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wham bam paint job suggestions

4K views 92 replies 18 participants last post by  nnieman 
#1 ·
I've got a p-bass body down to the wood front and back but still red and heavy poly around the edges, arm and belly contours. I want to paint it black, do an ok job but not with much effort. The goal would be to have the black on the wood stay but wear down around the edges.

Should I leave the poly glossy? rough it up with sand paper? steel wool?

what kind of filler do you guys use before painting a wood body? can I just use the Home Depot stuff?

what kind of paint if I want to use a rattle can?
 
#2 ·
Rough it up with 400 grit sandpaper.
You don’t want to paint over glossy.
Any kind of wood fill is fine.
I’ve heard of people using drywall mud.

Duplicolor is acrylic lacquer.
Available at crappy tire or partsource.
You will want to prime or seal the bare wood.
I like bullseye primer or the sandable automotive stuff.

Avoid krylon they have changed it.
It’s now an enamel and takes for ever to dry.

Nathan
 
#28 ·
It'll work but not ideal. If it's a solid finish anyway it matters little, but what I would do (cuz I don't have any Bondo) is wet sand using tung or linseed oil (whatever you have on hand for oiling yer fretboard really), then paint over that. Sawdust+oil will fill the grain. Note: no nitro over that though, but anything else is fine.


No.

Don't ever use the bottom third of the can.
It will spit and spoil your paint job.

Only use the top 1/2 to 2/3rds.

- Voice of experience talking

Nathan
Even if it's a fresh can and freshly mixed from the store? Like old leftovers sure; get that. Honest question.
 
#5 ·
+1 for avoiding Krylon. I've never had luck with that stuff.

Ideal Supply/Napa can mix paints for you... I know just after black but the quality I found to be better than Cdn Tire's stuff. You can ask for various types... I painted a Squier with a Single Stage 2K paint they mixed up. Spent an hour trying to find Fender's Olive Green... I have a black PBass Squier, and REALLY wish I had it sanded and ready because I would have painted it as well.

Basically the the single-stage means you don't need a clear coat when done. The 2K means you activate the can and you have 24-48hours to use the can before the chemicals inside harden. It makes the paint dry super fast and quite tough. After a few days to cure, you can wet sand and polish it as well. Also the spray nozzle on the cans are nice and give a good even coat. Downside is... you won't need a full can for a guitar, and after 2 days the can is trash. The antique olive green I got was spot on and ya, shame I didn't have that Squier PBass stripped and sanded...

Filler wise... for grain? or dents and dings?

I bought Z-Poxy to use for grain filler, saw a lot of YouTube vids for it but not tried it yet. Dents/dings I used Bondo Gold filler.
 
#6 ·
+1 for avoiding Krylon. I've never had luck with that stuff.

Ideal Supply/Napa can mix paints for you... I know just after black but the quality I found to be better than Cdn Tire's stuff. You can ask for various types... I painted a Squier with a Single Stage 2K paint they mixed up. Spent an hour trying to find Fender's Olive Green... I have a black PBass Squier, and REALLY wish I had it sanded and ready because I would have painted it as well.

Basically the the single-stage means you don't need a clear coat when done. The 2K means you activate the can and you have 24-48hours to use the can before the chemicals inside harden. It makes the paint dry super fast and quite tough. After a few days to cure, you can wet sand and polish it as well. Also the spray nozzle on the cans are nice and give a good even coat. Downside is... you won't need a full can for a guitar, and after 2 days the can is trash. The antique olive green I got was spot on and ya, shame I didn't have that Squier PBass stripped and sanded...

Filler wise... for grain? or dents and dings?

I bought Z-Poxy to use for grain filler, saw a lot of YouTube vids for it but not tried it yet. Dents/dings I used Bondo Gold filler.
Yes I believe that napa is dupont paints - which all of the old fender colours were dupont car paints.

Where did you get the z poxy?

I want to try it as a grain filler/ primer

Thanks

Nathan
 
#7 ·
Any grain filler should be OK. I would look around your area for independent sign shops, autobody shops, or weld shops that have a spray booth (most do). They can mix and spray any color you want, likely for a real cheap price. Will be more than doing it yourself, but will be a top notch job.


C
 
#10 ·
Yup... ISO is awesome. I use it for so much stuff. Use to sell it at Dollarama but not anymore, they sell rubbing alcohol, but not the Isopropyl stuff. Still, Shoppers Drug Mart does.

I use the 50% ISO and mix it 50/50 with distilled water which is the perfect mix for cleaning LCD screens, tablets, windows etc... no haze, no streak.
 
#12 ·
Well... I used half on a Strat (Squier). Few coats and came out nice and even, and thick enough I could wet sand and polish. Then attempted a relic... :(

That said... I guess depends on how thick the paint and what the guitar is. Having a hole in the back for the trem, and the all the front carved out for pickups and pots, it didn't need a lot of paint. I painted just enough inside the trem cavity to make it green, but barely anything in the front because shielded it.

P-Bass is bigger, but also lots routed out and covered with a pickguard so, a Strat and a PBass I think woulda been fine for 1 can if again, stingy on the parts being covered up.

