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STEP 10: MASKING THE FLAME DESIGNHOW TO PAINT & WIRE YOUR VERY OWN HOT ROD GUITAR!

35

B Y J O H N G L E N E I C K I

Copyright ©2006 - Stay Tooned, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

This book, or portions of it, may not be duplicated, resold, or redistributed in any way, without the expressed written consent of Stay Tooned, Inc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 2INTRODUCTION 3SUPPLIES: WHAT YOU’LL NEED 4WHAT TYPE OF PAINT TO USE 9STEP 1: DISASSEMBLING/REMOVING OLD PARTS 12STEP 2: REMOVING THE OLD FINISH 15STEP 3: FILLING DINGS & HOLES 20STEP 4: MASKING THE NECK POCKET 22STEP 5: ADDING THE STICK w/HOOK 23STEP 6: APPLYING THE SANDING SEALER 24STEP 7: MASKING THE BINDING 30STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER 32STEP 9: SPRAYING THE BASE COAT 36STEP 10: MASKING THE FLAME DESIGN 39STEP 11: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 1 49STEP 12: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 1 52STEP 13: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 2 55STEP 14: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 2 56STEP 15: SPRAYING THE BLACK 58STEP 16: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 1 59STEP 17: SPRAYING THE DROP SHADOW 60STEP 18: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 2 63STEP 19: PAINT TOUCH-UPS 64STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS 66STEP 21: LETTING THE PAINT SETTLE 70STEP 22: REMOVING THE STICK 71STEP 23: WETSANDING THE CLEAR COATS 72STEP 24: PAINT TOUCH-UPS - PART 2 81STEP 25: DEALING WITH A RUN 82STEP 26: BUFFING THE CLEAR COATS 83STEP 27: REASSEMBLING THE GUITAR 86STEP 28: WIRING YOUR HOT ROD! 92HOT ROD: FINAL PHOTOS 100HOT ROD: TIME BREAKDOWN 10110 THINGS YOU MUST DO 102THE FINISH PROTECTOR™ 104BONUS ITEMS 119MORE FROM PAINTYOUROWNGUITAR.COM 120

HOW TO PAINT & WIRE YOUR VERY OWN HOT ROD GUITAR!

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS


Thank you for purchasing my book, HOW TO PAINT & WIRE YOUR VERYOWN HOT ROD!

This book contains my most up-to-date information on paintingyour own guitar. It also containsinstructions on assembling, dis-assembling, and wiring.

The explanations contained inthis book are far more thoroughthan any of my other books.Along with that, I have more thandouble the amount of images Inormally put in a book. All of thismeans that this book is one ofTHE BEST sources of informa-tion you are ever going to find onpainting your own guitar.

The original guitar featured onthe cover was painted back in2002 for a customer. It wasdone with spray guns and air-brushes. Earlier this year whenI was considering what else Icould teach people how to do, Ifound this cover photo and thenfigured, this could be done withspray cans - if someone were tobe shown how to do it. And so,a project was born.

One thing I do want to mention is, this project is challenging, and for a cou-ple of reasons: 1. painting flames requires that you have a very good eyefor how flames should look. I supply you with a template and show youhow to use that template to make it easier for you, but still, they’re tricky ifyou’ve never done them before. 2. Spraying gradients (or fades) with aspray can also be tricky, so along with the photos and explanations, I alsohave video footage of me spraying a gradient so you get an idea of exactlyhow to do it.

Still, both of these techniques are challenging, so remember to take your timethroughout this project. If you do, your HOT ROD will look as good as mine!

Okay, let's get started!


3INTRODUCTION


Before you start to paint, you’re going to needseveral supplies. It’s best to have them onhand before you begin. It’ll make your job go alot more smoothly.

Here’s a complete list of items I used to paintmy HOT ROD Guitar.

1. Guitar - For this project, I’m using one of the“Ready-To-Paint” guitars that I’ve been promot-ing over the last year. I’ve chosen this guitarbecause, quite frankly, for the money, you won’tfind a better guitar to paint.

However, if you’d rather paint a different guitar,by all means, paint whatever you want to paint.

2. KETONE Auto Paint - For this project, I’musing real auto paint that was put into anaerosol can. This paint is a urethane enameland it is a superior paint. However, it’s also verycostly. See my section on WHAT TYPE OFPAINT TO USE for additional information onsome paint alternatives for you. To learn moreabout the company Ketone, visit their site:http://www.ketone.com

3. SprayMAX Catalyzed Primer - I used thiscatalyzed primer prior to applying my basecoat. The addition of the catalyst makes theprimer dry REAL fast. Once dried, it sandedbeautifully.

4. AEROMAX 2-Stage Clear - For all of my airbrush work, I normally clear coat with a catalyzed polyester or urethane finish. The cata-lyst speeds up drying time, so that your finish isrock-hard in just a few days rather than severalmonths, which is the case when using lacquers.

The AEROMAX 2-Stage clear is a breakthroughin spray can technology. With the addition of thecatalyst (more on full instructions in the book),creating a hard and durable finish is now some-thing you can achieve without having to own acompressor, spray guns, and automotive paint.


4 SUPPLIES: WHAT YOU’LL NEED


FIG 1

FIG 2

FIG 3

FIG 4

I bought the AEROMAX 2-Stage clear from:http://www.TouchUpSprayPaint.com

As far as I know, they’re the only company car-rying this 2-Stage clear. It’s much more expen-sive than regular spray paint, but the bonus isreally in the drying time and as well as the dura-bility of your final finish. It’s roughly $40 per canand it has to be used in 24 hours after addingthe catalyst, so if you don’t mind spending theextra money, I recommend using this clearalong with urethane paint.

5. Sanding Block(s) - Both of the blocks seenin FIG 6 are from the same wood I use for thestick I use to hang the guitar. You’ll use thesefor a lot of the sanding and wetsanding you’lldo. Cut a couple roughly 2.5” long.

6. Masking Tape - You’ll need some tape likethe one pictured in FIG 6 to mask areas of thebody. This is an off-white 3” Masking Tape. Youneed to be able to see through your maskingwhich is why it should be white. Also, the widerthe roll, the better. You should also have a roll of1” masking tape, too.

7. Wet/Dry Sandpaper - It doesn’t matter thebrand you use, just make sure you have a least2 sheets of each of the following grits: 220-grit,320-grit, 400-grit, 600-grit, 800-grit, 1200-grit,and 1500-grit (see FIG 7). You can use thehigher grits (2000, 2500, 3000), if you’d like.

8. Face Mask - Unless you love breathing intoxic material, I’d recommend picking up somesimple face masks like the one seen in FIG 8.You’ll still smell the paint, but at least you’llshield your nose and mouth from sucking in theparticles of paint. If you plan to paint more gui-tars in the future, I’d recommend getting aNIOSH dual-loaded face mask.

9. X-Acto Knife and Blades - You’ll need an X-Acto knife (with several sharp blades) like theone pictured in FIG 9 for cutting the tape. Have


5SUPPLIES: WHAT YOU’LL NEED


FIG 5

FIG 8

FIG 6

FIG 7

FIG 9

at least 10 brand-new blades ready to go. Asyou cut through the tape, the blades start to getdull. Change them regularly for more accurateand precise cuts.

10. 2” X 1” Wood/Hook - I use this to hangthe guitar during the painting process. I cut it toabout 20” long and bolt it to the guitar. I alsotake a file or sandpaper and round all of theedges of the wood to avoid splinters.

I mount a hook into the top of the wood so that Ican hang the guitar (see FIG 10). Available atpretty much every hardware store, choose alarge hook - something sturdy.

11. Plastic Tape - For doing hot rod flames,Scotch’s plastic tape and 3M’s fine line make iteasy to do. (see FIG 11). However, betweenthese two brands, I prefer Scotch’s plastic tape.It’s more flexible and just goes on easier than3M’s fine line tape.

For the outline of the flame, I used 1/8” PlasticTape. This tape is available from most autopaint retailers in your area. If you can’t find itlocally, do a Google search to purchase online.

12. Sanding Sealer - Sanding sealer is neces-sary to fill the grain of the wood prior to painting.When using a urethane paint, I don’t really wantto use a lacquer-based sealer. So, for sealing thewood, I used the catalyzed primer (see FIG 3).

If you’re going to use a lacquer-based paint forthis project, you should use a lacquer-basedsanding sealer. More on the incompatibilities ofsealer and paint a little later in the book.

13. Bondo - Bondo® is an automotive productused for prepping before painting. It’s easy-to-use and sands very nicely, which is why I prefer using it over Plastic Woodfor filling in any dings or small, unnecessary holes in a project body. It’savailable at most auto parts stores and/or hardware stores (see FIG 12).

14. Styrofoam Padding - I make sure that I have my guitar body resting on




FIG 10

FIG 11

FIG 12

FIG 13

some sort of padding whenever I’m working onit. This styrofoam padding is fairly cheap anddoes a good job. You can probably pick someup from a packing supply store. I use a sheetthat’s roughly 40” X 50” and fold it severaltimes. Each time a side gets a little dirty, I sim-ply flip it to a new side for a fresh section to restthe guitar on (see FIG 13).

15. 100% Cotton Material - Whether you usean old t-shirt or buy some 100% cotton, you’llneed to use this with the rubbing and finishingcompounds. You can pick some up at HomeDepot or Lowe’s.

16. Rubbing/Finishing Compound - For abeautiful glossy finish, you’ll need rubbing andfinishing compounds at the very end of thisproject to bring the shine back up on the guitar.The kind I recommend is 3M Perfect-It llRubbing Compound Fine Cut and 3M Perfect-Itll Swirl Mark Remover - seen in FIG 14. Theycontain no wax or silicone and they’re veryeasy to use. Another brand that you can use isMeguiars. Just make sure that the one you usecontains no wax or silicone.

If you have a hard time finding 3MRubbing/Finishing Compounds, tryhttp://www.carcrazy.net. This is where Ibought my supply. Auto parts stores around medon’t carry it. All they seem to have is TurtleWax, which I don’t recommend you use. It’s notclear-coat safe.

If you purchased all of the grits of wet/drysandpaper that I recommended, you only need3M Perfect-It ll Swirl Mark Remover. You won’tneed the 3M Perfect-It ll Rubbing Compound -Fine Cut.

17. Preval Sprayer - The Preval Spray Gun is a really interesting tool. Itallows you to fill the accompanying jar with any type of liquid you want, andto spray it using the top portion as the sprayer. I bought this spray gun (seeFIG 15) from ACE Hardware but pretty much any hardware store shouldcarry it. You may want to use a Preval Sprayer to apply your color fades if


7SUPPLIES: WHAT YOU’LL NEED


FIG 14

FIG 16

FIG 15

the aerosol paint you’re using is not spraying evenly. A Preval Sprayerallows for a finer spray than some aerosol cans.

18. Compressed Air In A Can - A can of compressed air (see FIG 16) isnot absolutely necessary to have for this proj-ect, but I use it on all of my paint jobs to blowdust and debris out of control cavities and pick-up holes prior to painting.

19. Lacquer Thinner - Lacquer Thinner is goodto use for cleaning up when using just aboutany type of paint.

20. Mineral Spirits - I use Mineral Spirits toclean up tape residue off of necks or bodiesduring the painting process.

21. Sheets Of Paper - I use regular letter-sizedsheets of paper to mask the body at certaintimes rather than always using masking tape.

And that’s the list.

One thing I’d like to mention is that a lot of the supplies you buy for yourinitial project can be used for additional projects.

So, if you’re planning to paint more guitars, look to spend a lot less on sup-plies for your next project(s).




It’s good to have some LacquerThinner on hand for any clean up.Also, Mineral Spirits are good forremoving tape residue and forclean up, too.

FIG 17

PLEASE NOTE: Later in the book, I will show you what supplies you’llneed to wire your guitar and I’ll also show you the supplies you’ll needto make the Finish Protector™.

Typically, when painting a guitar, if someone is going to use a spray can, I rec-ommend that they use lacquer - simply because it’s the easiest paint to use inan aerosol spray.

But, lacquer has one main drawbacks; it takes several months for the paint tofully harden and cure. But, this is not a trait of aerosol lacquer; it’s a trait of alllacquer - whether you use a spray gun to apply it, or spray can.

For a lot of people, waiting for theirguitar to cure for 2-3 months is tough- and believe me - I know that firsthand. For my first five years of paint-ing guitars, I ruined every guitar Ipainted simply because I wasunaware of how much time I neededto allow the paint to cure beforereassembling and playing.

I eventually figured it out throughyears of trial and error - but the truthis, it would be so much better if therewere an easier solution in a spray can - that allowed for a hard finish in just afew days. Well, along comes AEROMAX!

For all of my professional work, I normally top coat (or clear coat) using acatalyzed polyester or urethane finish sprayed from a spray gun and com-pressor. The closest thing to that in a spray can is what AEROMAX is sell-ing in this 2-stage clear. Throughthe catalyst that you add just beforebeginning your clear coats, the fin-ish will harden in just a couple ofdays, and can be finished shortlythereafter - completely eliminatingthe curing process necessary withlacquers. That’s good news forthose of you who are extremelyimpatient!

AEROMAX’s clear is a urethane, sodeciding which paint to use alongwith it, you have to use somethingthat’s compatible with urethane.Typically, because a catalyzed polyurethane finish is hard as nails, you canpretty much spray anything over top of it and it will not affect the urethane.


9WHAT TYPE OF PAINT TO USE


FIG 18

FIG 19

The same can’t be said for spraying urethane over top of lacquer, though.Lacquer has to cure for it to fully harden and that’s a lengthy process.Spraying a catalyzed urethane over topof lacquer that’s still curing is a poten-tial disaster waiting to happen.

So, when deciding which paint to rec-ommend that you use for this project, Idecided to give you two options:

1. Lacquers: with lacquer-based paint,it’s very easy to use and if you use abrand such as Duplicolor, you have agood assortment of available colors atyour disposal. However, after your clearcoats have been applied, you’ll need tolet the guitar sit for 2-3 months - to allowthe paint to cure and harden. Still, after waiting that long, the paint still won’t berock-hard; it can take up to a year for the paint to fully cure and harden. Moreon this a little later in the book.

2. Specialty Urethanes In A Can:Right now, there are two good optionsfor urethane paint in an aerosol can:

a) ALSA Corp. - they have a new lineof paint in an aerosol can calledKILLER Cans and it’s available here -http://www.autocustompaint.comThis line has just about everythingyou could possibly want: metallics,flip-flop, mirror, metalflake, etc. Itlooks to be incredible stuff as ALSA isa top name in the industry.

b) KETONE Automotive - These guyscan put any type of paint and anycolor you want into an aerosol can.For this project, I simply had them putfive colors into cans for me: white,yellow, orange, candy apple red, and black. Nothing fancy - however, thisurethane enamel paint is incredible and it dries to the touch within minutes.

The only real drawback to using these specialty urethanes is cost. To do


10 WHAT TYPE OF PAINT TO USE


FIG 20If you decide to use Duplicolor for this project,I recommend that you use the Auto Spray linefor your color coats and use the SUV line (tallcan) for your clear coats. Both of these linesare acrylic lacquer so they are compatible witheachother.

FIG 21The Rust-O-Leum can on the left says LACQUER, while the PAINTER’S TOUCHcan, made by Rust-O-Leum, doesn’t say any-thing. It is lacquer, though. Either of thesewould be okay to use, as long as they have avariety of colors, and a clear to match.

this guitar using the products I chose, it cost me well over $200 for five col-ors, some primer, and the clear.

There are some of you out there thatwill want to spend the extra money tohave this option of having your finishdry and ready to go in a week ratherthan months. For the rest of you, theoption of using lacquers is the obviouschoice.

When using lacquers, you can stillproduce a great finish as I’ve usedlacquers for over 20 years. They’recost-effective, and very easy to use.

The only real drawback to using themis that lacquer cures over time; so,after your guitar has been buffed andreassembled, you’ll need to take careof it for the first year - and to be care-ful not to rest your guitar against any-thing that is rubber. Rubber can dissolve and soften lacquer. In the back ofthis book, I show you how to make my Finish Protector™, which is some-thing I recommend you make if you use lacquer for this project.


11WHAT TYPE OF PAINT TO USE


FIG 22Stay away from Krylon paints. Over the lastyear or so, they’ve had lots of quality controlproblems which have resulted in contaminat-ed paint and mislabeled paint for severalPYOG customers.

For this project, I’m using a “ready-to-paint” guitar (see FIG 24), so the goodthing about this guitar is, it’s a completeguitar with all of the pieces fitting togeth-er nicely: tight neck pocket, all of theholes are already drilled, guitar’s alreadyreasonably set up, etc. I already knowhow this guitar plays, so now it’s just amatter of disassembling it and getting itready for paint.

If you’re not using a guitar where all ofthe parts were made to go together,before painting your project guitar, it’simperative that you put your guitartogether first before painting it. Set it upas if you’re going to play it right now. Youdon’t necessarily have to wire it up, butdo everything else. Make sure that every-thing fits together properly. If any modifi-cations need to be made such as widen-ing a neck pocket, drilling holes for atremolo bridge, etc., you do those now -prior to paint. You want to avoid doingany drilling or filling after your finish isdone, otherwise, it’s likely that you couldsomehow damage your finish while mak-ing your modifications.

Before starting, make sure you havesome sort of Rubbermaid container (seeFIG 23) to store all of your parts in. Usesomething that preferably has a lid. Thatway, you can close it up and not have toworry about any pieces falling out orgoing missing.

With my guitar on my bench, it’s time tostart disassembling it. To start, I begin byloosening all of the strings (see FIG 25),letting them go good and slack. I thenuse some wire cutters and snip eachstring where a front pickup would sit (seeFIG 26). From there, I remove the stringsfrom the pegs, then loosen the allenkeys and remove the other half of the


12 STEP 1: DISASSEMBLING/REMOVING OLD PARTS

FIG 23

FIG 24

FIG 25

FIG 26

FIG 27


strings from the Floyd Rose bridge (seeFIG 26).

Next, I’m onto the neck and removing thetuning pegs, string tree, and Floyd Rosenut (see FIG 27). If you’re planning on put-ting together and painting several guitarsfor yourself, the best thing you can do isinvest in some good tools. Even if you justhave a few good screwdrivers and somesocket wrenches, this is all you’ll need toget started. (See Step 27 - ReassemblingYour Guitar - for some inexpensive toolsets I purchased that would be ideal foryou.) For removing all of these parts, Iused one screwdriver throughout. Whenremoving all of these screws, I was verycareful not to strip out the head - whichcan happen very easily. To remove all ofthe screws, I tend to press down reason-able hard while turning. This seems to pre-vent stripping the head.

Once the hardware on the neck wasremoved, I removed the neck (see FIG29). When all of the screws are out, holdonto the neck and flip the guitar back onits back and then remove the neck. Thereason is, there may be a shim in theneck cavity, so pay attention to where thatshim is when you remove the neck; you’llwant to put it back exactly where it waswhen you go to reassemble this guitar.

With the neck removed, I flipped the gui-tar back on its front and removed therest of the parts (see FIG 30). Instead oftrying to pull the springs out by hand,which can be dangerous, I just loosenedthe claw’s screws and let the springs sortof just fall off. From there, I removed thebridge and took out the studs. However,I’ve left the sleeves in the body for now; II may remove them later.As you can see in FIG 31, there’s mini-mal wires in the control cavity; the black


13STEP 1: DISASSEMBLING/REMOVING OLD PARTS


FIG 28

FIG 29

FIG 30

FIG 31

FIG 32

wire is the pickup wire; the grey wire isthe ground wire which goes to the claw;and the purple/blue wire is the outputjack wire. To remove the wiring, I startedby snipping the wires for the input jack atabout halfway point (see FIG 32). Youcould heat up and remove the wires fromtheir soldered points, but really, I’m goingto remove all of these wires and use newwire.

For the ground wire that gets soldered tothe claw, I snipped that one very close toits soldered point on the claw (see FIG 33).I’ll remove the soldered end later when I’mwiring.

Finally, I snipped the pickup wire atabout its halfway point as well (see FIG34). I may have to add more wire to thiswire when resoldering. However, it’s just as easy to prep each wire’s endand resolder it together.

With all of the wires now cut, I removed the rest of these parts. My guitarbody is now ready to be prepped.

