Shugs81

if I'm honest i don't like binding... and was planning on a coloured base coat.... the initial idea was to sand it right down and stain it green but when I made a mess i decided on the tape... which you have to admit if it was all one sheet it would look pretty good on stage!!! well... i still think so... lol... as to denatured alcohol... is that metholated spirits? the purple stuff?? i'm in the uk so i think it is.... I'll have a go with that first as if the body was flat i reckon it's sticky enough to hold on to a painted wall unassisted!!! I've got some isopropyl alcohol... will that work or should i just go for the purple stuff? then with whats left i'll scrape with a blade... I have some from when I was reconditioning a fretboard on my epi les paul.... What's the best way to remove inlay stuff? like the mother of pearl in the headstock? I'd like to pull the vintage logo and swirly's off and fill it with something and maybe paint my own on or something... as to 160/220 grit.... I would have thought i'd have needed the rougher grades... that may be where i was going wrong before!!... if you look at the lighter section near where the selecter switch is that's still the preservey stuff... might even still be some clearcoat left... will i need to make sure that's gone before I paint it? or can i just level the rest out with filler and prime it? also... is it definitely better to use a block than a detail sander? that is all.... for now...

laugh away.... it's a total mess!!!! I'm guessing using something to take off the bubbles and fill over the gap... and the first pic was taken in a dark room!!! umm.... yeah... if the pics are too big i'll resize them some more...

well... with a touch of inventiveness I decided to stick a load of reflective tape on it... see first pic... now i've taken it off I'm actually thinking it was a bit higher end than it first appeared as it was a properly stained finish.. anyhow.... after destruction with the tape it is now sticky as hell... take note peeps... the next pics are a bit rubbbish... cause I'm a crap photographer.... Bubble Chip Mess

Ho ho!! Good point! Pics shortly...

Hi chaps... not been on here for ages!!! anyway... let's crack on!! I bought a cheap vintage brand les paul copy on the cheap... it actually played really nice... but me being the idiot i am decided that I couldn't leave it alone and wanted to do it up... it had some pretty big dings in it and i decided i wanted to take it back to the wood to start from scratch... but like a tool i used a heat gun to strip the clear coat off... this was bad for a number of reasons.... firstly... it had binding on it... so that's a bit of a mess... and also with it being a cheap guitar the archtop bubbled and splintered in places... my question for the resident experts is... what would be the best way to sort it out? I understand there will be a lot of filler and lots of sanding but was hoping someone could advise on the best way to do it... I haven't got pics at the moment but I plan to take some... I tried to cover it with reflective tape... looked awesome but the tape wasn't sticky enough and kept coming off... so i've decided to do it properly... any advice would be most appreciated as I understand I've screwed it up myself... was gonna get a new guitar but decided that fixing this one up will get me what a want more than buying a new one!! Ta peeps!