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Permalink Reply by Glaze on January 27, 2011 at 10:42am

Scotty

 

If I was going to just spray four to five coats of clear on the guitar regardless of paint type then I let it dry over night and come back and scuff it up the next day.  Then let that sit 30 days.  Why four or five coats?  Because I would be sanding the guitar finish flat with very fine sandpaper and the guitar has to have enough paint on it to not sand down through to bare wood.  If I was not going to wet sand a finish down like this then I would only put two coats of clear paint on the guitar or until it looked good and shiny.  I would apply all four or five coats of clear in up to 1 1/2 hours or so.  You apply one coat of clear and then let it flash/dry just enough before you apply another coat of clear(the clear paint is still wet, but becomes tacky because the thinner has been evaporating out of it).  I'm probably waiting 10 to 15 minutes between painting each clear coat.  I use an old neck to hold the guitar body while painting it and I can touch the clear paint on the old neck to see how tacky it is before painting the next coat of clear on the guitar body.  Painting things too fast results in the paint running.  No sanding between coats was done because all the work I did was in a professional clean spray booth.  Spraying clear coats this way results in the clear building up to a good thickness and all the separate clear coats end up being 'one' because they blend into each other.  You are spraying wet paint on tacky wet paint.            

 

For solid colors a primer is usually applied and that has to allowed to shrink then be sanded flat also before painting on the final color and clear coats.  

Scotty C. said:

By which I mean: do you lightly paint, let dry, clear coat, and wait the requisite 30 days, or paint, wait a month, and then add the clear coat?

Scotty C. said:

Glaze, in this process, in what step does the clear coating/lacquer part figure in?

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Dubman on January 29, 2011 at 9:42pm

Nitro with a shellac base is easy, looks slick.  You're supposed to let it cure for a month before buffing, but I rushed, and wet sanded with 1500 as soon as the last coat of lacquer was dry, looked great, mile deep mirror shine.  Shrank into the oak pores, though.  Should have sprayed on two cans for insurance.

 

French polish shrinks a lot less, if at all.  It's laborious, but when you put down the pad after spiriting off the oil from the last glaze coat, you're done, no need to buff or wax.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Taulbee on January 30, 2011 at 7:28am

I know i'm rather low tech lol, but i usually use 5 or 6 coats of hand rubbed Tung oil on my builds (really brings out the natural beauty of the wood)... and this includes the top and the neck.  Then i do at least 3 coats of caranuba wax, buffing each one with a soft cotton baby diaper type cloth in betweeen.  This way, my guitar looks more 'raw', but the wax enables me to wash the grubby fingerprints off it that i'm bound to leave when i play :)  I've never finished the cheesboxes that i use for the body, but i always figured if they've made it this many years without help, then i'm probably alright.

 

HTH,

J

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Dubman on January 30, 2011 at 2:23pm

Right.  Keep the neck and body finish in balance or they won't look right together.

Jason Taulbee said:

I know i'm rather low tech lol, but i usually use 5 or 6 coats of hand rubbed Tung oil on my builds (really brings out the natural beauty of the wood)... and this includes the top and the neck.  Then i do at least 3 coats of caranuba wax, buffing each one with a soft cotton baby diaper type cloth in betweeen.  This way, my guitar looks more 'raw', but the wax enables me to wash the grubby fingerprints off it that i'm bound to leave when i play :)  I've never finished the cheesboxes that i use for the body, but i always figured if they've made it this many years without help, then i'm probably alright.

 

HTH,

J

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