use a razor blade to carefully clean it up. Yup a razor blade, I usually wrap both sides with masking tape and use it like a plane. It takes some practice but works like a charm.

I know others that wrap a paint stick in fine grade sand paper and kind of do the same thing. Make sure its cured first.

The guys I mentioned at Kal Koncepts do work for Jackson custom shop guitars, and quite a few others. Spaun drums, etc.

This time of year they are busy doing cars for House of Kolor, Auto Air, etc. for the big Sema show, but right after the show they might be slow waiting for the money to roll in from the big dollar jobs. Craig Frasier from that shop designs a lot of the air brush stencils that are out there. He's a stand up guy and really works to keep his prices fair. Long story short, I wouldn't hesitate getting a quote from them.

Where are you located? I hang out on a kustom paint forum populated by top level painters I can see if any of them are in your area.

As far as doing it yourself. Yes it can be done. I'm realy working on the process myself now of doing full automotive clears with pro level spray guns. Figure the price of a good gun to be $100-$400, a compressor a minimum of $200 to meet hvlp specs, hvlp compliant hose and fittings (yes there are specific specs), respirator, paint suit, buffing, wet sanding materials, the list could go on. The point is unless you want to do it a lot and really work at the technique its not worth putting together a pro level set up. You can do a lot with an amatuer's set up, but its a lot more work, while not saving a ton of money unless you skip out on the saftey equipment. Feel free to skip the saftey equipment if cancer, infections, and neurological disorders are your cup of tea.

1. There are many good brands and paints. It's more about equipment conditions etc. and mostly the magician not the wand.

2. Thinner or reducer. They are usually different temperatures related to how fast the paint should dry for different spraying conditions or effects.

3. Read the tech sheets for any paint you are thinking of using. They will specify what you can and can't do. You may get away with not following them but your experimenting at that point.