Removing a finish

[JB_From_Hell]

I'm in the process of removing all the finish from an Epiphone Les Paul, and wondered if anyone had any suggestions. Last night, I used light grade (150) sand paper to get the neck/back of headstock completely bare, but this obviously won't work for the body. I would like to leave it unpainted, probably tung oiled. Does anyone have any ideas on the easiest way to remove the thick paint from the top? I do not have a garage, so it needs to be stuff I can do in the house. Thanks!

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Removing a finish

Does the body have binding ? If so you can forget about useing paint
stripper .Any stripper strong enuff to to breakup that poly Finish will
melt the binding. If not, Try a aircraft grade paint stripper. Be sure
to be in a well ventalated area, That stuff is nasty!! Some Poly finishes
I've encontered the paint stripper had no effect on it. :saeek: So I
had no other option But Sanding :yell:

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Removing a finish

Thanks for the tip. It does have binding, though, so it looks like I'm gonna end up with a really sore arm by Sunday evening

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Removing a finish

Thanks for the tip. It does have binding, though, so it looks like I'm gonna end up with a really sore arm by Sunday evening

Take your time. Sanding around the binding is a real pain. There's gotta
be a more efficiant way to do it ?? It took me weeks. I tried useing a
dremel tool, But the margin for Error it to great. One little slip and you
now have a divit in the body. :blackeye: It came out much better when
I did it a little at a time.

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Removing a finish

Why not sand down the binding a bit? It's thick stuff, it can take it.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Removing a finish

Why not sand down the binding a bit? It's thick stuff, it can take it.

Yeah, You do have to sand the binding a bit or you'll have a gap. But
you have to be real careful Cuz' you don't wanna round it off.

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Removing a finish

Yeah, You do have to sand the binding a bit or you'll have a gap. But
you have to be real careful Cuz' you don't wanna round it off.

Even if you do round it off, what's the problem? I can even see it as an advantage as far as feel goes.

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Removing a finish

Even if you do round it off, what's the problem? I can even see it as an advantage as far as feel goes.

I guess It's just a matter of personal perference??

 

[bvc310]

Re: Removing a finish

i think a good easier method would be to use a palm sander instead of by hand, your arm will still hurt but not as much. Good luck on that body, i recently sanded off the finish on a strat neck and am refinishing it in tung oil.
Later,
Brian

 

[Norman_T]

Re: Removing a finish

I just think you are totally mad to attempt to do this but if you want to ruin the body go ahead. Out of curiosity what colour is the body? If its a solid colour doing all this work may reveal some wood that may not be appealing and could look awful. Also I do think that if you are never going to get all of the colour off even with sanding and it could look odd in places.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Removing a finish

What could I add? Not much, just take your time and buy elbow grease by the barrel

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Removing a finish

I'm fairly new to this, so I wanted to ask what that elbow grease is and what it does, zerb.

Thanks

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Removing a finish

I'm fairly new to this, so I wanted to ask what that elbow grease is and what it does, zerb.

Thanks

Ehm,.... hmm,.... lol. Elbow grease doesn´t actually exist AFAIK, its just a way of saying "get ready for your arm to hurt"

BTW, Neera: Did you get my reply to the second mail? Haven´t heard anything more, just wondering

 

[kmcguitars]

Re: Removing a finish

I'm fairly new to this, so I wanted to ask what that elbow grease is and what it does, zerb.

Thanks

Opps, I don't think he's kidding Zerb. Maybe something was lost in
the translation?

 

[Norman_T]

Re: Removing a finish

I'm fairly new to this, so I wanted to ask what that elbow grease is and what it does, zerb.

Thanks

You can also use KP jelly or tons of vaseline but then that's boasting:saeek:

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Removing a finish

I just think you are totally mad to attempt to do this but if you want to ruin the body go ahead. Out of curiosity what colour is the body? If its a solid colour doing all this work may reveal some wood that may not be appealing and could look awful. Also I do think that if you are never going to get all of the colour off even with sanding and it could look odd in places.

Its a blue sparkle finish. The reason I'm removing it makes me feel a little dumb, but here goes... Its been a "project" guitar for a few years, meaning that its been in pieces in the closet. It originally had a Bigsby style trem, but I REALLY hated it. I tried for about a year to sell it, but the highest anyone interested would go was $175. So, I decided to make it a string-thru body. I know I ruined any resale value, but the result was a Paul with more sustain and boom than you could imagine, and it really didn't have any resale to begin with. Anyway, about a week ago, we were cleaning up the house for our son's b-day party, and I was moving things in and out of the closet. I stuck it in without a case or bag, and shoved the door shut. The doors have these metal things on the bottom, and as I closed it, I heard this "SCRRAAAPPPE" noise. As you may have guessed, the guitar ended up with a huge white scratch, about half an inch wide, about 4 inches below and parallel with the bridge, going across the entire guitar. I've hated how it looked since I bought it (got a killer deal from a friend, only reason I bought it to begin with) so I decided this was a good excuse to finally change it.

 

[Norman_T]

Re: Removing a finish

Its a blue sparkle finish. The reason I'm removing it makes me feel a little dumb, but here goes... Its been a "project" guitar for a few years, meaning that its been in pieces in the closet. It originally had a Bigsby style trem, but I REALLY hated it. I tried for about a year to sell it, but the highest anyone interested would go was $175. So, I decided to make it a string-thru body. I know I ruined any resale value, but the result was a Paul with more sustain and boom than you could imagine, and it really didn't have any resale to begin with. Anyway, about a week ago, we were cleaning up the house for our son's b-day party, and I was moving things in and out of the closet. I stuck it in without a case or bag, and shoved the door shut. The doors have these metal things on the bottom, and as I closed it, I heard this "SCRRAAAPPPE" noise. As you may have guessed, the guitar ended up with a huge white scratch, about half an inch wide, about 4 inches below and parallel with the bridge, going across the entire guitar. I've hated how it looked since I bought it (got a killer deal from a friend, only reason I bought it to begin with) so I decided this was a good excuse to finally change it.

That explains a lot and I can now understand why you want to do this. For some reason I had visions of you sanding and scraping away a nice looking white body only to find cardboard on top of the body!! No good look wiith what you are trying to achieve and I am sure that it will come out fine, its just going to take a long long time!!

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Removing a finish

I'm actually looking forward to spending awhile on it. I'm so scatterbrained as to what I want, I figure that if I spend a billion hours working on this, I'll have no choice but to like it

Of course, knowing myself, I'll end up hating it and wishing I'd taken the $175 way back when :laugh2:

 

[what?]

Re: Removing a finish

take it to a home depo and see if you can get them to run it through a belt sander. or you could buy them, they cost about $30,000 :laugh2:

 

[Thames]

Re: Removing a finish

This may sound rather crazy, but I've ever that some people where litterally "burning" the guitar body to remove POLY finishes. The flames will catch up fairly easily, and will burn the poly completely, then you only have to sand it a bit to remove burn spots and refinish it...

No, they dont call it "flame tops"

They were doing this with mexican Strat bodies... I took this from the WeberVST bbs.
But dont try it on a LP... the binding and probably the color will be affected.