If you have any reservations about snipping wires at a halfway point, then Isuggest you take a photo of how your wires are soldered onto your pot, ordraw a little diagram of the wiring. Truthfully, sometimes it’s easier to solderblack to black, white to white, red to red, etc., than it is remembering whichwire goes where when you’ve never soldered wires before. If you haveexperience with wiring, then simply use whatever method you normallyuse.

More on wiring in Step 28.


14 STEP 1: DISASSEMBLING/REMOVING OLD PARTS


FIG 33

FIG 34

IMPORTANT: If you are planning to buy all new parts for your projectguitar, have ALL of your parts FIRST before beginning the paintingprocess.

You want to assemble the guitar with all of the new parts to make sureeverything fits, lines up, etc. before painting. If any new holes have tobe drilled, you want to do that in the old finish, not your new one. Infact, you want to do very little drilling or filing to your new finish - that’swhy it’s crucial that you assemble the guitar first, get it working properly,then disassemble, and start your project.

Now that step 1 is complete (all of the parts have been removed), it’s nowonto step 2 - removing the old finish.

When painting guitars, there is really two ways to prepare the body prior topaint: stripping off the old finish and applying a new finish, or scuff-sandingthe old finish (or dulling the finish) and applying your new finish over top ofthe dulled, old finish.

I normally recommend that when people are first starting out learning howto paint guitars, that they use the the first method - strip the old finish andapply an entirely new finish. The main reason why I recommend this is, ifyou get accustomed to always scuff-sanding a finish an applying your finishover top of a dulled finish, you can get lazy in your approach and begin toscuff-sand guitar bodies that should be completely stripped because theirfinish is so bad. Now, YOU may not do it, but I’ve had people email metheir pix, and then try to make excuses as to why they painted over top ofa guitar with cracks in the old finish. They were wrong to do it and simplydidn’t want to invest the amount of time involved with doing proper prepwork - and their finish paid the price.


15STEP 2: REMOVING THE OLD FINISH


1. Stripping an existing finish and applying an entirely new finish

WHEN TO USE THIS METHOD: Your project body is beat up - has a lot ofchips/dents in it - you have no idea as to what type of paint it’s finished in.

PROS• No paint compatibility issues, aslong as you’ve used totally compat-ible paints• You learn the entire process

CONS• More time-consuming• More sanding and prep work

2. Scuff-sanding an existing finish and applying your new finish over topof a dulled finish

WHEN TO USE THIS METHOD: Your project body is in excellent condi-tion - has no major flaws that can affect the new finish that will go overtop - is a catalyzed/hardened finish.

PROS• Faster and more convenient• Not much prep work involvedwhen the body is in great condition

CONS• If the old finish has major flawslike a crack in the finish, that willaffect the new finish that goesover top.

You can use whichever method isright for you, so long as you’re makingthe right decision for the right reasons.If your project body is in rough shape,just spend the time to sand it down tothe sealer that’s already on the body,or sand it to bare wood, if the bodydoesn’t have a sealer on it, and gofrom there. (Typically, bodies thathave a sunburst or translucent finishdon’t have a sealer over the wood.More on sealing the body coming upshortly.)

Stripping An Existing Finish AndApplying An Entirely New Finish

There are two ways to strip a body ofits finish - using paint stripper, or bysanding off the finish using sandpaper,sanding sponges, and/or an electricsander. Personally, I prefer just sand-ing the body down rather than usingpaint remover. Using paint stripper isvery messy (moreso than sanding),it’s toxic stuff, and will burn your skin ifyou accidentally get it on you (which I’ve done several times when I usedthat method).

For a body that has a reasonably large, flat surface such as a Strat, youcan use an electric sander over most of the top and on the back withoutany problems. (The sides and inside the horns will all need to be done byhand.)

However, for a body with an arch topsuch as a Les Paul, you should stayaway from an electric sander. Thearch makes it very difficult to lay thesander down properly, so by using it,you could end up gouging the woodwhere you don’t want to gouge it.

When working on an arch top, it’s bestto use a sanding sponge (paint strip-per grit) like the one seen in FIG 34. Sanding sponges are flexible so they


16 STEP 2: REMOVING THE OLD FINISH


FIG 35

Here’s a body I bought on eBay for $20. Itwas routed for one humbucker which is why Ibought it. Dulling THIS finish and sprayingpaint over top would’ve been RIDICULOUS!

FIG 36

FIG 37

can conform to the arched top, andthat makes sanding easier. However,because of the arched top, it also cre-ates a slight problem: sanding theback of the guitar - how do you lay itflat? To alleviate that problem, I gatherup a few big towels and lay the body,face down, on top of the towels. Thetowels help to create a cushion for thearched top and give me a more solidway of sanding the back withoutdestroying the top. If your project gui-tar is a Les Paul, try utilizing this sametechnique for sanding the back.

All-in-all, removing a finish should take you about 2-3 hours. By no meansis it a race. Take as long as you have to when removing the old finish.

To start, have a good, clean, flat surface to work on. Lay the guitar body ontop of some styrofoam (or a big towel) to protect the body from bangingagainst the table. When sanding, you’ll definitely want to be wearing a facemask. This is old paint you’re removing, so the face mask will protect youfrom breathing in all of the old particles.

The sandpaper grit that you should start with is 220. If you’re finding that notmuch finish is coming off withthis grit, then move to 120-grit.This can be normal sandpaperthat you use for this step ratherthan a wet/dry sandpaper.

FIG 36 shows the typical layerson a guitar body. In almost allcases, a professional guitar isfinished with clear coating.Underneath the clear coatinglies the paint; underneath thepaint lies primer in some cases;underneath the primer liessanding sealer, or some other sealer-type substance that fills the grain ofthe wood.

As you begin to sand through the clear coat and the paint, I would suggestthat you move onto another area and do the same, removing the clearcoating and the paint.




FIG 38

Using an electric sander is fine for a guitarwith a flat top. It’s not recommended on anarch top such as a Les Paul.

FIG 39

If you can carefully keep the sanding sealer that’s already on the body, thiswill save you a considerable amount of time in the prepping stage, as it willeliminate the step where you’ll have to apply sanding sealer to seal thebody and get rid of the grain of the wood.

If you don’t feel confident that you can keep the sealer that’s already there,then don’t worry about it - simply sand down to the bare wood on the entirebody.

When sanding, whether you’re using an electric sander or you’re sandingby hand, there’s no right way or wrong way to sand the finish off a guitar.However, when sanding by hand, I tend to go in straight lines along thelength of the body, so I suggest that if you can, try to do the same.

When using an electric sander, move the sander around the entire surfaceof the body, trying to remove the finish evenly rather than staying in justone spot. With an electric sander, it’s very easy to sand through the finishright to bare wood, so that’s why you want to keep moving the sander.

For the contours, leave them to do by hand. Don’t attempt to get your elec-tric sander to mold to any curves. You’re asking for trouble if you do that.

For the sides and inside the horn, you’ll also have to do all of these areasby hand. You may be able to use the sponges for some of it, but for areaswhere the sponges won’t fit, simply tear off pieces of 220-grit sandpaperand sand those parts by hand.

Once sanding is done and you’ve removed all of the old paint, go backover the entire body with a less-course grit of sandpaper - let’s say a 320-grit and just make it feel smoother to the touch.

If your project guitar is a Les Paul and you see yellowing on the binding (ifit has binding), continue to go over those areas with the 320-grit to try andremove all of the yellowing. This is just old clear lacquer that has yellowedwith age.

You’ll know you’re finished with the sanding stage when all of the paint hasbeen removed and most, if not all, of the yellowing around any binding isgone (depending on whether your project body has binding or not). Ifyou’re satisfied with your sanding job, well done.

Scuff-Sanding An Existing Finish And Applying Your New Finish OverTop Of A Dulled Finish


18 STEP 2: REMOVING THE OLD FINISH


Scuff-sanding the finish using a 3M Finishing Pad is very much like usingsandpaper; for the most part, you’ll be rubbing in straight and circular motions.The benefit to the pad is that itdoesn’t really remove the fin-ish/paint; it just scuffs anddulls it. (Still, I wore my maskwhen doing this step.)

You don’t have to apply asmuch pressure as you dowhen sanding, so that’sanother plus.

You only have to remove theshine, not the paint. I knowthis seems like the easiestway to prep a body - and itis; but it’s not necessarily theway you’re going to be ableto prep ALL of your bodies.Painting over an existing fin-ish with flaws will give you afinish with flaws. The newpaint won’t hide anything.

It’s not very often that you’llfind a body with a perfect fin-ish, so the easiest way to dogreat finishes is by startingyour paint work at the sealercoat.

For this project, I’m using a“ready-to-paint” guitar, so I didn’t need to remove the finish prior to paint-ing, but I did need to add some additional sealer to it - which is coming upsoon.

Right now, though - it’s on to Step 3.




FIG 41

FIG 40

Here’s a body that’s had its surface dulled using a 3MFinishing Pad - Fine Grit.

It’s almost inevitable that when youbuy a used guitar body, you’re goingto get something with a few dings in it.

Not to worry, though - those dings areeasy to fix.

With your project guitar body sandeddown to the sanding sealer or to barewood, it’s easier to fix those little dingsand holes.

For filling small holes and dings, I useBondo, which is a product used oncars. I prefer this stuff over plasticwood for filling small holes. Bondosands very nicely, so I recommendyou use Bondo over Plastic Wood.

To start, remove the lid from the Bondotube and squeeze out a little blob (seeFIG 41). With either your finger or aplastic or metal scraper, simply press itinto the ding/hole (see FIG 41 and 42).If you’re using a scraper, after pressingit down firmly into the hole, simply slidethe scraper across the body and overthe Bondo to remove any excess.

Work on one part of the body at a timeand allow the substance to dry com-pletely before sanding flat. For instance,do all of the dings on the top of thebody first, then the sides, followed bythe back. Follow the directions on theBondo container for length you shouldallow for drying time. (Most likely, you’llhave to wait 1 - 2 hours per section -top, sides, back - before sanding).

Your goal is to try to fill the ding/holeas best as you can. It doesn’t matterwhether it’s absolutely perfect; oncethe bondo has dried, you’re going to block sand it to try to level, or even itout, so that it blends in with the rest of the body.


20 STEP 3: FILLING DINGS & HOLES


FIG 42

This small dent, if left unfixed, would be veryobvious when your finish is complete.

FIG 43

FIG 44

FIG 45

Using a plastic or metal scraper, slide acrossthe body removing any excess Bondo.

Remove the lid and squeeze out a small blob.

Go slowly and pay careful attention tothe height of the Bondo; you don’twant a hump where you placed thesubstance. You want to remove anyhumps so that as you rub your handacross the body, the Bondo has filledthe dings/holes and the area has beenleveled.

If you happen to go too deep as youblock sand and accidentally remove allof the Bondo from the hole, simplyrepeat the step again - fill in the ding,allow it to dry, and then block sand itflat.

You shouldn’t be in a hurry during thisstep. All of the extra attention you putinto this prep work will make a hugedifference in the quality of the paintand finish.Take your time, and don’tsettle for a sloppy job!

When you’ve finished, you’re ready tomove onto Step 4.


21STEP 3: FILLING DINGS & HOLES


FIG 47

I used Bondo to fix this modification to a set-neck ESP LTD. I removed the strong edgeand made it easier to play up high. TheBondo filled the grain of the Mahogany per-fectly. After painting, it was flawless.

FIG 46

Here it is all evened out.

PLEASE NOTE: When trying to fill in pickup holes, do not use Bondo orPlastic wood. These products are for small holes like screw holes anddents. In the past, I used marine epoxy (resin and hardener) to fill pickupholes with pretty good success. Over time, with the way that woodexpands and contracts, you may see the line around the pickup hole startto appear. It's very difficult to prevent this, but with the marine epoxy,because of its hardness, it seemed to do the job better than anything elseI tried. Still, over time, the line of the pickup hole that you filled mayappear and there's not really much you can do about that.

HOW GOOD IS BONDO? If you’ve ever watched the TV show, AmericanChopper, have you ever noticed how rough the bike looks before it goes topaint - with messy welding and rough edges up and down the bike? Evernoticed how amazing and flawless it all looks when it comes back AFTERpaint? What do you think they used to smooth out all of the flaws and getthat perfectly smooth finish prior to paint? - You guess it... BONDO.

If the guitar you’re painting has a“bolt-on” neck, you’ll have to maskthe neck pocket prior to painting.

It’s important that you do this to pre-vent the sanding sealer and paintfrom getting into this area. When thejob is complete, you want your neckto sit in its cavity as well as it didbefore you painted.

Keeping the area masked ensuresthat the area will be free of sealerand paint.

Using some masking tape, simply laydown strips of tape, overlappingeach strip slightly (see FIG 48). Ialso run a piece up the side of thepocket - once again, to ensure thatthe neck will fit back in without aproblem (see FIG 49).

Once the cavity has been completelymasked off, take your X-Acto knifeand cut the masking tape just insidethe neck cavity. Cutting slightlyinside the neck cavity (see FIG 49)will make it less likely that you’ll pullup the finish as you remove the tape.

If you’re painting a body that alreadyhas Floyd Rose sleeves inside thebody, you don’t have to remove themin order to paint; just cover them with masking tape and cut around themlike I’ve done in FIG 50.

Once the tape has been laid and cut, it’s on to Step 5.


22 STEP 4: MASKING THE NECK POCKET


FIG 48

FIG 49

FIG 50

PLEASE NOTE: If you’re painting a set-neck guitar, refer to my freenewsletters on how to do that. Check out BONUS ITEMS at the back ofthis book for where to access them.

The purpose of adding this stick withthe hook to your project guitar body isso that you can hang it as it dries.

The wood also acts as a handle asyou’ll see further in the book. I holdthe body with the stick and turn andflip it as I paint.

To attach the stick to the body, simplyhold the stick in place with one handwhile you pre-drill holes using a drillwith the other hand (see FIG 52).

Sometimes, when a body has a holein the center of the four neck platescrew holes, I’ll use a wing nut andbolt to secure it to the body (see FIG53). You can also use the existingneck plate screw holes to attach it, too.

Before tightening the nut, though, Iinsert a shim into the neck pocket (seeFIG 51 and 54). I do this to create agap between the stick and the body.

When applying the finish, the clearreally does get built up quite a bit. Withthis gap created by the shim, youwon’t have to score the finish in orderto separate the stick from the bodylater on - when you’re ready to pro-ceed to the finishing steps.

Whether you use a screw and wingnut, or two regular wood screws,make sure they’re good and tight. Thelast thing you want is for the screwsto give out while you’re painting.Youwant it to feel nice and secure.

Once the stick has been securely fas-tened to the body, it’s on to Step 6.


23STEP 5: ADDING THE STICK w/HOOK


FIG 52

FIG 51

FIG 53

FIG 54

One of the challenges with trying to cre-ate a factory guitar finish is in making apiece of wood look like a sheet of glassor plastic prior to painting it. In otherwords, if you’re painting solid colors,you don’t want your wood to look likewood before you’re ready to spray yourpaint. Otherwise, with the wood’s grainshowing through, your guitar body isgoing to look more like part of a fence insomeone’s front yard than a beautifullyfinished guitar.

This is where sanding sealer, or somesort of sealer coat comes in. The sealeracts as a filler and fills the grain of thewood so that when your body is sandedflat prior to painting, the body will beperfectly smooth and all of the grain willhave disappeared. So, applying paint ona body that has a very smooth surfaceis the first key step in creating a factoryguitar finish.

That is your goal during this step. Ifyou’ve scuff-sanded a body and you’repainting over an existing finish, you canskip this step. However, I do recom-mend that you read this step as this is avery important step in the creation ofgreat guitar finishes.

With this “ready-to-paint” guitar that I’musing, it still needed some additionalsealing before painting. (It looks like themanufacturer only applied one coat ofsealer, when in reality, it needs at leastfour coats.)

For the sealer coats, you can apply these coats with either a brush, or youcan use the Preval Sprayer. (If you own any sort of spray gun and com-pressor, you can use that set up as well.)


24 STEP 6: APPLYING THE SANDING SEALER


If you sand through your sealer coat to barewood, do not leave it as is. Apply moresealer, allow it to dry, then sand it flat. If Iapplied paint over this body with the barewood showing through, those areas wouldlook terrible.

I applied two coats of the AEROMAX 2KClear as a sealer coat.

FIG 55

FIG 56

What To Use For Your Sealer Coat

I’ve used both lacquer-based and urethane-based sealers when paintingguitars. Personally, I don’t recommend using a urethane-based sealer at all- even if you’re using an automotive urethane-based paint for your project.The sealer tends to gum as you’re sanding it, rather than becoming “pow-dery.” In fact, you can scrape ifoff using your nail. So clearly,this is not the ideal stuff to usefor sealing your guitar body.

I regularly use a lacquer-basedsanding sealer with an automo-tive urethane-based paint with-out any problems. Normally, Idon’t recommend that you mixpaints like lacquer and ure-thane at all if you’re new topainting guitars and you don’tunderstand how each paintworks. But using this combina-tion - the lacquer-based sealer and the automotive urethane-based paintwill work.

However, be aware that mixing paints, in some instances, can be a disas-ter. I address this topic quite a bit throughout my free newsletters (You’llfind out how to access the newsletters in the BONUS ITEMS - located atthe back of this book).

If you have the money, and you’re going to use an automotive urethane-based paint, I would recommend sealing the wood with: 1. AEROMAX 2KClear, or 2. a Catalyzed Primer. (If you have a spray gun/compressor setup, and have access to automotive paint, you don’t need to use aerosolcans at all. Use similar products that can be applied with your spray gun.)The addition of the catalyst makes the primer and the clear dry and hardenvery fast - within a day or so. Once hardened, you can sand it smooth,


25STEP 6: APPLYING THE SANDING SEALER


FIG 57

Stay away from MINWAX Urethane Sanding Sealer.

If this is your first guitar painting project, I recommend going withthe easiest, and most cost-effective combination: a lacquer-basedsealer and a lacquer-based paint. (After you’ve done one completeguitar paint job and you’re aware of all that’s involved with creating agreat guitar finish, you can then try using an automotive urethane-based paint, if you wish.)

then, you can apply ANYTHING overtop without any fear of a reaction inpaints.

Brushing On Your Sealer

When brushing on your sealer, don’tbe too worried if it doesn’t appear tobe going on smoothly, or it looksblotchy; what we’re trying to accom-plish with the sealer is simply to fill thegrain of the wood. Whether it lookspretty or not, is irrelevant. Lacquer-based sanding sealer driesvery quickly, so if you’re planning onusing lacquer-based paint for this project, you’ll be able to apply most ofthe sealer in a day.

Apply 5 - 8 thin coats around the entire body (even the binding, if you’repainting a body with binding), allowing each coat to dry before applying thenext. I tend to hold the guitar by the stick and flip and turn it, covering theentire body all at once (see FIG 58). You should try to do the same. Ifyou’re having a hard time doing that, simply work on one side at a time, asin Step 3 when you applied the Bondo.If you’re sealing a mahogany body orsomething with a deep grain, you’llhave to apply at least 8 coats - possi-bly more.

Spraying On Your Sealer

I’ve used both methods when applyingmy sealer coats to various projects,but truthfully, I prefer spraying on mycoats. It’s just easier to do it this way -and cleaner, too.

To apply, use a Preval Sprayer as I’mdoing in FIG 59. Pour some sealer intothe jar that comes with the PrevalSprayer, attach the nozzle/sprayer andyou’re ready to go. (If you’re new tousing aerosol cans and painting guitars, refer to Step 8 for my sprayingtechnique).




FIG 58

FIG 59

Using a Preval Sprayer to spray on yoursealer coats is very easy to do and requiresless clean up.

You’ll find that the Preval Sprayer will occasionally spit paint as you’respraying. This is a result of the nozzle getting too cold from the com-pressed air inside. Because it’sonly sealer you’re applying, it’s nota big deal because eventually,you’ll be sanding this down; if itwere paint, though, this could giveyou some unwanted patterns, ifyou were trying to create a fade ora sunburst.

You can buy lacquer-based sand-ing sealer in an aerosol can, butI’m going to recommend that youdon’t buy those; there’s just toomuch thinner in those cans (whichis necessary in order for it to spraynicely without clogging the nozzle).You’ll spray an entire can and findthat your body is no where NEAR being sealed.

