spudler

I am getting ready to start painting using a Professional Air spray gun and I am interested in finding web sites or any information for that matter on proper technique and all the goods on painting using compressed air and spray guns. I basically know nothing, I would like to get some idea of how to do it properly as I could set up a bunch of practice items and trial and error it but I don't have a whole lot of money to use up on scrap projects.

If you are talking about The Crystal Clear Enamel 7701 or some # like that. I tried it and I had terrible luck. I am not sure if it needs a few months to cure like Laquer or not but I did a headstock with it and I would say a month or so later I was claning teh guitar and when I looked at the headstock to clean teh dust and stuff of I noticed my fingerprints so I used my buffing cloth I use on all my other guitars and as I wa attempting to buff off what I thought were oily fingerprints I noticed it started acting like there was adhesive on it as I realized the finish was coming off as if It was adhesive from tape or rubbber cement. To this day it has not seemed to cure and it has been 3 months since that happened. I decided since the good cans of Urethane with hardner are about $40 a can and it takes about 3 cans per body, I bought a spray gun and am going to start using auto quality Urethane from now on.

Thanks everyone. you would not believe just about a year ago I bought and started playing my first guitar in 18 years. I knew little about guitars back then and even less a year ago. I must thank you and all on the internet forums. Since then I have learned to play ok, do all my own maintenance, setup etc. and actually taking parts and modifying them quite extensively. I learn more and more everyday. I will try dye next project. I decided that even though it did not come out the way I had envisioned it actually has quite a unique and very cool look. SO I guess I learned just because it is not what you want does not mean it is not something quite remarkable. I decided not to do any clear on this and leave it the way it came out. I will see if I can get some pics of it posted later. I am real happy with the neck. I took a MIK Wizard II profile neck and shaved and re- radiused it to a Wizard Profile. I did it because I was having a hard time finding a Wizard Profile neck in AANJ with sharktooth inlays for a decent price.

The problem is this is the second try. and I am trying to lighten the dark areas. How would you suggest I keep those areas from darkening so much if I decide to start over again? I even made sure I concentrated on those areas when I did the pre-stain conditioning as I had it happen first time, Though not close to as bad as this time. There is no acetone,Thinner something that may disolve or lighten the stain in those few areas?? Its a shame as 80 % is perfect exactly what I was trying for as far as color and even ness. Maybe I will give up on staining and just do solid colors as they seem to be simple to do.

If you don't have any poly on it you can try some Rust-oleum Specialty Laquer #1906830 Clear or I have had good luck with Rust-oleum Crystal Clear Enamel #7701 Cyrstal Clear. I have used it on my current Ibanez body I play daily and I just did the headstock on my project guitar. It dries quite fast so you can put on 4 or 5 coats in 30-45 min. I usually wait 6-10 hrs before I wet sand to smooth and make sure surface is staying flat. I use a 3M rubber sanding block and 2000 grit sandpaper to do the wet sanding. I dip the paper in water then dab it a little so I just have enough to sand without having water getting into areas I dont want it in. I would do 2-3 thin coats then sand, clean and repeat. I also have noticed that Duplicolor Grease and wax remover works awesome for wiping area just prior to painting or top coating.

I am curious if anyone knows what I can use to lighten certain spots on the guitar body I stained?? I followed all directions exactly, I used pre stain wood conditioner let it sit for max 15 min wiped it off and within 5 min applied the Minwax dark walnut stain, let it stand max of 5 min and wiped it off as directed. I let it cure for a couple days due to no time to work on it. I was looking and I noticed on the Horns, sides, bottom and a area on back where the chamfer is that sits against body took the stain to almost black. The rest of it looks awesome so I need to find something I can use to possibly lighten/remove some of teh stain in the dark areas. It is a Ibanez RG 570 body.