Guitar kit build

GloopyJon

A small update tonight.  Fortunately, no rain this evening so I've managed to do three coats of the clear gloss.  I reckon that I'll do another three (tomorrow, with luck, if it stays dry) and then leave it to dry.

I decided not to attempt any more corrections or anything because I thought I'd probably end up making it look worse rather than better.  So the little drips of purple on the back will have to remain, but never mind - it's my first attempt and it doesn't matter that it's not perfect.

I'll probably take a couple more photos when all of the gloss coats have gone on, to see how different it looks (if at all).

GloopyJon

Tonight I finished the lacquering.  First of all, following a bit of Internet research, I very gently sanded down any rough bits with a small strip of 800 grit paper that I soaked for an hour or so first.  The goal here was to have a reasonably smooth surface before the last coat of clear gloss.  I managed to avoid removing any of the colour and then cleaned the surface, then I emptied my lacquer can by doing three or four final passes over the neck and body.  Now they have to dry for a couple of weeks.

I'll take some photos of them in a day or two, and possibly do another mock-up photo like the one in message 49 above, to assuage my and your curiosity!  I also have to decide whether to use the original, black knobs, or the blue chicken-head knobs that I bought.

In the meantime, I need to find out what kind of polish I can use in the buffing stage.  I've done some research and one guy in particular (on YouTube) uses about 4 different products at that stage, but that would be very expensive for a single guitar.  I don't mind buying one, and I hope I can find something suitable.  Any suggestions are very welcome!

KelvinS1965

Looking good so far (I've been viewing this thread while I was on holiday, so unable to comment until now). You might be able to get away with using a polish that breaks down so you use fewer grades. Another possibility is that you could buy a few different grades of wet and dry (maybe 1500, 2000, 2500 & 3000) which is cheap enough for a few sheets if you buy on line. Then you'd only need maybe two grades of polish to buff with.

FWIW on the BMW Z3 in my avatar I wet sanded out some surface scratches using the above grades and then just use two grades of polish to buff to a mirror finish. I'll look in my garage tomorrow to find which the polishes are if it helps as I've not long been home.

It's important not to try to 'miss' some grades as otherwise you'll still have signs of the sanding marks. Having said that; many years ago I used to wet sand with P1200 grade (rubbed with soap to soften it's effect), then hand buff using T-cut and then polish. My black RS2000 turned out well doing it this way.

Off to have a play of my own guitar as I've missed it being away...

Christian 71

Looking great Jon, you did a great job of the burst!

Don't forget to give it plenty of time for the finishes to gas and melt into one another. I'm sure you have read up on it and know what to do and won't rush it.

The sanding stage and buffing is really easy just take your time. There are loads of vids on Youtube of how to do it and it worked fine for me. Flat sanding with water through different grades each time aiming for a completely flat finish with no ripples or dimples before you move to the next. The polish/buffing is really easy just takes a fair while. I'd suggest buying a kit of Meguires, but Tcut or other car finishing kits should be fine. You want a cutting compound which will bring it up like a mirror but will leave very faint swirls, then a finishing polish to remove the swirls. The latter will make it look like a showroom finish.

Make sure you wash the guitar between grits and don't use the same cloths/sponges for different cutting/finishing compounds.

GloopyJon

Thanks guys.  Christian, any chance you can point out specific products?  I have a look at the Meguiars (I presume that's the one you meant) on Amazon but they do a lot of different products.

In real life, the burst is a bit uneven in places but it looks better than I expected.  In my mind before I started, the blue was a bit lighter and the purple was more purple rather than the deep blue that it's turned out, but the choice of available colours isn't great and I'm not complaining about how it's turned out.  I would say that the colours shown on the websites bear little resemblance to they end result, but I guess that's because of the layers and the different number of coats, the wood beneath them etc.

And yes, I'm taking my time and going to leave the neck and body to dry for a good couple of weeks now, without anything else being done to them.

After I've put the guitar together and assuming that I will be able to get it working, I might use it as a project guitar for some other experiments, such as changing the pickups or replacing the pick guard.  Again, the goal will not be so much to create a killer guitar as just to gain experience in doing these things.

Christian 71

It's a bit intimidating isn't it but when I read up they all seem to pretty much do the same thing. Some keep to a particular level of cutting whereas others break down the more you polish.

The standard kit seems to be something like this;
Meguiars Professional 105 Ultra Cut Compound & 205 Ultra Finishing Polish | eBay

I already had some tcut in the Garage so I used that for cutting and bought the Meguiars Swirl remover.

GloopyJon

Thanks, I've bought the Meguiars kit that you mentioned (found it slightly cheaper, for me, vie ebay.be, albeit still from a UK supplier but one that charged a lot less for postage to Belgium).

KungFuPro

The burst looks good, darker than I pictured when you said purple, I guess over white the purple would've been a lot brighter but I think it looks nice how it turned out.

Quite like the look of it before the burst, with a maple fretboard (instead of masking tape) that would be make a nice looking guitar.

                                                                                                                                       

GloopyJon

Yes, the burst is darker than I'd envisaged it too but I like it too.

The fretboard is actually rosewood.  I'm planning to take the masking tape off (probably tonight - I should have done it yesterday really, since it shouldn't stay on there any longer than necessary) and do another mock-up shot like the one you quoted, with the new burst.  I hope it's going to look pretty good!  That might appear this evening, if it's dry outside.

Once that picture appears, I'm expecting all of the big guitar companies to contact me and offer to pay me lots of money so that they can copy my design.  I'm going to hold out for a seven-figure sum - I think it's worth it!

Christian 71

Lol, speaking of which are you going to add your own silkscreen to the headstock. It's pretty easy to do?

I did one for my daughter's guitar, you can get special paper for inkjet printers which you then spray transfer spray onto to fix it. It then slides off in water. The only drawback is you can't do whites, gold or silver. Alternatively companies will print silkscreens off for you with any colour combo.

On my strat I acquired some unofficial *cough* Fender transfers. Did my research and it's okay as long as you say its  a reproduction and don't pass it off as real or sell it. In both cases you simply add a couple of coats of nitro and sand/polish, very easy as the headstock is flat.