As with brushing on the sealer, you’ll want to apply 5 - 8 coats of sealerusing the Preval Sprayer around the entire body (even the binding, if you’repainting a body with binding),allowing each coat to dry beforeapplying the next.

Once you’ve applied 5 - 8 thincoats, either by brush or by spray-ing, it’s time to sand your bodysmooth. If you’re painting a bodywith a flat top such as a strat, youcan use an electric sander on mostof the body. However, avoid usingthe sander on any contours; dothose areas by hand.

For sandpaper, start with some 320wet/dry sandpaper. You’ll be usingit dry. As you sand, keep thesander moving at all times. This isso that you’ll sand your body even-ly. If you keep your sander in onearea too long, you run the risk of sanding through the sealer and also pos-




FIG 60

You don’t have to use an electric sander to sandyour sealer coat smooth. You can use a sandingblock just as well.

FIG 61

When it comes to sanding the sides, there’s no wayaround it - those have to be done by hand.

sibly going too deep and affectingyour body’s surface.

If you don’t own an electric sander,or don’t feel like you want to usean electric sander, not a problem;simply use a sanding block thatyou bought or made. Begin bywrapping a piece of 320-gritwet/dry sandpaper around it. Usingthe paper dry, you can sand in acircular motion or you can makelong passes as you sand, but don’ttry to work in one area for too long.Move around the entire body, bit-by-bit. Remember - what you’re try-ing to do during this step is to smooth out the sealer, so that, in the end,your body will be perfectly smooth and all of the grain will have disap-peared.

Using the block will help you to create a flatter, more-perfect sanding job.You want to remove all of the bumps and humps, so pay careful attentionwhile sanding.

When you’ve gotten it to a point where you think it looks pretty good, andyou can’t feel any grain, you’re ready to move on. However, if after sand-ing, you can still feel the grain of the wood, or you sanded through in someareas, simply apply three more coats as you did prior. After the coats havedried, get out the 400-grit sandpaper, and sand the body flat again. Yourgoal during this step is to remove ALL of the grain. You want your body tolook like a piece of glass or plastic that you’re applying your paint to - notwood. If it’s still showing the grain, your guitar will look like a fence post -and you don’t want that.

The magic phrase throughout this very important step is, “don’t be in ahurry.” Prep work that’s done well will make your paint job look that muchmore professional. This is THE step that separates the amateurs from thepotential pros.

If your body is uneven, the paint will not hide that at all, so don’t even thinkabout moving onto the next step until you’ve got your guitar body lookingflat and smooth.

If you skip over this step just to rush to the paint work, you’re cheating




FIG 62

This is a body that I purchased that was a “ready-to-paint” body from another manufacturer. However,they sanded through several areas (the lighterareas), so before painting this body, I had to fix/sealthose areas.

yourself out of doing it properly. Trust me on that. I know that sanding isboring... but it’s absolutely necessary.

Just remember - your true reward will be an awesome paint job, not just aso-so paint job.

Ready to move on?... Step 7, here we come.




IMPORTANT POINTS: If you were able to keep the sealer coat thatwas already on your project body, you don’t have to worry about thisstep at all.

If you’re painting over an existing finish, again, the previous finish willact as your sealer, as the finish is probably pretty flat. All you need todo is to scuff-sand the body and you’ll be good to go.

Electric sanders are powerful. If you’re painting an arch top guitar suchas a Les Paul style guitar, you don’t want to use an electric sander.Rather, choose some sanding sponges instead; they can mold and con-form to the arch of the body (whereas, the sander can’t. It will, in alllikelihood, gouge the body in places you don’t want it to.)

If you’re planning on painting a Les Paul-style body with binding, you’llhave to mask off the binding after sanding the sealer and before painting.

In fact, if you try to paint a Les Paul-style body and you DON’T mask off thebinding, and I find out - YOU’LL NEVER HEAR THE END OF IT!

The binding on a Les Paul is what makes those bodies look so darn good.Painting over it would be foolish!

Masking the binding is not a difficultstep - it’s no harder than anything elseinvolved in painting a guitar.Preserving the binding though, willmake your body look amazing, onceit’s finished.

The easiest way to mask the binding isto use 3M Fine Line tape. To do this, Iuse the 1/8” size.

I begin by holding an entire roll in myright hand. As I lay it down, I use myleft hand to press it down along theedge of the binding - bending it per-fectly into position. (That’s the beautyof this tape - it can be twisted andturned to follow just about any line oredge you need.)

I go around the entire top of the bodythis way, inch-by-inch, until I’ve fol-lowed the edge of the binding perfectly. As you’re doing it, don’t be afraid tolift the tape up and reposition it, either.

When the top is done, I then do the exact same thing along the edge of thebinding on the side - using the 1/8” size.

When both of the edges are done, I then take a roll of 3M 1/4 green mask-ing tape and follow the fine line tape, making sure it’s overlapping the fineline tape and no gaps are visible.

Although it may seem like a lot of work doing it this way - running the fineline tape along two edges, then having to run more tape in between, it’s theeasiest way to do it, and it’ll give you close-to-perfect results. (As long as


30 STEP 7: MASKING THE BINDING


FIG 63

FIG 64

you’ve followed the edge of the binding perfectly.)

Plus, I also recommend using these sizes specifically over any larger sizes.

If your project body has binding on the bottom as well, just repeat the sametechnique you justused. However, becareful when movingthe body on the sur-face it’s sitting on; youdon’t want to acciden-tally remove the tapeyou just laid.

You’ll find that this stepis not difficult at all, justa little time-consuming.

Remember - there’snever a hurry for doingthe prep work; the bet-ter the job you do now,the better the final out-come.

Once the binding has been masked, pat yourself on the back.

You’re now ready to move onto Step 8.


31STEP 7: MASKING THE BINDING


FIG 65

This is a custom airbrush job I did on an ESP LTD. This paint joblooks so much better because I preserved the awesome bindingthey put on these guitars by masking it off.

So, you may be wondering why we’re spraying primer and not jumpingstraight to the paint? Well, for a couple of reasons: Primer helps to bondthe paint to the body. Without it, you may find that your paint is doingstrange things as it hits the sealer. The primer tends to make the paint sticknicely, eliminating any “funky” patches in your paint.

Primer is also good to use because it allows you to see any flaws that youmight’ve missed during the sealing stage. The primer acts like a sealer too,because it fills any leftover grain and/or any little dings or holes that maystill be there. It can be sanded just like the sealer. You’ll see what I meanafter you’ve applied your first few coats and they’ve dried. You’ll be able tosee first-hand whether you did an excellent job of sealing your body or justa “so-so” job. If it appears your sealer is uneven, sand the primer downand reapply a few more coats of primer to help even it out.

If you find that, after you’ve applied a couple of coats of primer that yourbody doesn’t look anywhere near as flat and smooth as it should, don’t beafraid to continue sanding - even if itmeans that you remove all of the primerto help even it all out.

I’ve said it already once, but I’ll say itagain: Sealing your body properly prior topaint is what sets potential pros apart fromamateurs. You don’t have to tell me thatsanding is tedious - I’ve been doing it forover 20 years. But think of sealing andprepping your body as the foundation ofyour paint work - without a great surface topaint on, your paint work will look plainBAD - no matter how crisp your lines maybe. If you spend the effort to properly sandand level your sealer, and you make surethat no grain is showing through, yourpaint work will be that much betterbecause of that little extra effort. So, if thatmeans sanding your primer coats right off to level the sealer, then do it.

So, back to priming. When applying primer (for this project, it should bewhite), you’ll find that it dries very fast. You may find that, after spraying theentire body, most of it is already dried. Still, you want to give yourself at least30 minutes between coats to allow the primer to completely dry and settle. Ifyou pay attention, you’ll notice a big difference in the primer from when youfinish spraying to 30 minutes later. You’ll notice that it’s much more level.When applying your primer coats (as well as paint coats and clear coats)you want to avoid applying heavy coats as much as possible. Spraying thincoats allows the primer, paint, and clear to dry faster with zero runs. In fact,


32 STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER


FIG 66

Spraying the catalyzed primer. And...WEARING MY MASK!

I don’t even remember the last time I got a runin my paint.

Once you can understand the concept of thincoats, you’ll be that much further ahead. I knowthat it’s human nature to want to keep applyingpaint until you’ve got a nice, solid color, but thatdesire will only lead to disaster. Trust me onthat. Thin coats at all times.

So, now that I’ve drilled that into your head (butI will address it again), let me discuss my tech-nique for spray painting in general becauseyou’ll be using this technique, or a similar one,for ALL of your spray painting, not just whileusing the primer. (This explanation assumesthat you have virtually no experience with spraypainting. If you have experience and want to doit your way, then, by all means, go right ahead.)

The first thing you should know is, like guitarplaying, technique is very important. The betteryour spraying technique, the better the finalresults. That’s not to say that your painting hasto be absolutely flawless - it doesn’t. However,you should concentrate on trying to do as gooda job as possible, applying thin coats instead ofthick coats at all times... This is A MUST.

When you’re ready to start spraying the primer,you’re going to be holding the guitar in onehand while you spray with the other (see FIG66 previous page).

I hold the guitar many different ways while spray-ing - upside down, right-side up, sideways, etc.Hold it whichever way is comfortable for you. Ifyou find that the guitar body is a little heavy foryou, try painting the body with the guitar upsidedown as I’m doing in FIG 66. This way, theweight of the body is above your hand ratherthan below. If this method is still too heavy foryou, hang the guitar and spray sections at a time.

As I paint, I like to overlap each coat by about50%. I start my first pass across the body, halfon the body and half off (see FIG 67). I also


33STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER


FIG 67

like to start the spray off the body and run the spray past the body (seeFIG 67). Doing this makes for amuch cleaner pass across and virtu-ally eliminates paint spatters (thepaint shooting out in big drops). Asin FIG 67, I run my first pass acrossleft to right, followed by the nextpass right to left, the next left toright, etc., overlapping each pass byroughly 50%. I zig-zag my way upthe entire body this way, both sides.

For the next coat, I like to go in theopposite direction; for example, if Iwent left to right, right to left for thefirst coat, I’ll go up and down, downand up for the next coat; again,always overlap each pass by roughly50%. I feel doing it this way helps toeven out any inconsistencies in myspraying technique.

When I apply each coat, I usually do the sides of the guitar body first, fol-lowed by the back, and then the front. The reason I do this is that if thepaint is coming out of the can in an inconsistent manner, then it’ll be onareas of the guitar that aren’t so visible. You can try it this way to see if it’scomfortable for you.

When painting the sides, I paintsimilarly to the rest of the body; Istart the spray half on the side andhalf off the side, and I overlap all ofthe coats. For painting the bottomof the guitar, I flip the body upsidedown and spray two to four pass-es, overlapping the coats by 50%.

Another important aspect to paintingis your tempo. Each pass acrossthe body is roughly 1 - 1.5 full sec-onds. I definitely don’t zip across thebody spraying on little bits of paintand neither should you. I allow forgood coverage, and I always try tomaintain a distance of about 10”from the body.


34 STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER

FIG 68

If holding your guitar by the stick and painting itis too difficult for you, simply hang it up in aspot where you can walk around it and spray itthat way.

FIG 69

After spraying your primer coats, if your body isstill not level, get out a sanding block, some 320-grit sandpaper, and sand the body down so it’slevel. Don’t be afraid to sand off a lot of the primerin an effort to get a perfectly even surface.


In case you’re starting to worry that you’re notgoing to do a good job, let me let you in on animportant fact: when a paint job has some sort ofdesign on it like this project, you’ll be putting onroughly 25 thin coats of paint. If you’re worriedthat one bad or uneven paint coat is going to ruinthe job, don’t worry about it - it won’t!

Alright, let’s discuss the primer coats again. You’llbe applying thin coats of primer, allowing eachcoat to dry completely before applying another. Inbetween each coat, look for little surface bumps. Ifyou find any, which most likely, you will, sandthem lightly with 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper notusing any water. Your goal is to try and cover theentire body with solid coat of primer and to keepthe surface of the body relatively smooth. Expectto do roughly five coats of primer over the entirebody. If you accidentally sand through your primerto sealer, just leave it. That won’t affect the paint.

After your final coat, give the body one final lightsanding with 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper dry toremove any bumps or blemishes. Congratulations!Your body is now ready for your first coat of color!


35STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER


FIG 71

FIG 70

FIG 72

FIG 73

After I applied my primer onanother project body, I couldstill see some grain.

I applied Bondo right over topof the primer.

Once the Bondo was dry, Isanded it flat using 320-grit.

I then reapplied primer backover top of the fix.

AN IMPORTANT POINT: If you use Bondoover top of primer, be aware that it can startto dissolve the primer. Try to dab it on,spread it once, then leave it.

Once the Bondo has dried (give it at leastthree hours), sand it back down to smoothand flat using 400-grit wet/dry sandpaperand use it dry. The Bondo sands very nicely,so this should be a fairly easy fix, but still -use a careful touch. When you’re done sand-ing the area, it’ll probably look like FIG 72.

Remove any excess dust and debris on thebody with a damp paper towel. Allow it to befree of any water before spraying the primeragain. Apply light coats until eventually, thearea is smooth and flat like FIG 73.

As you look at this hot rod design, you’llsee that really, the only parts on thedesign that are yellow are the outlines ofthe flames and part of the tips of theflames. So, once we’ve sprayed our yel-low base coat, we can mask up the out-line of the flames, then proceed to sprayour other colors. The only point at whichyou’ll remove some of the masking that’scovering the yellow is at the end of yourpaint work - when you’ll be creating a dropshadow.

Now - before you spray your first coat ofpaint, blow into the body cavities toremove any debris that may still be inthere (close your eyes to prevent gettingdebris and dust in your eyes). Take adamp paper towel and wipe off the entireguitar body, removing any dust or debristhat might still be on there as well.

If you have a can of compressed air, thatwould be better for your body’s cavities.

Masking tape is also very good forremoving bits of debris still on the body(see FIG 75).

When your body’s clean, we’re ready to go.

If you applied white primer, you shouldbe able to spray a nice, solid yellow basecoat. However, don’t try to get a solid yellow color in one coat; look to get asolid yellow base coat in 4-5 thin coats.

For this project, here are the paints that I used:

SprayMAX - Catalyzed Grey Primer (1 can)Ketone Automotive - Bright White (1 can)Ketone Automotive - Bright Yellow (1 can)Ketone Automotive - Bright Orange (1 can)Ketone Automotive - Candy Apple Red (1 can)Ketone Automotive - Black (1 can)AEROMAX - 2K Clear (2 cans - one can was used for sealing the wood)

I sprayed a white base coat prior to spraying the yellow. The reason for this


36 STEP 9: SPRAYING THE BASE COAT


FIG 74

FIG 75

Using the sticky side of a piece of tapecan make it very easy to remove paintchips or any other debris still on yourbody’s surface.

Here’s my body with five thin coats ofyellow.

is, yellow in an automotive urethane is somewhat transparent, so it’s harderto get a solid yellow - unless you apply a white first... so, that’s what I did.

If you use a lacquer-based paint, youwon’t have that problem. After severalthin coats, you’ll have a nice, solid yellow.

Now that you’ve already sprayed theprimer, you probably have a better feelfor how to spray the sides and the bottomof the guitar. As I’ve said, I like to do allof the sides and bottom first, followed bythe back, then the front. If you’re doing itthis way, continue with that order or what-ever has been working for you.

Continue with the same painting techniqueI described in the last step; go left to right,followed by right to left, etc., zig-zaggingup the entire body this way, overlappingeach pass by roughly 50%. Your next coatshould be up and down, down and up,etc., covering the entire sides, front, andback of the body this way; again, alwaystry to overlap each pass by roughly 50%.

Allow each coat to dry for at least 30 min-utes before applying the next coat.(Check your container for exact time theyrecommend.)

When you’ve covered the entire body witha nice, solid yellow, look it over for anyobvious flaws or runs. Make sure thatyour color is solid and that you can’t seeany primer showing through.

If you happen to notice the paint runningas you’re spraying, do what I’m doing inFIG 76. Hold the body horizontal for afew minutes. This will definitely stop therun in its tracks.

Once your base coat is done, allow thebody to dry for a full day before proceed-ing to the next step. This will give thepaint ample time to dry and settle.


37STEP 9: SPRAYING THE BASE COAT


FIG 76

FIG 77

Here’s a 5150 with just one coat of redon it. This should give you an idea of howlittle I spray for a first coat. With eachadditional coat, you get a more solidcolor. By the fourth or fifth coat, my redwas a nice, solid red.

Ready to move on?... Step 10, here we come.


38 STEP 9: SPRAYING THE BASE COAT


DEALING WITH RUNS: All runs should be removed as best as possi-ble before masking your body and applying additional paint. If you finda run that looks like it may be a problem when you mask, start by tak-ing a small piece of 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper with no water and, witha delicate touch, try to remove as much of it as you can, rubbing in thedirection of the drip with light pressure. Be very careful not to go downto primer or wood. “Proceed with caution,” as the sign would say. Itdoesn’t have to be absolutely perfect; just try to level it out as best asyou can.

As long as you’ve taken out the meat of the run, you’ll be okay to moveon. Also, don’t worry that the paint will be dull in that area. That will beundetectable once we spray our clear coats.

If you happen to go through to primer when trying to remove a run, sim-ply spot spray the area to put a solid color back in place. In fact, if it’son the top (or bottom), lay the guitar flat and spray just in the area of thesand-through. Just shoot a copy of sprays on it and let it sit for an hour.Come back and do it again. Repeat until the color is solid again.Keeping your guitar flat will help to build up the paint without it runningagain.

Later in the book, I address how to handle a drip in the clear.

PAINTING OUTDOORS: If you live in an area of the country whereyou get rain and snow, painting outdoors will be difficult. You DO NOTwant to be painting when it’s raining or drizzling. Water hitting the bodywhile you paint will cause air bubbles and imperfections, which may bedifficult to fix. If you’re scheduled to paint on a day when the weather isbad, don’t paint that day. Wait as long as you have to in order for it tobe clear and dry.

In fact, check out my SPECIAL REPORT on painting through the coldmonths. You can access it by visiting my website:http://www.paintyourownguitar.com Then, click on the top image inthe left-hand margin.

This is a lengthy step and is by far,the hardest step in this project. It isthe heart and soul of pulling off thisdesign. If you can be patient and dowhat you need to do without tryingto rush through it to get to the paint-ing step, you’re flames will be asuccess.

We’ll begin by printing out a flametemplate onto some letter-sizedpages, tape it together, then cutaround the flames with a pair ofscissors to make a master template.

From there, we’re going to place itonto the body, into a position we like.

The reason we’re doing this is, withthe flame template taped into posi-tion, it’ll make it much easier for youto lay down your Scotch 1/8” PlasticTape to recreate the flame pattern.

So, you’re probably wondering,where is this flame template, right?

Well, I have a few different flamepage samples for you to choosefrom. Visit this page -

http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/flames685.html

Using your printer, print out eachpattern onto a letter-sized page.

What I suggest you do is print themall out, and make your own masterflame template for YOUR guitar.That way, your design will be differ-ent than mine... and the next guy’sdesign.

With the help of a large window (orlightboard), overlap all of the pages together as I’m doing in FIG 79. Tape#1 onto a window, then position and tape #2 over top of it, using the guide-


39STEP 10: MASKING THE FLAME DESIGN


FIG 78

FIG 79

FIG 80

lines to line it up perfectly. Continuethis with overlapping, positioning,then taping #3 and #4 into place.When they’re all taped together,your template should look like FIG80 (previous page).

When you’ve got your template alltaped together, you’ll need to cut itout using a pair of scissors (seeFIG 81). Before cutting though,place tape on both sides of thetemplate - to hold it together onceit’s been cut out. I prefer usingScotch clear tape for this ratherthan masking tape, but you canuse masking tape, if you wish.

You’ll notice that once you’ve tapedthis template together, it’s muchlarger and wider than your guitarbody; however, this gives you thefreedom of moving this first flamepattern into any position you like.You don’t have to do what I’vedone. Make up your own design bymoving the flames into a positionthat YOU like.

When you’ve got the spot thatlooks good for your first set offlames, take a pencil and draw aline on the paper where the bodyfalls underneath (see FIG 82).From there, I would suggest trim-ming the template down with scis-sors so it’s easier for you to tape itinto position (see FIG 83).

Follow this up by positioning it backonto the body, then take somemasking tape and place a fewpieces strategically to hold it in place (see FIG 83).

