Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

UberMetalDood

New member
Let's say I bought an unfinished body from All Parts. What supplies and materials would I need to paint, say gold or silver, and coat with a thin nitro finish? How many steps are there in the process of doing it properly?
 
Well, in short:

1. seal it
2. Sand it.
3. Prime it.
4. Sand it.
5. Paint it.
6. Sand it.
7. See step 5.
8. See step 6.
9. Repeat steps 5 & 6 again...
10. Maybe a few more times, depending on your paint.
11. Clear coat.
12. Sand it.
13. Clear coat.
14. Polish.

The coats of paint can vary with your type - nitro? Looots of coats. The new poly based car stuff? Not nearly as many, but some say it robs tone, by being so thick.

The ReRanch website has lots of good info regarding their products.
 
Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

You've got to look at paint compatibility. Lacquer may not go great over poly, so you might have to colour with lacquer as well as clear. Cans are available if you don't have a compressor and spray gun.
 
Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

Check out the Reranch Website for the technical information: http://www.reranch.com/solids.htm.

Basically, to summarize ReRanch, for a metallic:

1) raw wood, sanded
2) grain filler, then sand (skip if you want the finish to "sink" into the grains)
3) sealer, then sand (this can be skipped if you skipped the grain filler in order to get "sink")
4) primer, then sand
5) color coats, no sanding (the no sanding is specific to metallics; you would sand non metallic color coats)
6) clear sealer coats for the metallic color coats, then harden and sand (again, specific to metallics)
7) clear coats, then hardening, polishing, and repeating as necessary to get the final gloss you want
 
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Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

Metallic finishes can be fussy about the colour of the undercoat.

More thin coats usually turns out better than fewer thick ones.

If the Allparts body has a pocket for a screw-on neck, you will need to mask around the inner surfaces of the pocket. You will also need to devise a way of suspending the body that does not obstruct the paint too badly.
 
Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

Be sure to do a lot of thin coats instead of a few heavy coats. The wood has to "breathe" and be able to contract and expand freely with temperature changes. If your guitar is a bolt-on, you can put a sturdy string through the holes in the body to suspend it from your garage door chain.
 
Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

Metallic colors, especially silver are tricky to spray since the flakes don't all lay down the same way. I think it's called tiger striping.
 
Re: Question for Luthiers & Guitar Builders

Instead of hanging it, why not just take the nails and Lazy Susan approach, like Fender did in the old days? Hammer nails into the areas covered by the pick guard. Enough so the guitar can stand on them when flipped on its face. Spray the top first, then flip it onto the nails and spray the back.
 
Another method of handling the body during finishing is to hammer some conduit flat, and drill holes in it to bolt the body to. Use it like a handle, and either have a way to hang it to dry, or stick it in something. Doesn't matter, so long as it's vertical.
 
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