Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

[tominator]

Hey,

Let me start off by saying I am happy to be a part of these forums, you guys helped me a lot in the past!

Around a month back I decided to completely redo my most recent purchase, an OLP Petrucci (Black). I have never done any painting or wood work in my life but hey, we have the Internet. I had this "Design" in my mind for ages, wanted to give it a try on a rather affordable guitar.

If I had any idea what am I doing, this would be the project plan:

- Sand off the lacquer with 120/180/320 paper
- Fine sand the entire thing with up to 800/1000 paper to get rid of any minor imperfections
- Prime the surface with a car primer, fine sand it again
- Mask parts not to be painted with tape, paint it, rinse repeat 7-8 times (I am on 3 this far, just about half of the body is covered)

This is what I have right now -







The only thing left to do is to put some red and white on the body (you see the idea on the headstock), then just sand it completely flat and prepare it for clear-coating.

My buddy has a professional body shop for cars (works with all the car insurance companies and such). As much as I believe in myself, I have no way to paint the body on both sides at the same time, need to have it done somewhere else than in my kitchen.

Current objective is to finish up my "graphics" and get it sealed with professional clear-coat used for high gloss car finishes. This also happens to be my question -

Considering I have a professional chamber, a gun and any kind of lacquer you might need with a pro to put it on your guitar, what should I tell him? How many layers, how thick should they be, what kind of lacquer would be proper for this occasion etc. My aim is the absolute high gloss mirror finish.

As I understand it, this is the time where you can make or break your perfect finish. I would rather hear back from you guys before doing anything.

Thanks for reading!

Tom

 

[kramersteen]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Cool bananas.

Acrylic lacquer will be the go. If you want high gloss it will take a few coats depending on your prep work..

Wet it in with thinned down coats at the end it really helps.

 

[Securb]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

A nice buff after wet sanding will flatten the lacquer and make the finish really pop in the light.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Will lacquer be compatible with the paint you have already on there???

That would be the question I would be first contemplating.

 

[tominator]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Will lacquer be compatible with the paint you have already on there???

That would be the question I would be first contemplating.

I tried to look up what the paint actually is, honestly, no idea. European brand called "Montana Colors", graffiti cans and such. They give you a chemical layout of what's in the paint, no simple names like "Nitro" or "Acrylic" or whatever else.

I wanted to bring a sample can to the shop so they can pick a compatible lacquer. How would you know is it right or not? Any golden "rule of thumb" applicable here?

Thanks!

 

[dominus]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Easiest way to tell is the recoat times.

Recoat any time - Lacquer.
Recoat within one hour or after x hours - Enamel.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

I tried to look up what the paint actually is, honestly, no idea. European brand called "Montana Colors", graffiti cans and such. They give you a chemical layout of what's in the paint, no simple names like "Nitro" or "Acrylic" or whatever else.

I wanted to bring a sample can to the shop so they can pick a compatible lacquer. How would you know is it right or not? Any golden "rule of thumb" applicable here?

Thanks!

The thinners used, under 'cleanup' or similar can help.

 

[Godin15]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Lookin Good.:cool3:

 

[Taz Rules]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Spray some of your paint on a scrap piece, then shoot different clears over different sections.

My preference would be an automotive clear. Automotive urethane is bulletproof, and applies thin enough (2-4 mils) and hard enough that it won't affect tone a lot. Plus the polishes on the market are designed for these coatings. A high quality urethane can be polished to a glass finish. And it will be compatible with your friends spray guns.

 

[Taz Rules]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Btw, you don't need to sand your color coat completely flat before clearing. In fact, you can't. The only way to get crisp lines is to allow some paint thickness.

The way I do two tones is to shoot 2-3 coats of clear over the color, let cure for 24 hours, and sand the raised paint edges with a dual action sander with 800 grit. Do not oversand. Shoot 2-3 more coats of clear. Sand again with 800. Repeat until the paint lines cannot be felt. Then one last go around with clearcoat. Wetsand, and polish. show car mirror finish.

 

[tominator]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Btw, you don't need to sand your color coat completely flat before clearing. In fact, you can't. The only way to get crisp lines is to allow some paint thickness.

The way I do two tones is to shoot 2-3 coats of clear over the color, let cure for 24 hours, and sand the raised paint edges with a dual action sander with 800 grit. Do not oversand. Shoot 2-3 more coats of clear. Sand again with 800. Repeat until the paint lines cannot be felt. Then one last go around with clearcoat. Wetsand, and polish. show car mirror finish.

Hey Taz,

Thanks for the info. Automotive finish it is then, this is the one guitar I don't want to "relic" by any means, bulletproof lacquer sounds perfect.

About the tone, I might be just asking to get beheaded by tonewood admirers but I don't believe this paintjob will make a tangible difference. OLP made their stuff in China, this one was made in 2004. I don't think Asian luthiers (or CNC machines) cared much for how this thing sounds (thinking wood, finish etc.)

Besides, this was the biggest bargain of my entire eBay career, equivalent of $150 (!) for the OLP Petrucci, Seymour Duncan SH2-N and SH-4JB + Gotoh Locking Tuners and a hard case on top of that. It sounds good enough through BIAS FX with some random vst's from Amplitube 4 and Guitar Rig 5.

Cheers!

Tom

 

[Taz Rules]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Hey Tominator

Glad I could help.

I don't know nearly as much as most of the other posters on this board when it comes to guitars/pickups/playing ability. So I'm happy when a topic comes along that allows me to give a little bit back to the community.

BTW, keep in mind that there are different grades of clearcoat, even within each manufacturer's product lines. Rather than bore everyone with the technical stuff, I'll just say feel free to PM me if you have questions about this stuff.

 

[leevc5]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

My favorite is BEHLEN Stringed Instrument Lacquer I have had great results using it. But I have only used it on nitrocelluslose pait jobs.

 

[tominator]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Okay I might have overestimated my chances with this.

I have finished the paintjob and went on to remove the edges with 800 and 1200 grit paper. I was intentionally spraying more paint on the joints between colors to sand it off later and get an even line - that didn't work so well. I ended up having to "relic" the guitar to make it look proper, rather than a painting failure. I am removing all the paint on the edges near the lacking paint to draw the attention from all the faults I managed to dish out.

 

[tominator]

Re: Body Shop - What kind of clear-coat?

Done, this is how it ended up looking.