1
I once had somebody give me a pamphlet for Minwax stains. It had a story about a guy who found an old Fender Stratocaster alongside the road. He took it home, stripped off the paint and refinished it in a natural stain. It was gorgeous. I bought this cheapo guitar thinking that I could perform a similar transformation. Unfortunately it's not made of hardwood. It's some sort of composite material like MDF, so I'll sand the paint and do some airbrush art on it instead.
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2
Removing the pick guard reveals the composition board that it's made of. At first it seemed like it was a halfway decent instrument, but after looking at the componenets, it's easy to see that it's a cheesey thing.
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3
I'm not going to remove all of the electronics. Resoldering the connections will probably create noise problems, so I'll leave them alone.
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4
With any luck, I'll be able to sink these parts down into the cut-outs, so painting over the body won't affect them.
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5
Buy stock in masking tape, I'm going to be investing in a lot of it.
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6
Here's the body stripped of it's hardware. Now comes the messy part, sanding. I've got some dust masks to keep this stuff out of my lungs.
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7
I'm sure an environmentalist would love this guitar, no trees were killed to make it. The neck is filled with nicks, dents and dings, so a liberal amount of sanding will be needed to smooth it out. Wet sanding is out of the question, so it's good ol' elbow grease time.
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8
I take a lot of pix of the guts, so I can put it back together correctly.
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9
Here it is minus the electronics and hardware. I originally had intended to leave the wiring intact, but that would make it difficult to do the work.
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10
Here's the backside. I'm not going to sand it down to the bare surface. I'm not sure what type of preparation I'll need for this material, so I'm going to leave as much on as I possibly can.
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11
I used a pad sander with 150 grit paper to do the flat surfaces. You can see that the glossiness is gone.
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12
The same treatment on both sides, gives it some tooth for any further paint to adhere to.
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13
The edges I had to sand by hand. Where the neck was laid in, there was a big chip. I'm going to try and fix that with some automotive body putty.
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14
I hot glued a piece of sheet metal in the spot to give me something to press the putty against. Hot glue is the way to go since it has no adhesive properties, it only holds the piece because it is melted and cooled in position. When I'm finished, I can remove it with a heat gun to soften the glue.
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15
I used Duraglass, a polyester resin with fiberglass in it. This is supposed to dry so hard that it can be drilled and tapped. I'm not sure I believe THAT, but it should be the right thing for this job.
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16
I let the Duraglass dry, before testing to see how well it held up.
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17
After being sure that it was dry, I removed the metal backing.
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18
Now I gently sand the repaired area. I'm astounded that it really did hold up. This will need some spot putty to get it flush, but I'm almost ready for a coat of sealer.
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19
I give it a couple of coats of Createx basecoat/sealer. This will give it something for the acryllic paint to adhere to.
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20
The spray gun I used is a cheapo and didn't do such a hot job. I also ran short of reducer, so the sealer was much thicker than it needed to be, making it difficult to give a smooth coat.
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21
The neck was in sad shape. I sanded down the coating it had, then went to work on the nicks, hacks, dings and dunges, getting it as smooth as possible without removing too much wood. I went over it with some 00 steel wool. A tack cloth got any dust before I masked the frets and gave it a shot of clear lacquer. I'm sure it will require several coats.
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22
I've gotten a smooth surface on the rear of the neck. Before it was almost as rough as the sandpaper I used to smooth it. I'm still undecidd as to what I'm going to paint on this. Because it's such a chintzy instrument, I need the pick guard to cover all the flaws, so that cuts down on usable surface area. Maybe I'll do a faux wood grain. That'd be a trip.
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23
After some serious sanding and multiple coats of clear, I put the neck back together. Because the guitar isn't made of hardwood, the pick guard will have to be put back on. There are a lot of scratches on the top side of where the strings cross, so I'll give that a taste of sand paper and elbow grease, followed by a coat of adhesion promoter.
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