Because you have to follow the flame pattern with the Scotch Plastic Tape,you don’t really want to tape every flame into place; try to tape just a few of


40 STEP 10: MASKING THE FLAME DESIGN


FIG 81

FIG 82

FIG 83

I used four pieces of green 1/4” masking tape tohold my template in place. If you use more thanthat, you’ll just have to remove it as you’re run-ning your plastic tape around the flame pattern.The less you use, the easier it will be.

the flame tips in place as I’ve donein FIG 83.

Remember - the flame template isjust there to help guide you. Youdon’t have to follow them verbatim- just guide you. In fact, you don’thave to use it at all. If you feel con-fident that you can lay the plastictape down and create a goodflame design, then go for it.

For this flame design, we’re goingto begin by laying down the topflame pattern first, then outliningthat pattern with our 1/8” ScotchPlastic Tape. When the top flamepattern is complete, we’ll repeatwhat we’ve just done by layinganother flame pattern, then we’lloutline that second pattern with ourplastic tape.

There’s a reason why we’re layingthe flame that sits on top first;When we’ve finished our colorcoats, we’re going to remove themasking from the flame that sitsunderneath as well as the plastictape outline. Then, we’re going tospray a drop shadow. This is whywe mask it this way.

If this all sounds complicated, don’tsweat it - just follow along andyou’ll do fine.

Laying The Plastic Tape Or FineLine Tape

I used plastic tape, but you can usefine line tape, if you prefer - they’re both very good products. (Typically, out-lines around flames are painted on with a steady hand rather than masking,but we’re using masking because it’s easier.) With your first set of flamestaped in place, I begin by holding an entire roll of 1/8” plastic tape in myhand (see FIG 84). As I lay the tape down, I use my other hand’s index fin-




FIG 84

FIG 85

FIG 86

FIG 87

ger to press the tape down alongthe edge of the flame template -bending it perfectly into position. (Ifyou’ve used this tape to mask anybinding, then you understand howeasily it works. To get an idea ofhow easy it is to do this step, makesure you watch my video clips).

I go around each flame until I cometo the tip. I run past the tip with thetape by several inches, then breakit off. I start the next flame tip byoverlapping that previous piece,then looping around to the nextflame tip, where, once again, Ibreak off the tape. Later, after all ofthe pieces have been laid, I’mgoing to come back with an X-Actoknife and trim all of the tips of theflames so they’re nice and sharp(see FIG 86 and 87 previous page).

When all of the flame tips havebeen trimmed, remove the templatefrom the body so you can start onthe back.

For this design, I continued theflames onto the back of the guitar.I’m going to explain how to contin-ue the design onto the back of theguitar, but if this is your first guitarthat you’re painting, I’m going torecommend that you just do yourflame design on the front - not onthe sides and not on the back. Thereason is, it’s very challenging tospray this type of design and all ofthe nuances that go along with itaround the entire body.

With all of my experience (20+years), it’s even somewhat chal-lenging for me. As we get furtheralong, I’ll point out the trickiest




FIG 88

FIG 90

FIG 89

parts to do, so you understand whyjust focusing on the front may bethe best way to go for this first job.

Now, if you decide to heed mywarning (which I’m sure some ofyou will), and you decide to contin-ue the design onto the back, youhave a few options: 1. Use yourexisting template and repeat theentire process onto the back of theguitar; 2. Print out a new templateand repeat the entire process ontothe back of the guitar with the newtemplate, or 3. You can “wing it”and just try to make up your ownflame pattern - which is what I didfor the back.

The hardest part about continuing adesign like this onto the back of theguitar is in blending the flames ontothe side of the body so that, boththe front and back flames matchup. The easiest way to do this is tolay the side flames first beforejumping to the back flames; thatway, you’ll be able to see wherethose flames are sitting. Positionthe template onto the back of theguitar to match up with the sideflames, as best you can. It’ll takesome work on your part to make itflow nicely - you’ll probably have tolift the tape up a couple of times -until you’ve got it looking the wayyou want it to. But, as I’ve alreadysaid, don’t ever be afraid to lift upthe tape. I did it several timesthroughout this project. You may aswell be happy with your design, soif it needs some tweaking, thentweak away (meaning, lift the tapeto reposition).

If you’re familiar with traditional “Hot Rod” flames, they’re typically very thin




FIG 91

FIG 92

FIG 93

FIG 94

with long, skinny flame tips. Personally, I’m not crazy about that look, so I’vefattened up my flames, so they’re nice and bold. That’s the look I like, but ifyou want a more traditional look toyour design, I have templates withthe more traditional looking Hot Rodflames, so use those for your guitar.

When the first set of flames for theback of your guitar is complete, youcan either go back to work on thefront, or work on the back -whichever you prefer. The onlyimportant thing is that you laid theflame that sits on top FIRST -throughout the guitar.

When you’re ready, grab anotherset of flames that you printed outand taped together. When you’vegot the template where you want it(see FIG 91 previous page), tape itin place with a few pieces of mask-ing tape.

Repeat the exact same method you just used to lay down your first set offlames. As you can see in FIG 92 (previous page), I laid the second flameright over top of the first one, but I’m not going to leave it that way. We wantto cut out the part that overlaps, so it looks like FIG 94. This way, that flamemoves behind the first flame -which is what you want. When cut-ting your plastic tape, cut it on topof the first set of flames (see FIG92, 93, and 94).

Just remember to take your timewhen doing this step. If you’re nothappy with how your flames look,lift up the tape and reposition it.

When both sets of flames havebeen laid, the top of your bodyshould look similar to FIG 95.

When you’ve completed the outlines to all of your flames, it’s now time tomask up the entire guitar, in preparation for spraying our first set of flames.But, before you mask up the guitar, snap a photo of it in this outline stage.




FIG 95

FIG 96

You’ll need it later - when it comes time to remove some masking in order tospray the drop shadow.After laying your plastic tape, you may notice that you have little folds in thebends of the tape like I do in FIG 96. That happens when you make tightbends with a thicker tape. Two solutions are: 1. Use 1/16” tape instead of1/8” and 2. Use a plastic spreader as I’m doing in FIG 96 to smooth andflatten out the bends. I didn’t eliminate them entirely, but this did flatten themout quite a bit. I did get some bleed-throughs, which I knew might happen,so later on, I’ll show you how I touched those up.

Masking Up The Entire Guitar

For this paint job, you’ll need to mask up the entire guitar prior to painting.To paint each set of flames, you’ll remove just that masking. When the paintis dry, you’ll put that masking back into place and move onto the next set offlames.

As I stated earlier, I would tell you when we came across something thatwas rather tricky to do, well - this is one of the trickiest parts of this paint job- especially if you’re doing a complete wrap-around paint job. You’ll need toremove masking on one set of flames, save it, then put it back into placeonce the paint is dry. It’s tricky for a number of reasons:

1. The masking will curl up - it can and will curl up once you remove it,and if two sticky sides get stuck on eachother, you may as well toss thatpiece away. 2. You’ll possibly rip some of the pieces - overlapping masking tape, andthen, removing that without tearing it is definitely tricky - so expect somepieces to tear. 3. Some pieces are so long, you’ll NEED to cut them - there is no easyway to do some things and placing a rather long piece of masking back inplace perfectly after it’s been removed is challenging, so I normally just cuta piece into pieces and then place each piece into place. 4. You need to save the masking on something that won’t remove the




SOME THOUGHTS: For this design, I used 1/8” Plastic Tape for theflame outlines on both sets of flames, however, I wanted to use 1/16”tape for the outline on the set of flames that sit underneath.Unfortunately, my supplier didn’t have it in stock, and I just didn’t want towait for a couple of days for it to come in. Yes, I was IMPATIENT! Inhindsight, I should’ve waited a couple of days for the 1/16” tape to comein. I think that this design IS better with a different thickness for the out-lines. So, before you go and use 1/8” tape for the outlines on both setsof flames, give 1/16” a shot for the under flame. With the smaller flames,the 1/16” will also bend a lot easier. Or, possibly, 1/16” throughout.

stickiness - normally, I just place iton a body I have hanging. Still, ifyou don’t have a body hangingaround, you’ll need to find a sur-face you can save the maskingonto.

So, those are just some of the chal-lenges you’ll meet when removingthe masking. However, don’t letwhat I just said scare you in theleast. This is just part of the paintingprocess - I’m just telling you whatyou should expect so there are nosurprises. The truth is, in order to dointricate stuff with paint, you need tomask areas to protect them.

If you paint the flames on just thefront of the guitar, this job will go somuch easier, which is why I recom-mended that you just focus on thefront. Again, it’s up to you. If you’rethe adventurous type, then proba-bly none of what I just said is aconcern to you. So, let’s carry on...

For this masking job, I pulled outsome large masking sheets that Ihave. I used this stuff to cover theentire body with one piece per frontand back. This is definitely handy,but truthfully, there’s no real benefitto this large masking paper otherthan it saves me about 10 minutes- not having to tear off strips of 3”masking.

So, at this point, start with eithermasking the front or back (I normal-ly do the front masking first, fol-lowed by the back), and, using your3” white masking tape, lay stripsthe entire length of the body, over-lapping each strip with the nextstrip by about 1/4”.




FIG 100

FIG 97

FIG 98

FIG 99

When you’ve covered the entirebody, I recommend you do what Ido - and that is, trim all of theexcess from the front and back (seeFIG 98 previous page), so you havea nice, clean masking job.

Lastly, you need to cover the sidesof your body. For this, once again, Iused the 3” white masking tape. Itear off strips (see FIG 99 previouspage), lay them into position, thentrim excess from them as well (seeFIG 100 previous page). What ISleft on the sides, I flip on the top orbottom so that my body is com-pletely covered.

When you’re all done, your bodyshould look like FIG 101.

Cutting Out The Flames

With your body now completelymasked, it’s time to get down tobusiness and cut out the flames.

Make sure you have a fresh X-Actoblade to start. When cutting out theflames, always cut on top of theplastic tape (or fine line tape), andonly cut as deep as you have to inorder to cut through the masking.Try to avoid cutting through theplastic tape, as much as possible.It’s likely that you will cut throughsome of it, but just be aware thatyou don’t want to do it, if you canavoid it.

I cut around all of the flames first,then I removed the areas for thetop flames - which ran around theentire body.

When removing the masking from




FIG 102

FIG 103

FIG 104

FIG 101

the sides, I tore most of that to the point where I’ll have to cut new piecesfor those areas. But, as you can see in FIG 103, I was able to save a num-ber of pieces. Try to do the same. It’ll just save you having to cut newpieces when it’s time to remask and paint the next set of flames.

FIG 104 shows my body ready for the first set of flames. If I haven’t men-tioned this already, the maskingis by far the hardest part of thispaint job. The actual paint por-tion of it is easy in comparison.In fact, no other part of the jobcomes close to being as diffi-cult as the masking, so just beaware of that.

Look to spend a few hours onthe masking. In fact, here’s howI would recommend you do this:Start masking the flames asearly in the morning as you can(This is the perfect job for aSaturday morning). If you startby 9AM, you should be done by1PM. This will give you time onSaturday afternoon to spray thefirst set of flames.

Don’t rush this step. If you can’t get it done in 4 or 5 hours, then don’t sweatit. Work at your pace. Just pay attention to what you’re doing.

For my guitar, I wanted to paint a matching headstock, so FIG 105 showswhat I came up with for mine. If you want to do a matching headstock, thenuse part of the template to create a design - or, WING IT!

When you’re ready, it’s on to Step 11 - Spraying The Flames.




IMPORTANT: As you’re masking these flames, make sure you’re restingyour guitar body on something that won’t scratch up the paint - like sty-rofoam or some towels.

GO FOR IT: I would suggest you go ahead and “wing it” for the back -you’ve got absolutely nothing to lose. In fact, it’ll be good for you to justsee what you come up with. Remember - if you don’t like the flames, justlift the tape and try again. For my design, I wish that the flames on theback were on the front - I think they’re better.

FIG 105

FIG 106

To create a nice gradient inside theflames, we’re going to start withorange, but we’re going to spray thepaint a little differently.

Normally, I recommend that you holdyour spray can roughly 10” away fromthe guitar body. But to do a nice gradi-ent with very fine dots, you need tohold the can comfortably in one handwhile holding the guitar at arm’s length- which should be over 2 feet away.

If you hold the can too close to theguitar body, what you’ll get is patchesof paint - not a nice, smooth gradient.The further the can is away from theguitar body, the mistier the paint willbe - the dots will be finer - and that’swhat you want.

Before you start, make sure to do twothings: 1. shaken your can of paintwell before spraying and 2. make surethat all of your masking tape issecurely in place to eliminate bleed-throughs. Just go over all of it - press-ing it down firmly.

Okay - now the fun part. I begin byholding the guitar at arm’s length. Ialso hold it up high so I don’t have towork too hard with the spray can. Yourspraying hand has to be in a comfort-able spraying position, otherwise, youwon’t spray nicely.

I hold my spray can at least two feetaway and begin the spray completelyoff the body. I gradually bring it up sothe paint is hitting the body and I work my way up to the top of the flames.However, the higher I go, the further I start to pull the can away. This ishow you create the gradient. The farther the can is away from the guitar,the less the paint will hit the body. Also, the finer the dots of paint will be asyou move the can further away.


49STEP 11: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 1


FIG 107

FIG 108

This photo shows me spraying the second setof flames. That’s because I filmed myselfspraying the first set of flames. I recommendyou watch this footage to see me in actionspraying the all-important gradient.

FIG 109 illustrates the path of the spray can. I start the spray completelyoff of the body. As I move the can upwards (always upwards for this type ofgradient - never spray downward), I pull the can further away. This is theeasiest way to create a gradient with a spray can. To see me in actionspraying this gradient, watch my online video clips. Look in the BONUSITEMS at the back of this book for where to access them.


50 STEP 11: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 1


FIG 109

For your flame pattern, you can make your flames any colors you want -and you can decide how much gradient you want in the flames just by con-trolling your spray and makingseveral passes at it. This is total-ly up to you. I believe for myflames, I did three passes - bot-tom to top - three times.

When you’ve got the ideal gradi-ent for your first set of flames,allow this to dry for a full daybefore remasking.

When you’re ready, it’s on toStep 12.




FIG 110

FIG 111

IMPORTANT: If you don’tfeel confident that you canspray a nice, even gradient,then practice before spray-ing your guitar body. Youdon’t have to practice onwood, either; you can prac-tice on a sheet of bristle-board. Practice on as manysheets as you need to do inorder to feel confident.

Which leads me to my nextpoint: you don’t have to holdthe guitar in your hand whenspraying, either. If you thinkthat you can spray the gradi-ent more evenly if the guitarwas hanging, then do it thatway. Use whatever methodworks for YOU.

Now that you’ve given your painta full day to dry, you can putyour masking back into place inpreparation for spraying the nextset of flames.

As I mentioned earlier, themasking is the trickiest part ofthis whole project - and thatincludes remasking the areasyou’ve sprayed.

As you can see in FIG 112, I’veremoved the areas for the sec-ond set of flames beforeremasking the first set of flames.For some projects, I’ll do this toavoid accidentally overlappingthe masking that needs to comeoff with the masking that has togo back on. As you get to thisstep, you’ll see just how trickyplacing the masking back intoposition perfectly can be. It’schallenging - especially whenyou have big sections that arecurvy. You may overlap the firstflame set masks with the secondflame set masks. Don’t be sur-prised if it takes you severaltries at getting each piece intoposition.

Consider using the edge of yourX-Acto blade to help guide apiece back into position. Just becareful not to scrape or gougethe paint. Once the piece isback in its position, press downfirmly on it. (You’ll also be press-ing down firmly on it before youspray your next set of flames.)


52 STEP 12: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 1


FIG 112

FIG 113

FIG 114

Before replacing the masking for the first set offlames, I remove the masking on the second set offlames. I prefer doing this in certain situations toavoid accidentally overlapping the masking.

FIG 112 also shows a piece of masking that’s been cut. Over the years,I’ve learned to find workarounds - tricks to make it a little easier to placethe masking back into its correctposition, and cutting the mask-ing into sections is one of them.

Doing this can leave a gap asyou can see in FIG 112, so toremedy this, I simply placepieces of masking tape over anyareas that are exposed - to keeppaint from getting in there.However, I only cut masking likethis when I don’t need to lift thatmasking off anymore.

Thankfully, with this design, youdon’t have to be 100% precisewhen placing your masking backinto position because you havethe luxury of having the plastic tape as a border around your colors. Still,try to be as accurate as possible - otherwise, you may get some paint get-ting into a flame set that youdon’t want there. If that hap-pens, it’s very hard to fix; you’dhave to go and respray thatwhole flame set - and you reallydon’t want to do that. Be as pre-cise as possible, but know thatyou have a little bit of leeway.

If you weren’t able to save somepieces of your masking and youneed to cut new pieces, just laysome masking tape over anarea that needs to be maskedas I’m doing in FIG 115. Cutyour new mask and be sure tocut on top of the plastic tape.

When you’ve removed themasking for the second flameset, and you’ve put your masking back for the first flame set, your guitar


53STEP 12: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 1


FIG 116

FIG 115

Some of my masking got torn when removing it, so Ineeded to cut some new pieces of masking. To dothis, I just placed some strips of masking down and Icut on top of the plastic tape.

body should look something likeFIG 117 and 118.

When you’re ready, it’s on toStep 13.




FIG 118

FIG 117

You probably have a pretty goodidea of how to create a gradientnow that you’ve sprayed one setof flames.

What I’m going to suggest youdo when spraying this second setof flames is to change your gradi-ent; make this one deeper incolor; make it more red like I’vedone. This will create more of acontrast between both sets offlames and it’ll make the designfar more appealing to look at.

Later, when you’ve added thedrop shadow, the deeper colorsitting underneath will look betterwith more red in it.

If you want to take a practice runbefore attempting your gradient,then practice on some bristle-board prior to spraying the guitar.

If you’re doing a wrap-arounddesign, focus on doing one sideat a time rather than trying tospray and rotate the guitar tocover the entire guitar. That’schallenging and will probablylead to a messy spray job.

If you did roughly three passes for your first flame set, look to do a couplemore with your red color to deepen its shade.

I’ll remind you again to watch my video clips of me spraying my gradient.This will probably make you more confident just seeing me do it.

Remember to always spray bottom to top, and as you begin to reach thetop of the flames, your can should be further away than when you started.Further away = less paint = finer dots = better gradient.

When you’ve finished spraying your gradient, wait a full day before mask-ing up the body and beginning Step 14.




FIG 119

FIG 120

I sprayed the headstock at the same time as the guitar body so my gradients would be very similar.

One of the drawbacks to the fullsheets of masking that I used tocover the front and back of theguitar is that it’s not quite assticky as normal masking tape.That can be good when you’reworried about pulling up paintwhen removing your masking;however, in this case, it meantthat it would not stay down onthe body - the edges kept lifting.With this masking, what happensis, the masking loses its tacki-ness once it’s been laid and liftedoff. Rather than risk having paintbleed underneath the masking, Ijust covered the body with stripsof the 3” white masking tape (seeFIG 121) and cut out the areasthat needed to be covered. But,as you can see in FIG 121, Iremoved the areas that weregoing to be sprayed black first -then I laid down my maskingtape, and cut out what I needed.

So, for those of you who thoughtthat it must be so much easier tohave those full sheets of mask-ing, it didn’t really work out forme, did it? Sometimes, there areno easy roads when painting gui-tars; some things are meant tobe difficult.

I’ve said this already a few times,but it bares repeating: in order topaint guitars well, you need topay attention to details and youcan’t rush things. Every step I’velaid out is just as important asthe next step or the previousstep. Do a poor job on any one




FIG 121

FIG 122

FIG 123

step and your paint work will suf-fer. So, always take your time.It’ll pay off in the end.

Once your masking is back ontop of the second set of flames,you’re ready to proceed.

If you need to cut some newpieces like I had to do, then goahead and do that.

When your guitar looks like minein FIG 123, you’re ready for Step15.


57STEP 14: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 2


FIG 124

For a small area like the headstock, the maskinggoes back into place quite easily.

There’s nothing difficult about sprayingthe black.

Before you start, make sure to do twothings: 1. shake your can of paint wellbefore spraying and 2. make sure thatall of your masking tape is securely inplace to eliminate bleed-throughs. Justgo over all of it - pressing it down firmly.

