painting guitar?

pyure

kinda interesting in repainting my guitar a funkier colour, provided its not to expensive/difficult

i reckon sanding the laquer, putting down a few light layers of grey primer and spraying with a quick drying enamel paint should work nicely.
however i havent done anything like this before so does anyone know anything about the subject ?
does my idea sound ok, or will it end up looking bad and flaking/rubbing off?
opinions or hints and tips welcome

Beecher

1)Remove paint from the guitar and sand down with a fine sandpaper to make the wood as smooth as possible. (high grit sandpaper can be got from car repair shops)
2)Seal the wood with a wood sealer, this will fill any grain which might show through the paint and ruin your finish.
3)Apply a few coats of primer and let it dry for a few days for best results, then apply your paint ( most spray paints will be fine here, dont worry if when dry it has an orange peel like texture)
4)Apply a clear high gloss laquer and sand down repeatedly while going up grandes of sandpaper when its dry and settled(start at around 600, then 800, then 1200, then 1600, then 2000 to achieve a glass like finish)
5)polish
6)takes pics and show us

pyure

thanks for the highly detailed response beecher

one thing though, removing the paint - would you use an electic sander or strip it chemically?

68 lost souls

Dont touch your beauty with chemicals. Could damage it.

Check out http://www.projectguitar.com for some tips.

feylya

Beecher wrote:

1)Remove paint from the guitar and sand down with a fine sandpaper to make the wood as smooth as possible. (high grit sandpaper can be got from car repair shops)

No. Think about this. You're removing a perfectly smoothed factory finish which is smoother than you could hope to get. LIGHTLY sand off the clear coats but leave the colour. Try and get that flat then spray your primer, a few coats of colour and many many coats of clear.

Beecher

68 lost souls wrote:

Dont touch your beauty with chemicals. Could damage it..

Chemicals are fine, they even have tutorials on them on projectguitar.com here. The only problem I found with this method is that it wont strip every type of paint.

Oeneus

You can use one of those heat gun thingies to strip the paint. Seems like the easiest method to me.

feylya

But removing all the paint isn't recommended. Or at least, it isn't the easiest way.

Beecher

feylya wrote:

But removing all the paint isn't recommended. Or at least, it isn't the easiest way.

I feel it depends, 2 guitars ive stripped have had very thin coats of satin paint with no laquer coat on them and that would not be a good base for a primer. Also if theres body damage on the guitar I find it can be easier to smooten out the dents and dings with no paint. Also for real tone purists theres an argument about too much paint on a guitar can hurt its tone, but I would doubt it would be very significant, just something to ponder. But for a fresh factory guitar with a perfect paintjob I would say theres no problem leaving a few coats of paint on, or at least the sealer coat.

Edit: If you like the base colour and want to make life ultra easy for yourself, you can get a decal from here (they do stock decals and custom decals), and just stick them on, ad to make it look like its part of the paint just spray on one or 2 layers of a clear gloss enamel and sand it down.

Edit 2: Also a great tip for painting a guitar is to remove the neck and get a plank of wood, put a hook in the top of it and screw it into the neck socket, so you can hang the guitar without damaging it and do each coat in one continous go which will make a smooth paintjob easier.

feylya

Even with a Squire, that finish will be smoother than you could achieve if it's your first refinish. The bottom coat is very important to finishing. The slightest bump will only show up in the clear coat. I wouldn't take that risk.

pyure

cheers for the replies all,

feylya i like your ideas best, pretty close to what i was planning so ill go with that.
going shopping tomorrow for prices, hopefully wont be to expensive

LundiMardi

be sure to take pics of your progress? It could be cool to keep as a sticky.