Oh, found an example... I'm at work so, don't have my photos.

Painted the Squier in Antique Olive, then wet sanded it, and heavy sanded the areas to wear through, then buffed the entire guitar. After this photo was taken, I started to scuff it up and age it. Not sure if I like it or not. Probably selling it and buying another to repaint the same without relic because colour came out nice.

 
#18 ·
That's a nice looking guitar even with the relic. I'm no fan of the relic look but good on you if you like it. I refinished a guitar recently. Is was just last Tuesday that I shined up the clearcoat with electric powered rotary sander/polisher tool. Meguires compound to remove the scratches from 2000 grit wet sanding process. I had the sponge pad on the rotary for the task. I continued to polish even after the Meguires was rubbed off or dried up because more is better. Well not so! I accidentally burned through the black burst paint here and there after going through the clearcoat 1st, to reveal the red paint beneath. This happened only on the edges of the body and I stopped before I did what i consider to be further damage. The point is, if a man were to do this excessive sponge buffing on the guitar paint job in a controlled manner, lean on it, he could achieve a nice relic effect complete with a graduated feathering off of the top coat of paint. No abrupt unnatural edges but a nice rubbed effect. The sponge wouldn't leave behind any scratches either. Then clearcoat. You could try the process 1st on a piece of smooth solid wood.
 
#20 ·
Thanks... after that pic I roughed it up a bit as well. I didn't want to gouge and scrape paint to go from one layer to the next, because that's not natural looking. Years of your arm rubbing the paint off would make a smooth polished transition, which is why I did that during the wetsanding.

After that, I gave it a few dings and a few gouges/scrapes but nothing too major. I also discovered that the 2K single-stage paint yellows nicely with traditional brown shoe polish after about 20sec, So in spots that wouldn't normally be touched as much, I got a bit of "aging" happening, and used the shoe polish on the pickups as well. Also very minor aging with acid on the chrome bits.

I wanted an aged but well looked after guitar look. Not an aged, left in the rain fell down the stairs look. :D

But not again... I found it difficult to take something smooth and polished and shiny, and purposely damaging it.
 
#21 ·
So getting back to this little project. Things got planed and sanded down, filled in with some bondo and sanded down again. primed and sanded down, 400, 800, and 1000. almost certainly unnecessary to go through all of this but I'm just practicing on a cheap guitar to get the feel for it.

I have a body and headstock ready to go. I'm not looking for pro results but was hoping to get some tips on painting. I plan to just use a car paint rattle can from Canadian Tire.

Would you guys say a few light coats and be done with it or would you do several coats and sand in between? Any point to build it up like that?

Any point to a clear coat after or will that add complications I may not want to deal with at this point?

*I don't plan to paint this outside hanging from a tree, little paint booth set up in the garage.

*
 
#22 ·
When I did mine I did a few light coats over the original primer, then 2 coats of clear coat just to help it shine and protect it a bit. Just cheap stuff though. I also never went all th way down to primer but just sanded down to “good enough”. Of course I also did some design under the clear coat with translucent blue stain so the clear lost was to protect that from wiping off too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#36 ·
I did a crappy-tire rattle-can paint job about a month ago. It worked out really well, nice finish. I sprayed about 3 coats of colour on it, lightly sanding with 600 between coats, then hit it with 3 coats of clear (also crappy tire auto paint). Wet sand, hand buff, good to go.
It's not cheap though. They're charging $14 for those spray bombs now.
 
#37 ·
I did a crappy-tire rattle-can paint job about a month ago. It worked out really well, nice finish. I sprayed about 3 coats of colour on it, lightly sanding with 600 between coats, then hit it with 3 coats of clear (also crappy tire auto paint). Wet sand, hand buff, good to go.
It's not cheap though. They're charging $14 for those spray bombs now.
Thanks!

oh yea,. its gone crazy. I used to buy a six pack of rattles at Greggs and spray the bridge for like 18 bucks...
 
#39 · (Edited)
Purple Violet Electric guitar String instrument String instrument
avoid this stuff. It doesn't work worth a crappolla.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/dupli-color-metalcast-paint-311g-0477445p.html?rrec=true#spc

I bought a can because of the cool colour, didn't read the can of course. You have to spray whatever you're painting with chrome spray paint first. That's only a tinted clear.
And it looks like shit no matter how hard I tried to get on evenly.


Why can't gloss paint go on as nicely as flat paint does? That would be awesome.
 
#40 ·
avoid this stuff. It doesn't work worth a crappolla.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/dupli-color-metalcast-paint-311g-0477445p.html?rrec=true#spc

I bought a can because of the cool colour, didn't read the can of course. You have to spray whatever you're painting with chrome spray paint first. That's only a tinted clear.
And it looks like shit no matter how hard I tried to get on evenly.

Why can't gloss paint go on as nicely as flat paint does? That would be awesome.
10-4, will do.

Thats my hesitation with shooting clear coat after, its tougher to apply and often ruins a project in my experience, starting over is hard.
 
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