Remember - you want to apply thincoats to avoid runs.

Because you’ve been holding yourspray can so far away to create yourgradient, you may find that you’re stillholding your can further away than nor-mal when you start to spray your black.That’s okay - your can is probably bet-ter to be too far away than too close.

I tend to hold my spray can roughly 10”from the guitar’s surface. On windydays, which I seem to get a lot of, Ihold my can closer (sometimes 6”away) and I speed up my tempo - toavoid too much paint being applied.

If you can avoid it, don’t paint on windydays - it can really mess up your gradi-ent.

Look to apply 4 -5 thin coats in order toget a nice, solid black. After your finalcoat, look it over to make sure that noyellow is showing through.

When all of your black coats havebeen applied, wait a full day before youstart removing the masking.

Step 16 is coming up.


58 STEP 15: SPRAYING THE BLACK


FIG 125

Starting my first coat of black.

FIG 126

Finishing my third coat of black.

FIG 127

For this step, we’re only going to beremoving parts of the masking - justthe flames that sit underneath. That’sbecause we’re going to create a dropshadow so it appears that the topflame is casting a shadow on the flameunderneath.

Before you begin removing the mask-ing, you should have the photo of yourflame design in the outline stage like Itold you to do in Step 10. The reasonis, you may look at all of the maskingon the body and not know what mask-ing needs to come off.

Using your photo of your guitar in itsoutline stage, print it out using yourprinter. Color in the flames that situnderneath like I’ve done in FIG 128using a pencil. Use this photo as yourguide so you know which pieces ofmasking need to come off. You don’twant to remove all of it - just the por-tions where we want to spray a dropshadow on top of it.

Remember - you’ll also need to removethe Plastic Tape from the flames that situnderneath because they will have adrop shadow on them as well.

By using a photo and/or print out ofyour design, you’ll be able to getthrough this step quite easily. If you’re“winging it,” you may remove a wrongpiece or forget to remove something,so do yourself a favor and use a photoand/or print out - or even a drawing ofyour design will do.

If, while removing the Plastic Tape, youfind that it’s not separating easily from the paint on the body, let it sit for anextra day. By then, it should separate nicely.

When all of the masking that needs to be removed is off, it’s on to Step 17.


59STEP 16: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 1


FIG 129

FIG 130

FIG 128Using the photo you took of your flamedesign in its outline stage, print it out usingyour printer. Using a pencil, shade the flamethat sits underneath. This will help you whenit comes time to remove the correct masking.

All of the big pieces of masking on the underflame have been removed, but I still need toremove the plastic tape on the flames thatwill have a drop shadow. I also need to cut anew piece of masking for the top corner.

When removing Plastic Tape, pull slowly,and pull back, not up. Pulling up could pullup paint with the tape. Pulling back sepa-rates the tape from the paint nicely.

Creating the drop shadow is what makesthis design look so cool. However, youdon’t necessarily have to do the drop shad-ow - that’s totally up to you.

This design will still look good without theshadow, so whatever you decide, go with it.

I’m going to assume that you are going todo the drop shadow, so let me get to whatneeds to be explained. Before I do that,though - I have a small confession tomake: for my drop shadow, I used my air-brush and sprayed the drop shadow free-hand; however, using the method that I’mgoing to show you, you’ll still get some-thing that looks really good and very close.

To start, the masking that’s left on yourbody should be down firmly on the guitar,so before you start to spray, just make surethat nothing is lifting - otherwise, you couldget paint bleeding underneath - and youdon’t want that.

The easiest way to create these drop shad-ows is to use fresh masking tape to cut theshapes you need. I would also suggest thatyou MAY want to do one shadow at a time.The reason is, this is THE trickiest part ofthe whole job. So, by doing one at a timerather than trying to do them all, you’ll havebetter success. Again - this will be totally upto you and your confidence level. If you’retaking your time and feel that you’ve donegreat thus far, then by all means, use thefollowing method and do all of the shadowsat one time. If you’re worried that you mayruin what you’ve done, then simply do oneat a time.

FIG 131 through 135 shows me working onthe drop shadow for the flame on the veryend of the body. I begin by placing a piece ofmasking tape in an area where a drop shad-ow will sit (see FIG 132). Using a pencil, I


60 STEP 17: SPRAYING THE DROP SHADOW


FIG 131

FIG 132

FIG 133

draw in the shadow - roughly 1/4” from theedge of the masking and the area that I’ll becutting out (see FIG 133).

When I have my shape drawn in, I removethat piece of masking tape and cut it out onmy cutting board. Then, once it’s cut, I placeit back into its position (see FIG 134).

I recommend that you remove your piecesof masking tape and cut them out on a cut-ting board to avoid a visible edge on thatshadow area.

FIG 135 shows my guitar body completelymasked up except for that one drop shadow.If you do one drop shadow at a time, you’llneed your body to be entirely covered eachtime you spray a shadow. If you’re going todo all of the drop shadows at the same time,then, other than the drop shadows, yourbody will still need to be entirely masked up.

Here, I’m using sheets of paper rather thanmasking tape. I prefer not to use too muchmasking tape to cover large areas of thebody if I don’t have to. There’s always thechance that the masking tape could pull upsome of the paint if you pull too quickly, so Iuse paper to reduce the chances of pullingpaint off.

FIG 136 shows my drop shadow. Yourscan look very similar to this.

Spraying The Drop Shadow

Whether you spray one shadow at a time,or you spray the entire side all at once, theidea is going to be the same as when yousprayed your gradient; your spray canneeds to be roughly 2 feet away (24 inch-es) from the body. You want a fine mist ofpaint hitting the body - not a somewhatsolid color. Also - you only want to sprayjust a few seconds on the exposed areas.


61STEP 17: SPRAYING THE DROP SHADOW


FIG 134

FIG 135

FIG 136

You still want to be able to see the original colors with just a hint of black tothem. But, because you’re spraying as far away as 24 inches, the paint willcontain fine dots, so the build up of black should be minimal.

For a sample of how to spray the drop shadow, check out my video clips.

This step is not nearly as difficult as it may seem. The tricky part is makingsure that the areas that need a drop shadow are exposed and everythingelse is covered.

When all of your drop shadows have been sprayed, wait at least one hourbefore moving to Step 18.


62 STEP 17: SPRAYING THE DROP SHADOW


Now that you’ve waited at least an hour since spraying your drop shadows,it’s time to remove the masking from the body.

Keep in mind that this will be yourcompleted guitar without any clear,so you want to handle it very care-fully while removing the final mask-ing. Rest the guitar on towels or onstyrofoam, or some other soft sur-face to avoid accidentally bangingthe body and chipping the paint.

FIG 137 shows that I somehowbanged my body and chipped thepaint, but I have no idea when orwhere I did it. Nonetheless, it stillneeded to be touched up, so I’ll getto touch-ups shortly.

While removing the masking, I nor-mally like to remove the maskingtape that sits on top of the PlasticTape first, then peel off the PlasticTape - pulling back slowly, not up.

Again, while removing the PlasticTape, if you find that it’s not separat-ing easily from the paint on the body,let it sit for an extra day. It’s better tolet it sit than trying to force it tocome off.

When you’ve removed all of thetape, you’re ready to begin Step 19.


63STEP 18: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 2


FIG 137

FIG 139

FIG 138

With the top masking removed, I moved toremoving the plastic tape covering the yellowflame outlines. I’m resting the body on styro-foam to avoid scratching the paint.

Some paint jobs come out absolutely perfect with no touch-ups needed -like my Buzzsaw project which you can see on the video page. I like thosejobs!

However, sometimes, touch-ups areinevitable. In all honesty, I knew thatI would have to do some touch-upson the yellow flame outlines simplybecause my Plastic Tape had thoselittle bends in them - and thatallowed the paint to sort of find itsway in underneath.

I also had the little chip of paint onthe back of the body that needed tobe touched up.

To fix paint that bleeds through undertape, most of the time, I’ll use my X-Acto knife with a brand-new blade.Using the tip and holding the bladeso it’s almost resting on the body(see FIG 140), I’ll very carefullyscrape off the paint that has bledthrough. Most of the time, it onlytakes a few scrapes with the knifeand all of the paint will come off.Occasionally, you’ll have to scrape alittle more than you want and someof your base coat may come off, sojust be cautious when doing this sortof fix. If you scrape through the basecoat, you can always touch it up withpaint, but still - I’m always carefulnot to overdo it - and you shouldthink that way, too.

FIG 141 shows a flame tip that’s hadsome paint bleeds scraped. Afterwiping it off (see FIG 142), it looksgood as new.

Not all fixes will be done this way.Sometimes, you’ll need to applysome paint for your fix.


64 STEP 19: PAINT TOUCH-UPS


FIG 140Using the tip of a sharp knife blade, I very care-fully scrape off the paint that bled through.

FIG 141

FIG 142

When using lacquers, you can’t real-ly brush on the paint in a back andforth motion because new lacquerloosens previous lacquer coats so itall binds together to make one coat.

So, if you wanted to apply some redpaint to fix an edge where white andred were meeting, what you mightend up with is pink - instead of red, ifyou tried brushing the paint on in atypical fashion. That’s because thered is loosening the white and caus-ing them to mix together. The endresult is pink rather than red.

When you need to touch up an areawith paint, here’s how I do it:

I begin by spraying some of the colorI need into the lid from the can. I mixup the paint in the lid and make surethat there’s a good drop on mybrush to start.

I dab the paint on and push it intoposition, but I make sure that I’m notallowing my brush to sink throughthe drop of paint I’m applying; if itsinks through, chances are, I’ll touchthe paint underneath and loosen it -that’s when the mixing will start.

As you dab on the paint, it may looklike it’s sitting higher than the otherpaint, but most often, that’s just tem-porary. Wait an hour or so, and you’llsee that the drop of paint will flattenout.

When all of your touch-ups are com-plete, it’s now time to move on to Step 20. However, as you’ll see, I wasn’tquite done with touch-ups just yet! There were more to come.


65STEP 19: PAINT TOUCH-UPS


FIG 143

FIG 144

The front with completed paint work.

The back with completed paint work.

As we’re closing in on the end of the paint portion of this project, hopefullyyou’re happy with what you’ve accomplished thus far. The good news is,this step is probably the easiest of all of the steps.

Applying Lacquer Clear Coats

All you’ll be doing for this step isapplying clear coats - severalcoats... 20-25 thin coats, to beexact. You may be wondering,why so many? Well, if you look atyour body, you’ll notice that theblack is sitting higher than theflames. To get rid of that ridge,we need to build up the clearcoats so that, when we sand thebody back down flat, the ridgeswill disappear.

Although 20-25 coats sounds likea lot of paint, it’s not. 30 coats ofpaint from a can of aerosol paintis equal to roughly 5-7 coats ofpaint sprayed through a spraygun/compressor.

Aerosol paint is probably 70% thinner/reducer. This evaporates very quicklyafter spraying it on. Its purpose is to allow the paint to flow freely throughthat tiny nozzle. If the mixture was 70% paint to 30% thinner, the paintwould get clogged in the nozzle.

Although it may sound complicated, it’s not. Once you’ve completed the gui-tar, you’ll understand just how important the 20-25 coats of clear actually are.

Before you begin spraying the clear, have a look at the body to make surethere are no bits of dust or debris on the surface. If you find anything, care-fully remove it so that it doesn’t get trapped underneath the clear. You canuse a can of compressed air, if you have one. You can also blow into thecavities as well. You can use the sticky side of some masking tape to lift lit-tle bits of debris off your body, too. Once you start spraying on the clear,anything that was on the body that didn’t get removed will always be there.

In fact, before spraying each coat of clear, always inspect the body andremove any bits of debris that may’ve settled on the finish - that includeswater or grease. Make sure your body is completely dry before spraying.


66 STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 145

On this particular day, it was rather windy when Iwas spraying the clear coats. To compensate, I holdmy spray can a little closer to the guitar body and mytempo is a little quicker.

As you’re already familiar with how to paint, follow the same technique youused earlier when spraying the primer and base coats. Begin by holdingthe guitar in one hand whileyou spray with the other (seeFIG 145).

For your first four coats, Iwant you to apply “dustcoats.” What are dust coats,you ask? They’re exactly that.A dusting of clear.

If you apply too much clearon your first coat, you maynotice that your colors run-ning into eachother. That’sbecause the new coatloosens the old coats - andthat can cause the colors torun. To prevent this, simply press down the nozzle and spray a light dustingof clear over the entire guitar - to “lock” the colors in place. Do this for thefirst four coats. On the fifth coat, you can resume how you would normallyspray your coats; heavier than a dust coat, but still a thin coat. Watch myvideo clips for help on dust coats.

When you begin to spray your regular coats, run your first pass across leftto right, followed by the next pass right to left, the next left to right, etc.,overlapping each pass by roughly 50%. Zig-zag your way up the entirebody and over the entire guitar.

For the next coat, go in the opposite direction; up and down, down and up,etc., again, always overlapping each pass by roughly 50%.

Allow ample time between each coat for proper drying. Check the can’slabel for recommended drying time between coats.

When you’ve finished applying the 20-25 coats of clear (which should takeyou a few days to do), you’ll probably notice that the finish has an orangepeel look/texture to it like the guitar in FIG 146. Don’t worry about that -that’s not how the guitar will look when you’re done.

Also, after you’ve applied all of the coats of clear, the ridge of different lev-els of color will still be evident, so don’t worry about that. It’s not until yousand the clear coats that this ridge will go away.

When applying your coats, don’t be concerned with any coats that don’t


67STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 146

Here’s a close-up of the orange peel that is commonwhen spraying several coats of paint. As the paint buildsup, it develops a dimply appearance.

have a nice, consistent look to them. Allof that will get fixed later.Step 22 eliminates the orange peel lookand gets rid of all irregularities in thepaint.

Applying Catalyzed Urethane ClearCoats

If you’re using the AEROMAX 2-Stageclear, or something similar, you won’tneed to apply nearly as many coats asyou do when using aerosol lacquers.

However, here’s what you need to knowabout applying urethanes: A new coatdoesn’t bind to previous coats the sameway that lacquers do. So, when applyingcoats, you want to apply a new coat whilethe previous coat is still a little tacky.

Here’s how I typically apply my urethaneclear coats:

DAY 1Apply 2 tack coats - or dust coats -roughly 2 minutes between each coatApply 3 wet coats (medium coats) - rough-ly 5 minutes between each coat

DAY 2Sand the body down using 320-grit dry -no water. It’s necessary to remove theshine from the finish and to create a tex-ture (or a tooth) to the surface for the newcoats to stick to.Apply 2 tack coats - or dust coats -roughly 2 minutes between each coatApply 3 wet coats (medium coats) -roughly 5 minutes between each coat

Normally, this is enough clear, but thereare times when I need to apply a littlemore. So, I’ll just repeat what I did on Day2 for Day 3.


68 STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 147

FIG 148

To activate the hardener into the clear,begin by removing the red disk on the topof the can.

FIG 149

Resting the can on a flat surface like atable, turn the can upside-down and placethe red disk onto the valve on the bottomof the can.

Time Between Coats Is Very Important

Although my time between medium wetcoats is roughly 5 minutes, this is some-thing that is hard to determine for everysituation - especially when you spray out-side like I do. Temperature and humiditycan really change your flash time betweencoats, so if you’re going to use urethanes,you have to be on top of how your paint isdrying when you’re applying it.

Do a couple of tests to determine when acoat is still tacky and when it’s dry. Spraya coat and allow it to dry - but check itever minute by pressing your finger into it.Time this coat and watch when the coathas completely dried. You want to be ableto spray your next coat on your guitarwhile the previous coat is still tacky. Using this test will give you an idea ofhow much time to wait between coats. The clear shouldn’t be wet - justslightly tacky.

When all of your clear coats have been applied, it’s on to Step 21.


69STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 150

Using your palm, press down on the reddisk. This will release the hardener intothe clear. Once it’s been released, shakethe can for a minimum of two minutes tomake sure that the hardener has beenthoroughly mixed into the clear.

PLEASE NOTE: For lacquers, I’ve stated that you need to apply 20-25coats of clear. If you apply enough paint per coat, 20 coats should do -maybe even less. But, most people have a tendency to apply too littlepaint per coat, so in that case, 25 coats should do. Watch my videoclips for guidance on how much paint is enough for each coat.

IMPORTANT: It’s always better to spray too little paint than too muchpaint. Drips and runs can sometimes be very tricky to fix, so that’s whyit’s imperative that you train yourself not to overdo how much paint youapply per coat.

IMPORTANT: If you’re going to use AEROMAX 2K Clear, once thehardener has been activated, you need to use all of the clear within a24-hour period - or it’ll harden in the can and it won’t be useable.Typically, you should be able to get about 7 medium coats out of it - orenough for the first two days as noted above. If additional clear isneeded, you’ll need to purchase an additional can. To lengthen theshelf-life of this clear, place it in the fridge. To reuse, let it sit for an houror so at room temperature before spraying.

Before you begin with the all-important step of wetsanding the clear coats,you’re going to have to do something even more important than that -you’re going to have to let your body sit for 2-3 months without doing any-thing to it.

I know, I know - I realize that you’re anxious to get it done. But, here’s whatyou need to know: Lacquer takes time to settle. Although it dries quickly, ittakes time for it to harden properly.

If you were to start with the wet-sanding right away, in a matter of a fewweeks, you would’ve noticed that the perfect sanding and buffing job youhad done is no longer perfect - that’s because the paint was still settling.

In other words, your perfect job would no longer be perfect.

As much as I know it’s goingto drive you crazy not beingable to finish the body, try toremain strong and trust whatI’m telling you. I ruined sever-al guitars in my early dayssimply because I was not will-ing to be patient and let thepaint settle.

From what I’ve been told,Gibson lets their guitars sit for6+ months before sandingand buffing.

If you can remain strong andwait out the 2-3 months, yourfinish will be that much betterbecause of it.

The benefit with using theurethane enamel along withthe AEROMAX 2K clear isthat there really is no waitingperiod. It can be sanded and buffed in a matter of a few days.

So, whether you used lacquer or you used urethanes, when you’re readyto proceed, move on to Step 22.


70 STEP 21: LETTING THE PAINT SETTLE


FIG 151

Here are some other guitars I was painting at the sametime as HOT ROD. During the day, I let them hang in thegarage. At night, when it’s cold, I bring them inside tohang. Extreme temperatures can cause the paint to crack,so be aware of where you’re letting your guitar sit to set-tle. 70 degrees is the ideal temperature.

Now that you’ve applied all of your coatsof clear, and allowed the paint to hardenfor the recommended period, you won’tneed to hang the body anymore, so it’stime to remove the stick.

If you inserted a shim when you appliedthe stick, this will make it easier for youto separate the stick from the body.

Before you remove the stick, make surethat if the clear has built up on the side ofthe stick where it meets the body, use yourX-Acto knife to score the edge (cut finely)where they meet to avoid pulling any ofthe finish off as you remove the stick.

Score it a few times so that when youremove the screws and stick, it sepa-rates easily from the body.

If you left a gap so your stick wasn’ttouching your body, it should removevery easily.

If you used a bolt like I did, begin byuntightening your nut or wing nut fromthe bolt, then flip the guitar over. Makesure you score around the bolt or washerwhere it meets the finish like I’m doing inFIG 153. If you were to try and force thebolt out, if could pull off a lot of the finish.Scoring it prevents you from doing that.

Once you’ve scored around the bolt orwasher, push the bolt through like I’vedone in FIG 154. Once it’s out, use your X-Acto knife to pry up the washer.

If you find that you’re unable to do any work on your body for an extendedperiod of time, I suggest that you put the stick back on and hang the body.Don’t rest it against anything when you’re not working on it.

This is just a precaution so that nothing happens to the finish while you’retaking a break. When you’re finished, let’s move on to Step 23.


71STEP 22: REMOVING THE STICK


FIG 152

FIG 153

FIG 154

Just when you thought that spraying the clear coats was going to be cru-cial to the success of your paint job, along comes Step 23!

Yup - This is THE step that most novices have the hardest time under-standing... that includes me when I first started painting guitars in 1983.

During this step, we are going tosand the body back down to adull, flat finish, eliminating allbumps and ridges.

You may think that you’re ruiningyour paint job by doing this;actually, nothing could be furtherfrom the truth.

