Nitro resprayed my tele

[Chickenwings]

Getting nitro in Australia is not easy, but this is a public service announcement for my Aussie bros:
Sydney Guitar setups make and sell rattle cans of nitro in pretty much any colour/tint that you want and they even make a "1940s" formula with no UV protection and binders for a real traditional paint that will age in the way we all love. Cans are 30-40 bucks but when you think about how much it costs getting nitro painting done for you, it is a very cheap option.
Anyways, with one can of "1973 Malmsteen White Heavy" which is supposed to look like heavily aged and sundamaged olympic white, i got this superb result:

It looks different in the pics, and i reckon the colour looks creamier than either of these cellphone images, but you guys get the idea im sure. A good product for anyone wanting to do their own respray here in Oz.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Nice......pity its all in cans though.
Some bulk 40's formula clear would be nice to sit and UV age for a bit.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Dig it!
YJM should trademark his color!!!


Looks great,looking forward to moar pics,tho!!!

Nice!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Nice......pity its all in cans though.
Some bulk 40's formula clear would be nice to sit and UV age for a bit.

he fills the cans in the shop so im sure you can buy some bulk paint.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Looks great,looking forward to moar pics,tho!!!

going to use it at gigs over the next two weeks so hopefully there will be some action shots! All i have is a camera in my phone.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Cool!

How much/what kinda prep was involved?

Again,nice!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

all i did was strip off the shellac with metho, then sand the body again with 280 grit.
Was damn easy. I didnt use sand filler cos i wanted the grain to show thru, giving it an organic "thin skin" vibe.
Finished it off with some car wax and buffed it by hand.
The hard bit is waiting for the nitro to cure.

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

So it's like a "Mary Kaye" Malmsteen"?

Cool!!!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

kina yeah. I had to use a solid colour cos the previous finish was a stain and shellac, and a transparent one like butterscotch, blonde or mark kaye might have looked a bit odd with the half sanded off stain under it so i guess it is "Olympic" malmsteen.
Looking at Yngwie now, it is very hard to imagine him as an athlete!


....actually id love to see him running down the home straight in all his leather and his bling, with his little chicken legs pumping that elvis like carcass along with him sweating redfaced and wheezing toward the finish line, his magnificent head of hair streaming in the slight headwind while listening to "flight of the valkyries" pumping out over the stadium speakers- preferably in slow mo. That would be entertainment at its highest.

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

My understanding is that it never stops curing ... indeed after a while it will stop smelling of new lacquer, but it will continue to harden and become thinner, eventually cracking and then flaking off. However, such properties are probably some of the things we want from Nitro, and the entire process occurs over decades.

As an example, albeit with some form of newer nitro, I bought a Fender Highway One Strat several years ago. They are finished with nitro, and the bodies appeared to have their finishes left as it came 'off the gun', i.e. once sprayed on, no further finish work was done. Close examination revealed a fine fuzzy finish that did not reflect well ... in other words, no fine sanding/ cutting/ polishing took place (probably one of the reasons that allowed the Highway One series of instruments to take their place as a lower-cost American-made Fender).

On my Strat, I cut the fine orange peel with fine grade abrasive paper and cutting compound to achieve a smooth finish that reflected like a mirror. It looked much better. A few years later, a close inspection showed that the lacquer was still shrinking, and the mirror finish was reverting to a less-than-perfectly-flat surface, perhaps best described as a 'shallow wave-y' surface (such things can be seen by holding the finish in a good light and studying the reflection of one's hand, particularly the edges of the reflections ... The smooth mirror finish will have sharp, clear edges; less smooth, wave-y or fuzzy orange-peel finishes will be evident by less-defined edges on reflections).

In that example, I opted not to 're-level' the surface, as my understanding is that the Highway One nitro finish is thin, and levelling a finish is achieved by removing a fine amount of it, so too many 'cut and polish' operations would eventually break through the finish (which could be desireable in some cases, but it wasn't what i was seeking in this particular case).

In your case, you will have some idea of how much or how little finish you applied, and that may influence if/ when/ how often you may want to cut back the finish for a smoother, glossier look. You may also notice that after some time elapses, the finish will take on a smoother, shinier appearance in the areas where your body contacts the guitar's body ... the lower edges where it may rest when you sit down to play, and the upper bout where your picking arm rests (This became noticeable fairly quickly on my Highway One and was part of the reason why I decided to level the finish on the entire body, for a more consistent appearance).

In the early days of a new finish, even laying the guitar in a plush-lined case can cause very subtle, but visible, marking on the back of the body. Such fine markings can be removed using one of those 'micro-fine' cleaning/ polishing cloths you can buy at local '$2 stores'.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

yeah thats all great info crusty thanks. To be honest im kinda being a fanboi and hoping to emulate Guthrie Trapps worn looking tele over a matter of years. I believe he has been playing this one for 8 years or so and he is the first owner. Hopefully ive got the recipe right.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

The peeling bit depends on the surface prep. The HWY1 is sort of meant to chip and flake off so that people think its aging like an old guitar. Plenty of well prepped guitars and other fine musical instrument from the early 1900's don't exhibit the same properties as the HWY1 style finish. I see that finish as like a relic for those who want to do it themselves with very little effort.
The nitro finishes I have done with both Stringed Instrument Laquer (no checking) or Qualalaq (will cold check) are all very good and are not falling apart/off the way my HWY1 body did.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

thats fine. if it still looks pretty in 10 years like it does today then i will be happy. if it checks, dents and wears out, that will be cool too!

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Awesome! Looks killer man, job well done!

 

[d1dsj]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

That looks f'in awesome!

 

[rgand]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

That really came out great. Nice work.

 

[YeRedHouseOverYonder]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

Love the color combo between the body/neck/pickguard. Sweet looking tele, nice work man

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

WE seem to be on a similar cosmic wavelength. Here u see the 3 LB., 8 oz. 1 piece Warmoth relic Olympic White Nitro Alder body I just got off ebay for use with a set of 1957 spec Strat pickups I got . Paid way too much at 350.00, but can get some small portion of my money back from the crummy original Strat tremolo that it came with. It's my next to last assembly , because I want an ash or pine Strat for '55 spec pickups , unless I assemble one with '69 specs pickups somewhere down the line.

I bought a Maple/Pau Ferro neck for two hundred used ( Warmoht radius/ 6100 SS frets, '59 roundback profile) to use on it, a;though I hate the "vintage" pumpkin colored finish , which does not look like any vintage Strat neck I've ever seen, although it's a solid Nitrocellulose finish.;

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[Chickenwings]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

nice one Jerry!

 

[AlexR]

Re: Nitro resprayed my tele

^^ Yep, you did well there. And if its any comfort to your wallet.....in Aus we'd probably be shelling out twice that amount.

In the spirit of 'all things relic', here is an aged attempt at shoreline gold.....although I might have gone a bit heavy on the ambered coats - its lost the silverness for the most part.
This is the first time I've attempted cold checking......so its somewhat random. But at least it avoids the horrible spiderweb stuff that people get with compressed air.