My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

[ItsaBass]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Sorry man. I don't mean to be a dick, but being an old G&L lover, I really want to see this thing done right. I've got to say that that thing needs to be stripped down and re-done IMO. Quite honestly, I've never seen a spray paint job that looks so nasty. It looks like you haven't been properly wet sanding between coats, because you should have nowhere near that much texture in the finish. That's the bigger problem than the blush.

It's no big deal; not everyone is going to be an expert spray painter their first go around. You have to learn on something, and nitro is an easy material to fix. Back to square one IMO. I hope you take this in the best possible way. It's not a personal attack; I am just being honest about the quality so the guitar gets what it deserves in the end.

I offered to help, since we are locals. That offer still stands. I can show you some spraying and sanding techniques that will help you get a much smoother surface than what you are getting there.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Hmm. So you don't think adding more coats & getting more mass of clear will work out (perhaps with wet-sanding from here out?) I have two more cans of clear and nope, I was not to this point sanding between clear coats- everything I read so far said sanding between clears was not necessary, because the coats would burn into each other.

I did sand between each color coat, and before/after each sealer and primer coat- I flatted the final color coat with 600 grit before applying clear; it's a poor pic on the previous page but that was pretty smooth. I just didn't sand between clears. I also thought there was supposed to be a degree of orange peel to sand out from the clear (the reason to wet sand in the first place,) but guess I don't have an eye for that.

Is there a possibility I can use the blush remover to smooth out the orange peel? Why would I need to remove the color coats at this poin? Not to question your knowledge; I just thought I was actually doing relatively well enough, and wonder if starting all the way over isn't excessive.

...

EDIT: So wondering if I shouldn't try to at least flat it down at this point, and see if I don't sand through. If I do, then might as well continue & take it all the way down. If I don't, then perhaps add a few more coats of clear on top of that and let it cure- would there still be any reason to blow it all away if I could get it to that point?

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

There's nothing to lose but time if you try to wet sand now. Might as well see what happens. If nothing else, you learn something.

What lubricant are you using to wet sand, and how long is the paper sitting in the liquid before you start sanding? Are you using a block? I suggest mineral spirits (far better than water for several reasons), letting the paper soak for a day before using it, and using a block for all but the contours.

Orange peel should not be there to any large degree. Wet sanding levels the surface, but it has its limits. What you have there looks too extreme to fix with sanding.

Blush remover might help your situation...but it introduces a whole new skill set requirement that's, IMO, even more demanding than applying the lacquer to begin with. It isn't just a magic spray on cure for all lacquer problems. It requires a skilled hand to get the best out of it. And even then, you've got a flawed finish that has been salvaged, and it will probably show it to some degree, because blush eraser can only work with what's there. Lacquer is so easy to strip, that I personally would not attempt to recover from such a hairy situation by piling more stuff onto the project.

The problem with the guitar is happening during spraying. You aren't getting smooth coverage. It's something to do with your spray technique.

Just for reference, here is a high resolution image of a body after spraying with clear and drying, no sanding yet. This was done outdoors in Southern California, in hot, dry weather, totally hand held by myself – not an ideal situation by any means. But it's still smooth. Notice that there is no orange peel, and basically no texture at all. It's basically smooth. Wet sanding just totally flattens it to make it even better. It smooths out little pieces of dust, *slight* orange peel, slight pinholes, and the like. Wet sanding and blush eraser can do a lot, but they should not have to be used as a full-fledged rescue operation. Your coats should look somewhere in this neighborhood before sanding, if you want the best results and the easiest time of it.

Y

Here is the guitar a couple cans of clear later, wet sanding in between each one with stepped grades (400–800 between each can, and 400–2500 after the final can), and then buffed with compound (red) then polish (white). No grain filler was used on this guitar. It was just a green dye on the ash, then clear.

 

[Jacew]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Sand it down and re color coat. If it looks bad, it will likely still look bad with more clear.

+1

More paint only highlights the errors in previous layers. Should always do sanding before next if possible.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

What probably happened with the blush was the humidity was too high and the surface hardened before enough gasses could get out.

Your probably shooting from slightly too far away, and not getting it wet enough to cause the excessive orange peel. It is a fine line between shooting too dry and too wet. You usually have to shoot it slightly dry inside the double cuts, as that is where runs usually can happen, but slightly wetter over the flat surfaces. Was it breezy at the time? Yes, some orange peel usually happens with spray cans, but it should not be too much. Sand with 400 hundred to take off the orange peel and if you sand through in this case you probably want to re-shoot it anyway. The normal amount of orange peel should be able to be taken out with 600 or 800. I like at least 5 passes on the clear coat to prevent sanding through.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Better?

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Better. That's the nice thing about nitro; re-does and working it are relatively easy. Looks like you still have an issue in the upper cut out.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Are you seeing the reflection? Maybe I'm missing it but looks fine in real life; slight different angle; think an optical illusion?

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: My Nitro Refin Progress Thread

Ah.