If you do an excellent job withthis step, and with all of the priorsteps, your body will shine likeyou never thought possible.

Before I begin my sanding, I’mgoing to put my bridge sleevesback into their holes. The reasonI’m doing this now is becauselater, when my finish has beenbuffed to a nice, glossy finish, Idon’t want to risk accidentallyscratching it when putting thesesleeves back in. It can happenvery easily.

To put my sleeves back in, Iplace them into the holes withthe stud inside (see FIG 155).With a piece of wood placed ontop of the sleeve/stud, I use a rub-ber mallet to hammer them care-fully back into their holes (see FIG156) - making sure they’re in slightly below the surface of the body. Thatway, when sanding, I won’t have any obstacles such as a protruding sleeveto deal with. Now, although I removed my sleeves and put them back in,this is always risky.

What you need to watch out for if you do this is, around each hole, theexcess finish may make your hole’s opening slightly smaller. If that is


72 STEP 23: WETSANDING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 156

On this particular day, it was rather windy when Iwas spraying the clear coats. To compensate, I holdmy spray can a little closer to the guitar body and mytempo is a little quicker.

FIG 155

what’s happened, use a round file,and with a careful touch, file gentlydownward on a slight angle toremove any excess finish. Don’t pullthe file back upwards - use onlydownstrokes. When you’ve widenedthe holes, you’re safe to hammeryour sleeves back in.

With my sleeves are in, I’m ready tobegin sanding the clear coats. Forthis design, the black sits higher thanthe other colors, so that’s where I’llbegin my sanding (see FIG 157). Iwant to try and begin leveling theridges created by the multiple colors,so it makes the most sense to beginin the area that sits the highest, bringthat down, then work to even it outwith everything else.

Using 320-grit without water initially,I’m going to sand down the entireguitar - starting with the top, thenmoving to the sides, then finally, theback. During this initial sanding, mygoal is to level the finish on the bodyso I have a completely flat surface.RIDGES BE GONE!

To begin sanding, I’ll use one of mysanding blocks with a piece of the320-grit sandpaper wrapped aroundit, like the one in FIG 157. (Sides ofthe guitar are always done by hand.)If you have any runs in your clearcoats, be sure to jump to Step 25before you begin your sanding.

As I stated, I begin my sanding on theblack areas of the body first. I sand ina circular motion for some of it, butbecause of the body’s shape, some-times that’s not possible, so I maysand in a back and forth motion aswell. Right now, initially, I’m not going to try and even it out right away; it’s a


73STEP 23: WETSANDING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 157

FIG 158

FIG 159

As you can see, there are still lots of shinyspots on the body. With a little more sanding,these will all disappear.

After leveling most of the body, there was onesmall spot that was still shiny, so for this area, Itore off a small piece of sandpaper and workedthat area by hand.

gradual thing. I’ll work in small areas,but I move around rather quickly - try-ing to level it all evenly rather thanfocusing on just one area.

As my black areas get sanded anddulled, I’ll work my way over to wherethey meet the flames and work onleveling the black side where it meetsthe flames - because as I stated - theblack area sits higher than the flamesdo. Leveling the black area, orremoving the ridge, is just a matter ofsanding back and forth from the blackarea right over the flame area. Ifthere’s any hint of a shiny spot, sev-eral passes over this area shouldremove the shiny spot and removethe ridge .

As you’re doing your sanding, you’regoing to notice that your body will getquite scratched up from this first sand-ing with the 320-grit. This is normal,but this is why it’s necessary to sandwith all of these grits: 320, 400, 600,800, 1000, 1500, 2000, and possiblyeven 2500 and higher. The higher yougo with the grits of sandpaper, themore scratches you’ll eliminate, andthe easier it’ll be to buff the body to abeautiful, glossy shine. In fact, it’salmost effortless. (If you only sand upto 600 or 800, you’ll need to use botha rubbing compound, then a swirlremover during the buffing step. You’llalso spend a lot longer with the buff-ing step if you only sanded up to 600or 800-grit.)

When sanding, I let the paper domost of the work. I don’t press toohard as I’m sanding. I let the grit ofthe paper do the work. When younotice that your paper is not quite removing enough of the finish, it’s time toput on a fresh piece and resume.




FIG 160

I did the same on a few other areas that werestill shiny. These areas, I’m also doing by hand.

FIG 161

Contours get done by hand.

FIG 162

As do the sides.

Because all of the leveling is donewith the 320-grit (and 400-grit), you’llmost likely use more of that grit thanthe other grits. I normally go through2-3 sheets of 320 during this sanding.For the other grits, I normally use lessthan one full sheet - plenty left overfor future guitars.

When I think I’m close to being fin-ished leveling out my body’s surface,this is when I introduce water to thesanding. With the addition of water onthe body, you’ll be able to seewhether your ridges are completelygone or not. Sometimes, it’s harder totell when you haven’t used any water.

To apply water to the body, I use a lit-tle spray bottle. You don’t have to usea spray bottle as I didn’t mention it inthe list of items you’ll need. You canjust as easily scoop some water froma bowl and rub it on the body and go.The spray bottle is just convenientwhich is why I use it.

When applying water to your body,always avoid getting water in any ofthe holes. The water could swell thewood and that could cause the finishto crack - and, you obviously don’twant that to happen. When applyingwater, add it to the edge of the body,then with your sandpaper, wipethrough it and move to the area youneed to sand. This way, you’ll avoidaccidentally getting water in the holes.

Every few minutes, stop and removethe excess water and inspect the sur-face. if you notice areas of the finishthat are still shiny while most of itappears dull (see FIG 164), you stillhave some orange peel or ridge left,so keep sanding.




FIG 163

Be very careful when sanding the bevel, orrounded sides of your body. For this body,because it has a 1/4” bevel, I used a 400-gritpaper to sand the edges very carefully. If youhave a bevel that’s more square - like a 1/8”,use nothing coarser than a 600-grit - to preventsanding through.

FIG 164

It looks like hell right now, but soon enough,this body will be all flattened out.

FIG 165

Remember - your goal with the 320-grit is to achieve a perfectly flat sur-face, so you have to eliminate allshiny spots; these are the areas thatare sitting lower than the rest of thepaint. As you wetsand, you’re remov-ing excess clear coating to help evenout the finish. This is why it wasimportant that you apply 20+ coats ofclear; it’s unlikely that you’ll sandthrough to the paint with this manycoats of clear on the body. Whenyou’re all finished with your wetsand-ing, you’ll probably have just about 4-5 coats of clear left - and that’s plenty.

When I’ve gotten my body sandedsmooth and I think that all of theridges are gone, I can move to the400-grit.

Before I move to the 400-grit, though,I perform a very simple test: I closemy eyes and rub my finger over theguitar body - small sections at a time(I make sure the body’s dry like FIG166). What this test does is it takesout the visual and allows me to FEELwhether the different levels of painthave been evened out. As I rub myfinger over the flame area and intothe black, if it isn’t leveled out, I’ll feelmy finger dip slightly as I movearound the body. If I feel this, I goback to wetsanding until I don’t feelthat dip anymore.

This “feel” test is something you cando on ALL of your project guitars.Whether it’s just a 2-color job or a 7-color job, the finger doesn’t lie! If it’s flat, it’ll feel flat; if there are ridges,you’ll feel the ridges.

So, once I pass my “feel” test, I’m ready to move on to 400-grit. My goal withthis grit is simply to reduce the amount of scratches left on the body from the320-grit. I add a spray of water from my spray bottle and begin sanding - but




FIG 166

Before you jump to 400-grit paper, do the fingertest: close your eyes and rub your finger overthe body - feeling for a level finish. The fingerdoesn’t lie. As you pass over the different areasof color, if your finger doesn’t dip as you movealong, then you’ve done a great job of levelingyour surface.

FIG 167

Do the “finger test” on both sides. If your fingerdips slightly, then continue to sand until it nolonger dips.

this time, I don’t have to start in theblack area; my body’s been leveled soI can start anywhere I want. Also,from here on out, I don’t really use asanding block anymore simplybecause the body has been leveled.

When I sand, I always work in smallareas - roughly 4” X 4”, but I movequickly around the whole body; I don’tstay in one area for too long. I like toeven out the finish and reduce theamount of scratches in a gradual way- rather than working in one area, fix-ing that area, then moving on. Forme, it’s sort of like building a wall withbricks; it makes more sense to addthe bricks along a line and build thewall row-by-row rather than buildingup just one small section at a time.Always be very careful when sandingon the edges of a body. If yourbeveled edges (or rounded sides) areroughly 1/4”, which is what a Strathas, you can probably sand with a400-grit, but It’s extremely easy to gothrough to the paint and primer andright to the wood when sanding onthe edges if you’re not careful (as youwill see in just a few minutes). Paintjust doesn’t get built up on the edgesthe way it does on the flat parts of thebody. If your beveled edges areroughly 1/8”, use nothing coarserthan a 600-grit. In other words, do not use a 220, 320, or 400 grit on theedges - you’ll sand through. Sand in one direction and be GENTLE.

Every time you introduce a new, finer grit to your wetsanding, you’ll findthat as you sand, it’ll have a scratchy sound to it - telling you how manyscratches are still left on the body. You’ll also be able to feel it, too, as yousand. As you spend several minutes with your new grit, you’ll find that thescratchy sound is less obvious, meaning that you’re reducing the scratchesas you’re wetsanding. That’s good. However, as you switch to an evenfiner grit, the scratchy sound will be back. But, as you continue wetsandingwith this new, finer grit, it’ll once again become less noticeable.




FIG 168

When you have scratches like the ones shownhere, you should work to remove as much ofthis as you can - using the different grits ofsandpaper. If you don’t try and remove these,they will still be visible after you’re done buffing.

FIG 169

Once my body has been leveled, I continue towetsand with th higher grits, but I no longer usea sanding block.

That’s why it’s imperative that youreally spend the time to wetsand prop-erly - and that means, taking yourtime and doing it right. If you try andblow through it just so you can buff,you’re only cheating yourself. Your fin-ish will look SO much better if you justspend the time. That may mean 20minutes or more with each grit afteryour initial sanding with the 320-grit.This is where patience really comesinto play. If you thought waiting foryour finish to harden was tough, thisis equally as tough. But, if you findyourself getting impatient, just keeptelling yourself - you’ve waited thislong, what’s another few hours.

When you’ve completed the body withthe 400-grit, move to the 600-grit anddo the same thing again. Once you’vegone over the entire body with the600-grit for at least 20 minutes, or untilthe scratchy sound is less noticeable, Irecommend following that up with aneven finer grit like 800 (or 1000) tohelp reduce surface scratches. Usinga 1000-grit and a 1500-grit after the800-grit will produce a nice, smoothsurface with a dull shine to it that,when buffed, will give you a virtuallyscratch-free factory finish. In fact, ifyou wetsand with 1500-grit or higher,your body will buff up so fast, it’llSCARE YOU.

Remember - the most crucial part ofthe wetsanding work you do will bedone with the 320-grit. The 320-grit iscoarse enough to even out the ridgeswhereas the other grits are really morefor finishing and eliminating scratches.

Once again, take your time with this -look to spend a good 2-3 hours doingthe wetsanding.




FIG 170

When sanding the beveled edges of your body,sand in one direction and be GENTLE to avoidsanding through. If your beveled edge is 1/4” -like a Stratocaster, use a 400-grit. For a 1/8”bevel, such as a Jackson Soloist body, use a600-grit, but be very CAREFUL.

FIG 171

After I finished my wetsanding with 1500-grit,my body was close to scratch-free and it alsohad a dull shine to it.

FIG 172

When wetsanding with 1500-grit, dry off yourbody, then rub water onto the surface. This willgive you an idea of what your finish will looklike when buffed.

You can, if you choose, wetsand with even higher grits such as 2000, 2500,3000, 4000, etc. All of these grits will help to eliminate surface scratcheseven more and polish your finish at the same time. However, you’ll only findthese grits at an auto paint supply store.

When you’ve completed the wetsanding process, you’re ready to move on.Thankfully, there’s no 2-3 month wait to move on to the next step.







IMPORTANT POINT: When you begin wetsanding, if you find that the320-grit is not evening out the paint as well as you want it to, you canswitch to a 220-grit, but be very careful; this WILL even out the paintvery quickly. However, it’ll also be easier to go through the clear to thepaint, so adjust the pressure as you use the 220-grit - you won’t haveto press nearly as hard as with the 320-grit. Avoid using 220-grit on theedges of the body - use it only on the top (and the back, if you contin-ued the pattern on the back).

IMPORTANT POINT: Pay very close attention as you’re doing this finalsanding. If you see color starting to appear on your sandpaper at anytime, stop immediately. Dry your guitar body off using some 100% cot-ton. When it’s completely dried, you’ll have to put more coats of clearback on the body. Look to put another 5 - 8 coats on, just to be safe.When the additional clear coats having been applied, wait at least twoweeks before resuming with the wetsanding.

RECAP: Wetsanding is THE step that determines how scratch-freeyour finish will be. So, here’s a recap: 320 and 400-grit even out thelayers of paint and get rid of the orange peel, but they also scratch upthe finish a lot. In order to get rid of those scratches, you need to gothrough each grit to get rid of them. So, as you begin with a 600-gritafter your paint has been leveled, you can hear that it sounds veryscratchy when wetsanding. As you go over the entire body and spend agood 20 minutes or so, it'll become less evident.

However, as soon as you jump to the next grit - let's say 800, you'llhear the scratchiness once again. So, you need to continue to wetsanduntil that’s not so obvious - no matter how long. This tells you howscratched up your finish is, and the only way to remove the scratches isto continue to wetsand. Same for all of the other grits. By the time youget to 1500 and 2000, (or 2500, if you want to go up that high), youneed to spend an equal amount of time with each grit, getting rid of thedeep scratches and getting rid of the abrasive sound when wetsanding.The better a job you do with each grit, the more scratch-free your finishwill be.

It's really hard to explain wetsanding and to teach you to know whenenough is enough because it's really hard to tell how scratched up yourbody is until you buff. This is why it's crucial that you apply 20+ coats ofclear. When wetsanding, you're removing a lot of it to even it out.Spend the time to do a great job with all of the grits and you can expecta close-to-scratch-free-finish.

As I touched on it a few minutes ago,it’s very EASY to sand through onthe beveled edges of your body andneck - and that’s EXACTLY what Idid it on the edge of the headstock. Isanded through the black so thatsome of the yellow was showingthrough. Rather than leave it likethat, I had to touch it up.

It’s a relatively simple fix, so here’show I did it:

I masked up the entire headstock andonly left the areas that needed to besprayed black exposed (see FIG 173).Holding the headstock flat, I shook mycan of paint for a good minute, heldthe neck a good foot away, thenpressed the nozzle once, paused for30 seconds, pressed the nozzleagain, paused for 30 seconds, etc.,until the black was solid in that area.

I left the masking on for an hour,then removed it. It was obviouswhere I had touched up the blackbecause it appeared darker than therest of the black. However, onceclear got applied over top of theentire headstock, this fix wasn’tnoticeable at all.

It’s never fun sanding through yourfinish. The good news is that some-times, it’s easy to fix - as this fix was.For more complicated fixes, I will, mostof the time, mask up the entire body and fix anything - whether it be com-plicated or simple.

As I mentioned earlier, you have to be really careful on the beveled edges,so obviously, I wasn’t careful enough, and paid the price.

Let that be a good lesson for you!

Okay - now it’s onto Step 25.


81STEP 24: PAINT TOUCH-UPS - PART 2


FIG 173

FIG 174

FIG 175

Time to touch up these sand-throughs.

FIXED! Now, more clear needs to be applied,then wetsanded flat before buffing.

If you’re fairly new to painting, it’s verylikely that you could get some runs asyou’re perfecting your technique.

At this point in my career (20+years), I very seldom ever get a runwith a spray can. If I do, it’s usuallyon the clear coats (that’s because I’mrushing it trying to get all of my coatson there so I can let it sit and settle).

When I do get one, here’s how I takecare of it: If the body was hangingand the drip was moving downwardtowards the ground, I sand in thatdirection.

In FIG 176, I’ve indicated wherethere’s a run. I rub in the direction therun is going using a small piece of320-grit wet/dry paper as in FIG 177.I’m using it dry. To bring the run downin size, I use just my thumb andsome light pressure, going slow andtaking care not to make it worse.

The yellow dotted lines indicatewhere I’m focusing in on; as the dripgets smaller, I then start to makelonger passes across it to minimizeit, stretching beyond the dotted yel-low lines.

In FIG 178, it’s almost gone. This fixtook only about a minute or two.

If you get a drip like this, try using this technique as your fix.

Also, perform the fix on runs before doing your main wetsanding. If yousand through when fixing, simply apply more clear and allow it to sit for aweek before continuing.


82 STEP 25: DEALING WITH A RUN


FIG 176

FIG 177

FIG 178

The beauty of this step is that, if youdid an excellent job with all of theprevious steps, especially, the wet-sanding step, this one will be a pieceof cake!

During this step, we’re going to bringback the shine to our body by hand-buffing it using the 3M Perfect-It llRubbing Compound Fine Cut.However, during the wetsandingstep, if you used a 1500-grit or high-er to finish your wetsanding, you canuse 3M’s Perfect-It ll FinishingCompound (Swirl Remover) andbypass the 3M’s Perfect-It ll RubbingCompound (Fine Cut).

You’re going to buff the body in asimilar fashion as wetsanding. You’regoing to work in small sections at atime, always trying to buff in a circu-lar motion. As the body starts toshine, I then start to work instraighter lines.

I always seem to start with the top ofthe guitar when buffing - probablybecause I’m anxious to see that shinecome to life!

To start, I apply some of the 3MRubbing Compound or SwirlRemover onto the body and, usingsome of the 100% cotton, I begin rub-bing in a circular motion. You’ll findthat the harder you rub, the deeperthe shine you’ll get. Again, don’t stayin one area too long; as one areastarts to shine, move to another areaand work that one up, too.

As you can see in FIG 181, the surfaceis starting to shine, but the scratches are still quite noticeable. With a littlemore effort in the buffing, though, these scratches will pretty much disappear.


83STEP 26: BUFFING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 179

3M makes two different Swirl Removers: onefor LIGHT colors and one for DARK colors. Ihaven’t noticed a difference using either ofthese, so I would recommend buying the onefor LIGHT colors.

FIG 180

Start with a good amount of compound on yourbody or neck.

FIG 181

I try to rub in a circular motion but that’s notalways possible.

Buffing by hand is hard work, soexpect your hand to get tired. Take asmany breaks as necessary. Again,there’s no rush to get this done. (Or isthere?) If you don’t finish all of thebuffing in one day, put it aside untilthe next day. If you do that, attachyour stick and hang it back up againto prevent anything happening to thefinish. If you used lacquer, the lacqueris still hardening, so resting it on a tex-tured surface can leave that surface’simpression in the finish. This is justthe drawback of lacquer.

When working on the back of the gui-tar, hold the body upright with onehand while you buff with the other. Youcan also hold it in your lap as you buff,which is what I prefer. Just be carefulwhere you rest the top of the guitar, asthere’s a chance you could scuff upthe buffing you just completed.

Same goes for the sides, too - holdthe body firmly with one hand whileyou buff with the other. If you wish,you can hold it on a firm, paddedsurface as you buff. Just pay atten-tion to what you’re resting it on - youdo not want to scuff up or damageareas that have already been buffed.

Also, when you’re buffing the sides, it’sdifficult to work in a circular motion, soI tend to go lengthwise along the sidein strokes of roughly 3 - 5”.

Expect this entire step to take atleast 2-3 hours. If it takes longer,don’t worry - it’s definitely going to beworth it.

When you’ve buffed up the shine to apoint where you don’t think it could


84 STEP 26: BUFFING THE CLEAR COATS


FIG 182

Although the headstock is starting to shine, itstill has a way to go before it’s as good as itcan be.

FIG 183

I will oftentimes use the palm of my hand torub back and forth to bring up the shine.

FIG 184

This finish is about as good as I can get.

FIG 181

After your first bit of buffing is done, you’ll mostlikely be able to see a lot of tiny scratches inyour finish. Continue to wetsand and these finescratches will pretty much disappear.

get any shinier (like the one in FIG186), and scratches are barely notice-able, congratulations on completingyour first professional guitar paint job!

Give yourself a pat on the back for ajob well done! You see?... That wasn’tso difficult, now, was it?

