How hard is it to paint over a nitro finish?

Mid_Squad

Mid_Squad

New member
I was just wondering because my friend has a nitro finish guitar he wants to spray over with white (right now its 3 tone sunburst). Is there any spray-on finish I can buy to spray over, or would I have to sand the guitar first? Also, if they do have the spray-on stuff, where could I get it?
 
Re: How hard is it to paint over a nitro finish?

Go to reranch.com and read up there. Use reranch's white in nitro. Are you sure the finish is nitro? Anyway you will have to strip off any waxes, oils, or polishes from the current SB finish and rough it up some. You could go to a car refinishing supply and get some wax remover, or you could try using Vo5 shampoo. You will need to lightly wet sand it with 600 grit to reduce a possibility of the new coat(s) not bonding with the undercoat.
 
Re: How hard is it to paint over a nitro finish?

if i remember right Fender used to spray Car paints over Nitro sunbursts on custom colour orders.... makes me wonder if you could spray modern day car finnish over the nitro...

Fender uses some sort of poly undercoating under their modern day Nitro finnishes so Poly and Nitro seem to bound...

but if it was me i'd use the white nitro if i could
 
Re: How hard is it to paint over a nitro finish?

40 years ago many car paints were also nitro, usually called laquer by car painters. Polyester is tougher than nitro and more immune to the effects of time and the enviroment, but it goes on thicker and it looks and feels plasticy. More modern Urathane has the advantage that is almost immune to UV exposure but it also is not the same as nitro.

I seem to recall that at reranch's forum it was determined that you can usually put nitro over poly without problems, but you can't always put poly over nitro. In any case even nitro over (cured) nitro requires the finish be roughed up and cleaned to insure proper bonding. Spraying a new coat over an older coat usually requires no prep if within a period of say 24-48 hours, but if the under coat is already cured (and especially if polished) it should be roughed up first.
 
Re: How hard is it to paint over a nitro finish?

In any case, it's probably cheaper and easier to either, 1) live with the burst; or 2) sell the dog and buy the guitar he really wants. Finishing is a lot of work, and unless you really have the experience, the odds are you'll get it wrong and ruin a nice guitar that someone else might cherish.

Just my two cents.

Bill
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top