As a reminder, there’s plenty of videofootage of me performing many of thesteps throughout a paint job, so if youthink these will help, which I know thatthey will, check out the BONUSITEMS page at the back of the bookfor where to access the footage.


85STEP 26: BUFFING THE CLEAR COATS


IMPORTANT POINT: Although younow have a beautiful finish on yourbody, you’re going to have to payextra careful attention to where yourest the body over the next fewmonths after it’s all back together.As I mentioned earlier, paint takestime to cure and although you’vewaited at least two months to wet-sand and buff, some experts havetold me that paints, especially lac-quer, can take as long as 6 monthsto a year to completely cure.

So, I would stress that you DON’Trest your guitar in a guitar stand fora few months. If you do, you willnotice the weight of the body push-ing down on the foam-rubber armswill cause indents in your finish.Certain rubbers and plastics canalso SOFTEN a lacquered finish.Personally, I use my own inventioncalled, The Finish Protector™,which is part of this book. It pro-tects your newly finished guitaruntil the lacquer fully cures.

FIG 186

A perfect shine!

FIG 187

A perfect shine!

FIG 185

When buffing the sides, I usually hold the bodyunder one arm while I buff with the other hand.

Before we start, you need some basic tools to do the job right. The lastthing you want to do is use the wrong tools. That’s how accidents happen.

If you’re lacking in the tool department, Isuggest looking for something very simi-lar to one of following sets pictured in FIG188 and 189 - each will cost you roughly$10.00.

FIG 188 shows a screwdriver/socket set Ibought from ACE Hardware for $7.00. It’spretty much got everything you need toreassemble your guitar. Same for FIG 189,although it has less sockets, still, thisshould give you an idea of what you’llneed for reassembling. There may be afew other tools you may need, but thesewill cover 99% of the job.

Sockets are perfect for loosening andtightening your tuning pegs as well asloosening and tightening pots, and outputjacks.

It’s not often that you can get away withusing one screwdriver for disassemblingand reassembling your entire guitar(although I did), so that’s why it’s good tohave something that allows you tochange the tips.

Where To Begin

The one thing you have to keep in mindwhen reassembling your guitar is youhave to be extra careful not to bang it onanything. One other thing you have to watch for is to not let your screwdriv-er slip and gouge your finish. If you can do both of these things, reassem-bling should be easy to do.

When I’m assembling a guitar and putting on a new neck, or putting in anew bridge, the order in which I put the parts on will differ from how thisguitar will be done.


86 STEP 27: REASSEMBLING THE GUITAR


FIG 188

I picked up this screwdriver/socket setfrom ACE Hardware for $7.00. It’s perfectfor tuning pegs, pots, and output jacks. Italso has a screwdriver with several differ-ent tips.

FIG 189

Or, you can pick up something like thiswhich has both screwdriver with varioustips as well as sockets. I bought this forless than $10.00. This is pretty much allyou need for reassembling your guitar.

For this guitar, I’m merely reassembling it- because nothing new is being added toit, other than switching the chrome hard-ware to black.

However, one thing I did forget to do priorto painting is, I forgot to install the stringbar/string tree that sits behind the FloydRose nut. So, I’ll install that after I bolt onthe neck.

I’ll begin by laying down some paper tow-els that my guitar will rest on - I don’twant anything to happen to the finish atthis point. Before installing the neck, Ineed to drop the shim back into place.What does a shim do? A shim will changethe pitch of your neck and this can behandy; if you have a bridge such as aFloyd Rose, and you’ve lowered it as faras it will go, but your string’s action is stilltoo high, adding a shim into place willallow you to possibly raise up yourbridge, but still get a lower action thanyou already had. It may take you a fewtries before you find the right thickness ofshim, but typically, I use one that’s about1/32” - sometimes, 1/16”. It can be wood,but most often I use cardboard.

With my shim secure where it needs tobe, I place the neck into the pocket, thenflip the guitar onto its front. I’ll drop myneck plate into place (see FIG 191), thendrop the screws into place and handtighten them. From there, I’ll tighten themin a diagonal fashion; one in the back, then the one that sits diagonal fromit in the front. Then, follow that up with the second one in the back, thenfinally, the second one in the front. I make sure they’re good and tight, butI’m careful not to strip the screw heads. That’s why it’s important to use theright screwdriver - or the proper tip with your screwdriver.

Now that my neck is back on, I’ll move to the Floyd Rose nut, then I’ll


87STEP 27: REASSEMBLING THE GUITAR


FIG 190

FIG 191

FIG 192

install the string tree that I forgot to dobefore painting.

This Floyd Rose nut is a top-loaded nut,so you don’t have to drill through theneck to install it; you merely tighten twoscrews on top and it’s good to go (seeFIG 193).

Normally, when I drill into a new finish, Ilay down a piece of masking tape anddrill through the masking tape (see FIG195). The masking tape seems to keepthe finish from chipping.

FIG 194 shows a screw with a whitesemi-transparent line running through itslightly. When choosing a drill bit to pre-drill any hole, choose a bit that’s thesame thickness as the shaft of the screw.This will allow your screw to go in unhin-dered while the thread will hold it snuglyin place.

Before drilling the holes for my stringtree, I used a center punch and dentedthe finish so that the drill bit had a guideto follow - and to keep it from slipping. Acenter punch is one of those tools thatisn’t really a necessity; you can accom-plish the exact same thing using a normalnail - or even the tip of a screw - anythingto punch a small guide hole for the drill touse to keep it from slipping.

With my string tree installed, I moved toputting the tuning pegs back into place.As I mentioned already, I’m swapping thechrome hardware for black, but none ofthe hardware is any different; everythingis made by the same manufacturer - it’sjust a different color, so everything will goback into place without a problem.




FIG 193

FIG 195

FIG 196

FIG 194

Using one of my socket wrenches, I tight-ened all of the tuning pegs before flippingthe guitar over and putting the screwsback into place. The sockets are greatbecause they fit the top nut portion of thetuning peg perfectly, so it’s highly unlikelythat any finish will be scraped off whiledoing this.

The reason I mention that is because inmy early days of painting my own guitars(the early 80s), I didn’t have the righttools, so I would use anything I could getmy hands on (basically, my Dad’s tools).That meant sometimes using vise-gripsor a monkey wrench to tighten the topportion of the tuning pegs. And, sureenough, I’d accidentally scratch off someof the finish from the pegs. That’s why Istress that you use the RIGHT toolswhen assembling and disassembling.Don’t be an goofball like I was.

With my tuning pegs back on, it’s time toput back on some of the smaller partssuch as strap holders and bridge studs(see FIG 198). What can happen to holesis they get slightly covered by the newfinish. That’s why I always drill the holesprior to trying to put the screws back in;this prevents any potential problems - orpossible chipping of the finish.

Moving on to the pickup, I’m not using apickup ring for the guitar, but I do wantthe freedom to raise and lower the pickupso I can get it as close to the strings aspossible. The way to do this is to usesprings just as you would if you wereusing pickup rings. But instead of usingthe base of the pickup to raise and lowerthe height of the pickup, I’m using thebody itself to raise and lower the pickup.




FIG 197

FIG 198

FIG 199

FIG 200

To do this, you can use the actual screwsthat come with your pickup; even if theydon’t have a point to them, they will stillscrew into wood. otherwise, you’ll needsome long narrow screws. Screw themright through the holes on your pickup’smetal base, then place a spring on each(see FIG 199).

To install the pickup into the guitar, I holdthe pickup in such a way that I’m actuallyholding each spring in place with fingerswhile still holding the pickup in my palm(see FIG 200). With my other hand, Ifeed the pickup’s wire through the hole inthe body.

Once it’s in place, I can then screw it inplace (see FIG 201). You should screw thepickup in now rather than later when yourstrings are on simply because you’ll be flip-ping your guitar over in a sec; that couldsend the pickup flying out of your body.

If you’re concerned that the pole piecesmay not line up with your strings, you canalways unscrew and screw it in againwhen your strings are on, or simply putsome masking tape over the pickup to holdit in its cavity while you do the rest of thework. When the strings are on, you canscrew it in then... then, remove the tape.

With the pickup in place, it’s time to flip theguitar over again, so I can install thespring claw (see FIG 202) and drill someholes. I filled these holes before paintingbecause they were poorly done. To drillnew holes, I’ll place masking tape downbefore putting the plates where theybelong. Then, I’ll mark my holes with amarker. As I did earlier, I’ll then punch thecenter so the drill won’t slip.




FIG 201

FIG 202

FIG 203

FIG 204

With all of my holes pre-drilled for theplates, I can then move to putting thebridge on.

Before putting the bridge into position, Itape a piece of white bristleboard behindthe bridge (see FIG 206) so if the bridgerests against the guitar, it won’t rest intothe finish - it’ll rest on the cardboard. Thiscardboard will stay in place until I addstrings and adjust the spring claw tension.

As you can see in FIG 206, I’m holdingthe bridge in place with my hand. While Ido this, I’m tilting the guitar onto its sideso I can add some springs to the bridgeand secure it in place.

Once the springs are on, your guitar hasbeen reassembled!

You’re now ready to move to Step 28.




FIG 205

FIG 206

FIG 207

FIG 208

PLEASE NOTE: This is your basicreassembly. Check my newsletters formore info on properly setting up yourguitar, as well as intonating, and more.

Now that my guitar is back together, it’stime to wire it up.

Wiring a 1-humbucking pickup guitar withone volume is really a piece of cake. Ihighly doubt that any of you will haveproblems with this.

Before we start, you do need a few toolsto be able to wire a guitar. The goodnews is, you’ll be able to buy all of thefollowing items at Radio Shack.

1. Soldering Gun/Iron - You need somesort of soldering gun or soldering iron. Asyou can see if FIG 209, I have three dif-ferent soldering tools; I have two differentsoldering guns and I have a solderingiron.

I like the fact that you can turn the solder-ing gun ON and OFF while soldering. Thedownside to using a soldering gun is, itcan sometimes take 30 seconds orlonger for the gun to heat back up andmelt the solder. That gets annoying.

Using a soldering iron, I can’t tell youhow many times I’ve burned myself withone of those because it’s always on - andsometimes I just don’t pay attention towhere I move my arm. I’ve also meltedand burned holes in finishes - accidental-ly, of course. I also don’t like resting a hotiron on my table - and that’s because mytable’s always a mess with stuff every-where. The risk of burning something onmy work table is always HIGH.

So, those are the drawbacks I find tousing a soldering iron. The upside to using a soldering iron is, it’s alwaysON - no waiting for the iron to heat up. So, soldering your connections hap-pens much faster than using a soldering gun.

For this job, I used the orange soldering gun - which I purchased from ACEHardware for $11.00. That’s a good deal. Of course, you can also buy a


92 STEP 28: WIRING YOUR HOT ROD


FIG 209

FIG 210

FIG 211

FIG 212

soldering gun from Radio Shack.

2. Wire Cutter/Stripper - To properlyremove the sheath or coating from wires,you need a wire cutter/stripper like theone in FIG 210.

3. Rosin Core Solder - When soldering,you need to use rosin which cleans as yousolder. You can buy rosin separately fromsolder, but I think it’s easier just to use a rosin core solder (see FIG 211).

4. Wire - There are a couple of different types of wire I use - both werepurchased from Radio Shack. FIG 212 shows one kind and FIG 213 showsanother. The one in FIG 212 is simply a 24-gauge shielded, single conduc-tor wire. FIG 213 is actually two wires with their casing joined together(white and black). Typical wire gauges in guitars is: 20, 22, 24, 26, and 28gauges. The higher the number, the thinner the wire. More on wire andwiring to come.

5. Clamps - Clamps aren’t absolutely necessary, but they can make yoursoldering easier. The long scissor-like tool in FIG 211 is actually a clamp.The other little tool is also a clamp. These can also be purchased fromRadio Shack.

Getting Started

In order to do a good job of wiring yourguitar, you’ll need to strip the coatingfrom every wire you intend to solder sothat roughly 3/16” of the bare wire isexposed (see FIG 215).

You’ll strip the coating using your wirecutter/stripper as I’m doing in FIG 214.The notch in the stripper is made for thisjob. Squeeze the stripper together slowly,making sure that your wire is in thenotch. You’ll feel the notch cuttingthrough the coating. Don’t over-squeeze,though, or you can cut right through andcut off the bare wire you want to keep.

Stripping the coating is something thattakes a bit of practice to master, but withthe right tool, you should get the hang of


93STEP 28: WIRING YOUR HOT ROD


FIG 213

FIG 214

FIG 215

it rather quickly.

Once you’ve stripped the coating, youshould twist the wire so you have a nice,clean end (see FIG 215).

With the wire exposed and twisted into anice, clean end, I always follow this up byheating up the wire, then applying solderto it. I hold the soldering gun behind andtouching the wire and I apply the solderto the front of the wire (see FIG 216). This way, when the wire is hotenough, it’ll melt the solder. This is much better than allowing the solderinggun to melt the solder and applying hot solder to a cold wire - that cancause bad connections.

If I’m going to solder two wires together as you’ll see in a few minutes, Iapply a bit of solder to each wire, clamp them together, then solder themtogether. Adding solder to each wire issomething you should always do beforetrying to solder it to something. It makesfor better connections.

Soldering Your Output Jack

Yes, it’s an output jack, not an input jack.On most jacks (mono), there are two ter-minals: one terminal for your “ground”wire and one for your “hot” wire (or“lead”) wire. (From here on out, I’ll referto it as my HOT wire rather than LEADwire. By the way - stereo jacks havethree terminals.)

If you look carefully at a mono jack, theterminals are separated. One sits on top,while the other sits sandwiched betweentwo hard plastic pieces (see FIG 217). Theterminal that sits on top is for your groundwire. The one below is for your hot wire.

So, to start, I’ll cut off roughly 5” of my 24-gauge wire, strip it on both ends,then twist each wire. From there, I’ll heat each wire up and apply some solderto each end (see FIG 218).

Next, I insert my ground wire through the hole of the top terminal on the jack,




FIG 216

FIG 217

FIG 218

then heat up the terminal and the wire withmy solder touching both. When the wireand terminal are hot enough, they’ll meltthe solder and I’ll have my first connection.

FIG 219 shows my wire passing throughthe hole of the terminal quite far. I did thison purpose so that I could tighten up mywires. The hole for the jack can be tight;having extra wire in there can sometimesmake it difficult to get everything back inits place. Before closing this up, I’ll snipthe excess wire passing through theground terminal so that the cable’s endwon’t come in contact with it.

Also, notice that I’m wiring to the outside ofthe terminals. Again - that’s so that thewires won’t come in contact with thecable’s end.

I’ll repeat the same procedure for my hotwire, so when that wire’s soldered on, I’llbe able to put my jack and plate intoplace. Using the two screws, I position itand screw the plate back into position (seeFIG 220).

Grounding Your Pot

On your volume pot, there are three termi-nals: one for your ground wires, one foryour hot wire from your pickup, and onefor your hot wire from your jack. If youcount the terminals 1, 2, 3, then 3 wouldbe your main ground terminal. To groundthis terminal, you have to ground it to thebody of your pot. To do this, you can eitherbend the terminal towards the body andsolder it to the body as seen in FIG 221,or you can use a small piece of wire andsolder it to the third terminal, then to thebody of the volume pot as I’ve done in FIG222. Either way will work. You just have to be careful about bending the ter-minals because they can break off.




FIG 219

FIG 220

FIG 221

FIG 222

Both of the pots in FIG 221 and FIG 222look messy. However, they both work per-fectly. When I eventually solder my wiresto the pot, I’ll only apply a small amount ofsolder. There’s plenty already on there.

Grounding The Guitar

Normally, if a guitar has a tremolo, youground the guitar by soldering a wire tothe claw which holds the springs (see FIG223). If you’re wiring a Les Paul-style gui-tar, quite often, you ground the guitar bypassing a wire into the hole where thesleeve/bridge stud go. Metal on metalgrounds the guitar.

Grounding the guitar is necessary so thatyou don’t get a hum when your guitar isplugged in. There are also safety rea-sons, too.

To ground my guitar, I’m using one of the black/white coated wires. I cut apiece about 5” long, then I separate the black wire from the white wire. Istripped the coating from the wire, then heated it up and applied some solderto the exposed ends of the wire. I passed the wire underneath the little clip onthe claw (see FIG 223). This clip is there to make it easier for you to solder thewire onto the claw. However, some claws have some sort of coating on them; ifyou have difficulty soldering your wire onto the claw, try sanding the claw withsome 400-grit sandpaper just a little. This will help you to make a better con-nection when soldering.

With my wire soldered to the claw, I’ll pass the other end through the holethat leads to the control cavity. Now, I have three wires in my control cavity: apickup wire, an output jack wire, and a ground wire. So, next up, I’ll work onsoldering my pickup to the pot. To make iteasier for me, I’m going to tape the otherwires to the body so they’re out of my way.

Adding Wire To My Pickup Wire

When I disassembled my guitar, I snippedmy pickup wire and didn’t leave enoughwire to maneuver, so I’m going to have toadd some additional wire to what’s left sothat I can have an easier time of soldering




FIG 223

FIG 224

FIG 225

it to my volume pot. No big deal. Actually,this is good for you to see.

First, I need to strip the pickup wire so thatI can join a new wire to it (see FIG 225). Iused the same procedure as I normally do.

To add additional wire to these wires, onceagain, I’ll use my black/white wire. This is amulti-purpose wire that you can use for justabout any wiring job on a guitar. I cutroughly 4” of wire, then I separated thewires a little, stripped the ends, then heat-ed it up and applied a little bit of solder toeach wire (see FIG 226). This wire is acopper wire, but it doesn’t need to be twist-ed; it’s just one wire inside the coating.

To join the wires, I used a clamp to holdthe wires close together, then I heated bothwires up, holding the soldering gun behindand touching the wires. With my solder infront and touching the wires, I solderedthem together, adding a little extra solder tothe wires (see FIG 227).

When you have to add wires to a shortwire in this manner, whether it be a pick-up wire, or another wire, it’s always goodpractice to finish it off by using electricaltape. Wrap some electrical tape aroundeach join (see FIG 228) so that theexposed wires can’t come into contactwith anything inside your control cavityand possibly cause a problem.

With the additional wire now connected,it’s time to wire this to the volume pot. Ichose the black wire to be my groundwire and the white to be my hot wire. Thewhite wire will be soldered to Terminal 1and the black wire will be soldered toTerminal 3 (see FIG 229).

In FIG 229, my volume pot is resting inside a hole in a piece of wood. Thisis something I use when wiring. This makes it easier to solder my connec-




FIG 226

FIG 227

FIG 228

FIG 229

tions. I usually lay down some paper or white bristleboard onto the guitarbody, tape it in place, then place this piece of wood on top of that so it alsorests on top of the guitar. The hole in the wood is just large enough to holdthe end of a tone or volume pot.

One thing I want to mention about wiring pickups: for this pickup, there areonly two wires. However, for pickups like a Seymour Duncan or a DiMarziopickup, they typically have 5 wires. For a Duncan pickup, the colors run:white, black, red, green, ground. When wiring a Duncan, the hot wire isblack, the green and the ground get soldered together, then soldered to theground on the pot, and the red and the white are for splitting coils. If youdon’t need them, then you’d solder them together, then cover them withsome electrical tape.

Wiring can be complicated, but everybrand-new pickup comes with a wiringdiagram, so that’s good. Just understandthat your most important wires comingfrom your pickup are your hot and yourground. The other wires are for splittingand other nuances.

Soldering Your Output Jack To ThePot

We’re almost done - just a few morewires to go. Next up is the output jack. Ineed to solder this to the volume pot. Thehot wire will get soldered to Terminal 2while the ground wire will get soldered tothe body of the pot, or Terminal 3.Normally, I solder it to the body of the potas I’ve done in FIG 230.

Soldering Your Ground Wire To ThePot

The last wire we need to solder to the potis our ground wire. If we didn’t solder thisone, the guitar would hum... badly.

Once again, you have the choice of sol-dering this wire to Terminal 3 on your vol-ume pot, or to the body of the volumepot. I typically solder it to the body as I’ve



FIG 230

FIG 231

FIG 232


done in FIG 231.

Checking My Progress

Before I put the volume pot back in placeand put my volume knob back on, Ialways like to plug in the guitar, and turnthe volume pot on and off - from 0 to 10several times, to makes sure that myconnections are good and that it worksperfectly (see FIG 232).

When I’ve got sound and everythingseems good, I carefully push my potthrough the hole, then tuck my wires intothe cavity before closing it up (see FIG233).

If your volume pot won’t go through thehole because of a build-up of new finish,simply use a round file to gently file awaysome excess finish. Work from the top ofthe guitar and file downward only - no “up” strokes. You can use this samefiling technique for sleeves for your bridge - whether it be a Floyd Rosetremolo or a Gibson style stop tailpiece.

When your plates are back on, immediately check your sound again byplugging in your guitar. If there are no problems, you’re done!




FIG 233

FIG 234

TROUBLESHOOTING: When tucking your wires back into the cavity,be very careful not to bend the connections of your wires to the termi-nals or you may find that, after you’ve put the control plate back on thecavity, you’ve got no sound. The problem is usually a connection hasbroken off of one of the terminals. It could also be that you’re shortingout the wiring by accidentally allowing two wires to come in contact witheachother - for instance a ground wire and a hot wire. A third culpritmay be that when you put your wires for your jack back into the jack’shole, one broke off, so check the jack as well.

If you have no sound, simply check your HOT connections - Terminal 1,2, and the terminal on the jack. There are only a few, so it should beeasy to determine which one is the problem. If you have excessivehumming, then that would be a grounding problem, so check that all ofyour ground wires are connected and secure.


100 HOT ROD: FINAL PHOTOS


This is a rough estimate of how much time each step could take you. Byno means is this absolute - just a rough estimate. Some steps may takeyou longer while some may be shorter.

STEP 1: DISASSEMBLING/REMOVING OLD PARTS 1-2 HOURS

STEP 2: REMOVING THE OLD FINISH 2-3 HOURS

STEP 3: FILLING DINGS & HOLES 5-20 MINUTES

STEP 4: MASKING THE NECK POCKET 5-10 MINUTES

STEP 5: ADDING THE STICK w/HOOK 15 MINUTES

STEP 6: APPLYING THE SANDING SEALER 8 HOURS (30 mins. between coats)

STEP 7: MASKING THE BINDING 1 HOUR

STEP 8: SPRAYING THE PRIMER 8 HOURS (30 mins. between coats)

STEP 9: SPRAYING THE BASE COAT 8 HOURS (30 mins. between coats)

STEP 10: MASKING THE FLAME DESIGN 4-6 HOURS

STEP 11: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 1 1 HOUR (24 hours to dry)

STEP 12: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 1 1-2 HOURS

STEP 13: SPRAYING THE FLAME DESIGN - PART 2 1 HOUR (24 hours to dry)

STEP 14: REMASKING THE FLAMES - PART 2 1-2 HOURS

STEP 15: SPRAYING THE BLACK 1 HOUR (24 hours to dry)

STEP 16: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 1 15 MINUTES

STEP 17: SPRAYING THE DROP SHADOW 2-3 HOURS

STEP 18: REMOVING THE MASKING - PART 2 15 MINUTES

STEP 19: PAINT TOUCH-UPS 1-2 HOURS

STEP 20: APPLYING THE CLEAR COATS 48 HOURS (30 mins. between coats)

STEP 21: LETTING THE PAINT SETTLE 2-3 MONTHS

STEP 22: REMOVING THE STICK 15 MINUTES

STEP 23: WETSANDING THE CLEAR COATS 2-4 HOURS

STEP 24: PAINT TOUCH-UPS - PART 2 1 HOUR

STEP 25: DEALING WITH A RUN 10 MINUTES

STEP 26: BUFFING THE CLEAR COATS 2-3 HOURS

STEP 27: REASSEMBLING THE GUITAR 1-2 HOURS

STEP 28: WIRING YOUR HOT ROD! 1-2 HOURS

POSING WITH YOUR GUITAR TOO MANY HOURS!


101HOT ROD: TIME BREAKDOWN


1. Use a lacquer-based sanding sealer when using paint that is lacquer-based. I recommend the DEFT brand. You can get it at Home Depot andLOWE's as well as ACE Hardware. If you use another type of sealer suchas a polyurethane or a varnish, you may be asking for trouble. The biggestproblem is compatibility/incompatibility.

2. Stay away from Krylon Interior/Exterior paint and Krylon FUSION. Overthe last year, several PYOG customers have reported problems with theirpaint as well as their finishes. All of the problems they reported come downto quality control - paint mislabeling and paint contamination. If you’re plan-ning on using lacquer, choose Duplicolor instead. This line of paint is muchmore reliable. Choose their AUTO SPRAY line for colors and primer. Theycome in 4 oz cans. For clear coats, you can use the TRUCK, VAN & SUVclear - which is a full-sized can.

3. When filling in pickup holes, do not use Bondo or Plastic wood. Theseproducts are for small holes like screw holes and dents. In the past, I usedmarine epoxy (resin and hardener) to fill pickup holes with pretty good suc-cess. Over time, with the way that wood expands and contracts, you maysee the line around the pickup hole start to appear. It's very difficult to pre-vent this, but with the marine epoxy, because of its hardness, it seemed todo the job better than anything else I tried. Still, over time, the line of thepickup hole that you filled may appear and there's not really much you cando about that.

4. If it's very humid outside (above 75%) and you're spraying outside,DON'T! What will happen is, your paint will appear foggy - cloudy. That'sthe moisture in the air getting trapped in the paint. It's more noticeable ondark colors, but it affects all colors to a certain degree. Wait until it's lesshumid out (below 75%) to continue with your project. Even if it takes aweek, wait it out.

5. DO NOT mix brands of paint. Even if paints say they're the same type ofpaint, DO NOT MIX brands. Stick with one brand throughout your project.Again - compatibility is the main issue.

6. Although I recommend that you wait two months before wetsanding andbuffing, the ideal time to wait is roughly 6 months. If you can wait that long,I recommend you do it. The reason is, although lacquers dry fast, they cureslowly. Even though it appears your paint is dry, it has not fully cured andhardened. The longer you wait, the better.

7. The Finish Protector™ is an invention of mine and WILL save your lac-quered finish has not completely cured. I recommend you make these foreach guitar you paint. What it will do is protect your finish while the lacquercures and completely hardens.


35 10 THINGS YOU MUST DO


8. Wetsanding is THE step that determines how scratch-free your finish is.So, here are some pointers: 320 and 400-grit even out the layers of paintand get rid of the orange peel, but they also scratch up the finish a lot. Inorder to get rid of those scratches, you need to go through each grit to getrid of them. So, as you begin with a 600-grit after your paint has been lev-eled, you can hear that it sounds very abrasive when wetsanding. As yougo over the entire body and spend a good 20 minutes or so, it'll becomeless evident.

However, as soon as you jump to the next grit - let's say 800, you'll hearthe abrasiveness once again. So, you need to continue to wetsand untilthat abrasiveness is gone - no matter how long. Same for all of the othergrits. By the time you get to 1500 and 2000, (or 2500, if you want to go upthat high), you need to spend an equal amount of time with each grit, get-ting rid of the deep scratches and getting rid of the abrasive sound whenwetsanding. The better a job you do with each grit, the less noticeable thescratches will be.

It's really hard to explain wetsanding and to teach you to know whenenough is enough because it's really hard to tell how scratched up yourbody is until you buff. This is why it's crucial that you apply 20 - 25 coats ofclear. When wetsanding, you're removing a lot of it to even it out. Spendthe time to do a great job with all of the grits and you can expect a close-to-scratch-free-finish.

9. If you're spraying your projects outside, do not spray in temperaturescolder than 50 degrees. Above 60 degrees being ideal. If this forces you tospray paint in your basement, use a portable heat register to set the idealtemperature. Open a window, put a fan in the window and turn it so it'sblowing to the outside. What this will do is pull the fumes out of the roomand send them outside. For my full report on painting through the wintermonths, visit my homepage - www.paintyourownguitar.com, then click onthe SPECIAL REPORT in the top left margin.

10. Paint, namely, lacquers, cure faster in a warmer temperature, so whenyour project is drying, it's best to hang it in a warm area of your house orapartment.

Visit and bookmark this page for more “things you need to do!”http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/morethings.html


10310 THINGS YOU MUST DO



104 THE FINISH PROTECTOR™


Copyright ©2005 - Stay Tooned, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

This book, or portions of it, may not be duplicated, resold, or redistributed in any way, without the expressed written consent of Stay Tooned, Inc.

*Patent Pending

TABLE OF CONTENTS 105INTRODUCTION 106WHICH STAND IS BEST? 108SUPPLIES: WHAT YOU’LL NEED 110STEP 1: CUTTING YOUR WOOD TO THE RIGHT LENGTH 112STEP 2: DRILLING YOUR ARM HOLES 113STEP 3: DRILLING YOUR STRAP HOLDER HOLE 114STEP 4: BEVEL AND SAND THE EDGES 115STEP 5: PRIMER AND PAINT 116STEP 6: MAKING A ROUND INSERT 117THE FINISHED PRODUCT 118BONUS ITEMS 119MORE FROM PAINTYOUROWNGUITAR.COM 120


105FINISH PROTECTOR™: TABLE OF CONTENTS


As a guy who’s been painting guitars for over 20 years, I can tell you, with-out a shadow of a doubt, that guitars painted with lacquer can be ruined ina very short period of time if you subject the finish to anything made of rub-ber. Simply put - lacquer and rubber DO NOT MIX!

Of course, I learned this the hard way when I first began painting guitarsback in 1983. After working veryhard to achieve a factory finishon one of my guitars, I ruinedthat finish within hours afterplacing it on a guitar stand thatcontained rubber arms.

At first, I thought I had donesomething wrong when finishingthe body; what was once a per-fect finish, was now softeningand coming off. However, theonly areas that were affectedwere the areas of the body thatrested on the rubber arms.

Later, I made the discovery thatlacquer and rubber simply do notmix. The surprising part is thatno guitar manufacturer who’s stillusing some form of lacquer evermentions the possible destruc-tion of the guitar’s finish whensubjected to rubber.

If you’ve purchased any one ofmy books on painting your ownguitar, then you know that I tellyou to be very careful with yourguitar’s finish once during thefirst year. You can certainlyhang it by the headstock if youhaven’t painted the headstock or the back of the neck, but if you have, youmay’ve already discovered your finish coming off because of this.

This book contains a very simply guitar stand modification that can bemade in about 5 minutes and will cost you roughly $2.00 that will protectyour guitar’s finish forever. It’s perfect for those of you who love painting


106 FINISH PROTECTOR™: INTRODUCTION


your own guitars. You don’t need any special skills to make this; just a sim-ple hand saw and a drill.

When you see how well this modification works, I recommend making themfor all of your guitars - not just the ones you’ve painted yourself. It REALLYis the ultimate Finish Protector™!

Okay - let’s get started.


107FINISH PROTECTOR™: WHICH STAND IS BEST?


PLEASE NOTE: Catalyzed polyurethane finishes are not affected bythe rubber. But , if you have a guitar such as a Martin guitar or aGibson guitar, both of these are still painted in nitrocellulose lacquer...and both can be affected by contact with rubber.

In FIG 1, I show three different typesof stands - all of them being verysimilar.

Unfortunately, these stands are notthe kinds of stands you want touse to make this modification.

The reason? All of these standsrequire that the back of the bodyrest on the portion at the top of thestand - which happens to be rub-ber. You want to avoid your guitar’sbody resting against rubber, if it’sfinished in lacquer.

You may be thinking, “But what if Ijust put some fabric like cotton onthe rubber area? Won’t that solvethe problem?” The answer is, no.

As I discuss in all of my books onpainting your own guitar, once yourguitar has been reassembled afterhaving painted it yourself, you stillhave to be very careful with the fin-ish for the first year. It takes lac-quer roughly 9 months to a year tofully cure and harden. Up untilthen, the finish is still delicate andcan be affected by resting it on justabout anything.

Unfortunately, that’s how lacquer works... it’s not perfect. And, that’s exactlywhy polyurethane was invented.

FIG 2 shows the kind of stand you want to use for this modification. It hasthe two rubber arms on the bottom that protrude straight out - and only aslight curve in the bars upward. The back of the neck is supported ratherthan the back of the body..

Again, if you’ve painted your own guitar, you want to avoid resting the bodyagainst anything for the first year after buffing.

These types of stands can be purchased at just about any music store aswell as online. I purchased the one in FIG 2 off of eBay for $10.00 plus


108 FINISH PROTECTOR™: WHICH STAND IS BEST?


FIG 1

FIG 2

This is the kind of stand you want to use to makethe modification. You want the back of the necksupported, not the back of the body

$6.00 shipping... a pretty good deal.

If you want to get one like this, start at eBay’s home page. Under “MusicalInstruments” down the left-hand side, you’ll find the subcategory “Parts,Accessories.” Under that subcategory, you’ll find “Stands, Hangers.” This iswhere you’ll find stands just like this one.

Or, here’s the link to the eBay store I got it from - http://stores.ebay.com/SIMBA-INSTRUMENTS-INC


109FINISH PROTECTOR™: WHICH STAND IS BEST?


Here’s a list of items I used to make myFinished Protector™. There are just afew things, but you need them all inorder to do it right.

1. 1” Wood - I found this piece of woodin the area that you’ll find dowels inyour local hardware store. I bought thispiece from Lowe’s, but I’ve also seen itat ACE Hardware, as well as HomeDepot.

It’s 1” in width and the length you’llneed is no longer than 10”. It’ll cost youroughly $2.00.

You could use other wood if you wantedto, but this wood is compact enoughand looks good because of its smooth-ness.

2. Tape Measure or Ruler - You needeither of these to make accurate meas-urements.

3. Drill Press or Power Drill - I usedmy drill press (see FIG 4), but you’reonly making 3 holes, so you could easi-ly use a power drill and do it by hand.

4. Hand Saw or Miter Saw - I used aMiter Saw (see FIG 5) to cut my pieceto length, but you could easily cut yourpiece to the length with a hand saw likethe ones seen in FIG 6.

5. Primer and Paint - I finished mine offusing Krylon Flat Black (see FIG 7).However, I sprayed a few coats of All-Purpose Grey Primer before applyingthe black.

6. Wood File and Fine Sandpaper - I used a wood file (see FIG 8) to bevel




FIG 3

FIG 4

FIG 5

FIG 6

the edges of the wood and then sandedthem smooth with the sandpaper.

And that’s the list.


111FINISH PROTECTOR™: WHAT YOU’LL NEED


FIG 7

FIG 8

In the prototype in FIG 9, I’ve left a 1/4”on each end from where my holes end.The amount of wood you decide to leaveon each end will be totally up to you.

To begin, you’ll first need to measure thedistance between the rubber arms as I’mdoing in FIG 10.

The measurement I got was 7 3/4”.Yours will most likely be different.

With my measurement of 7 3/4”, I addeda 1/4” onto each end, so my final lengthwould be cut to 8 1/4”.

Using my miter saw, I made my cut (seeFIG 11). This cut can easily be madewith any type of hand saw, so use what’sat your disposal.

When you’ve made your cut, you’reready to move to Step 2.


112 STEP 1: CUTTING YOUR WOOD TO THE RIGHT LENGTH


FIG 9

FIG 10

FIG 11

FIG 12

Measure the width of your stand’s arms.In my case, the arms were roughly9/16”. You want to be able to slide onyour Finish Protector™ fairly easily, sothe hole you drill will have to be slightlylarger.

I used 5/8” as the measurement for myholes.

Measuring 1/4” from each end of my cutpiece, I measured 5/8”. Then, I meas-ured the center of 5/8” which is 5/16”(see FIG 14).

From there, I measured the middle ofthe wood so that my holes would becentered properly (see FIG 14).

I then used a center punch to mark thecenter for my holes (see FIG 15).Marking it with a punch makes it easierfor my drill bit to be positioned perfectly.

If you’re drilling your holes by hand witha power drill, secure the wood to abench with a clamp so it doesn’t move.

Once you’re finished drilling your armholes, you’re ready to move to Step 3.


113STEP 2: DRILLING YOUR ARM HOLES


FIG 13

FIG 14

FIG 15

FIG 16

As you can see in FIG 17, I’ve markedthe center of my Finish Protector™,so I’m now ready to drill the hole toaccommodate the strap holder.

This is where your guitar will rest, soyou don’t have to drill all the waythrough; you only have to go downroughly1/4”.

When you drill this hole, use a drill bitthat will give you a flat surface ratherthan a rounded one. This will make iteasier for the strap holder to sit com-fortably.

I used my drill press to drill down 1/4”.Here’s what your Finish Protector™should look like (see FIG 18). Again - ifyou’re drilling this strap holder hole byhand, secure the wood to a bench withsome sort of clamp.

To find the center of your piece, meas-ure the length and divide by 2.

My piece is 8 1/4”, so the halfway pointis 4 1/8”.

At this point, I slipped it on to see how itworked (see FIG 19).

As you can see in FIG 20, It works per-fectly! The body no longer rests on therubber arms!

At this point, the piece is finished, but Iwant to do a few more things to it.

So far, it’s taken me about 5 minutes tomake this.

Follow along as I add a few other finish-ing touches to it.


114 STEP 3: DRILLING YOUR STRAP HOLDER HOLE


FIG 17

FIG 18

FIG 19

FIG 20

I decided that I’d bevel the edges usinga wood file, then sand the edgessmooth.

This will help give it a more profession-al, finished look.

To bevel, just run the file along theentire edge of each side, squaring themall off.

After you’ve done that, run some finesandpaper along all of those edges tosmooth them out.

When you’ve completed that, you’reready to move to Step 5.


115STEP 4: BEVEL AND SAND THE EDGES


FIG 21

FIG 22

Of course, this is totally up to youwhether you want to paint your FinishProtector™ or not.

I decided to paint mine a flat black tomatch the rest of the stand.

To start, I sprayed three thin coats ofKrylon All-Purpose Grey Primer. Alwaysapply thin coats rather than thick coats.This prevents runs and also speeds updrying time.

I allowed each coat to dry for about 20minutes before applying my next coat.

I sprayed three thin coats of Krylon FlatBlack, again - allowing each coat to dryfor about 30 minutes.

After letting it dry for an hour, it wascomplete.

If you want to be real picky, you cansand with 400-grit wet/dry sandpaperbetween each coat of primer so thatyour finished piece is nice and smooth.Personally, I didn’t do that. However, ifyou do it, use the paper dry.


116 STEP 5: PRIMER AND PAINT


FIG 23

FIG 24

FIG 25

I decided that I wanted somethinginside the hole where my strap holderwill sit, so that it’s not rubbing againstthe paint every time I place it in theFinish Protector™.

I used a piece of velcro (the softer ofthe two) and cut out a small circle toplace inside the hole (see FIG 26).

Once cut out, I placed it inside the holewhere my strap holder will rest.

NOW - it’s COMPLETE!


117STEP 6: MAKING A ROUND INSERT


FIG 26

FIG 27

PLEASE NOTE: I used Krylon Paint for my Finish Protector™, but sincethis book was originally written, I’ve switched to using Duplicolor paintand I recommend that you use that brand over Krylon, too.


118 THE FINISHED PROTECTOR™: THE FINISHED PRODUCT


Whether you painted the guitar yourself, or your guitar was factory finishedwith lacquer, the Finish Protector™ keeps your guitar body from resting onyour guitar stand’s rubber arms... and keeps the rubber from DESTROYINGYOUR FINISH!

VIDEO FOOTAGE:

Although the book explains everything in great detail, some people find itstill helps to see some of the techniques being done live, so I've postedover 120 minutes of video footage. Watch these clips! They're very helpful!

You can check them out here: http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/h7o6t8.html

FLAME TEMPLATES

Download them here: http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/flames685.html

PRODUCTION SHEET:

I created a sheet that you can download and print that'll allow you to log allof the coats you apply to your guitar, so there's no second-guessing.

If you haven't already downloaded it, you can download that sheet here:http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/prodsheet.html

NEWSLETTERS:

To access previous newsletters containing some information not covered inthe book, use the link below:http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/nwsltrs.html

BLANK TEMPLATES:

If you want to doodle some of your own designs, I’ve created some blanktemplates for several different body shapes. Check them out here:http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/gw456.html

EMAIL SUPPORT:

I answer most of the questions I receive, or I’ll direct people to readthrough my newsletters for additional information. Either way, there is noother resource for learning to paint your own guitar than PAINT YOUROWN GUITAR!


119BONUS ITEMS



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