Refinishing a Strat

[alvagoldbook]

I have a korean strat copy that I'm refinishing, made sometime in the late 1980's or maybe the early 1990's. Currently, it's a two-tone sunburst. The finish seems lousy and the old lacquer is chipping badly. I want to refinishing it in Olympic White. anyone know a good fast way to remove the old finish without damaging the body? I'd hate to sand it because I don't have the patience for it. anyone know of anything that will loosen the old lacquer up...lacquer thinner maybe?

[Nuclearfishin]

Use paint remover to strip it, it won't hurt the wood. I build handmade guitars and have never had an issue even on very thin acoustic tops. Lacquer thinner won't do anything to cured lacquer. When you paint it, make sure you follow a proper finishing schedule and spay, knockdown, and buff with the appropriate intervals. Also, nitro lacquer is very dangerous to spray, make sure you take the appropriate precautions.

Good luck!

JE

[alvagoldbook]

thanks man...any idea where you can get paint remover? home depot maybe? I'll post some pictures up here pretty soon, so everyone can see the progress

[daddyo]

Lacquer thinner will melt old lacquer - if it's real lacquer. I doubt if a Korean strat copy from the late 80s is lacquer - it's almost certainly a polyester finish which is essentially the liquid component of fiberglass. Very few available strippers will touch it. I recommend renting a heat gun. It will take off the old paint like peeling a banana.

[Giraffecaster]

heat gun and a paint scraper... but if you don't have the patience to sand then maybe refinishing isn't for you?

[alvagoldbook]

well, sanding off god knows how many coats of lacquer to the wood is different from sanding/polishing for a new finish. This is probably retarded as hell....no, it is retarded....but I've found delicate whacks with a knife has chipped a hell of the old finish off, and some light sanding gets me to bare wood. down side is i will be spending many a long hour with sanding sealer to fill in tiny pits. not that this was my originial idea of how to get rid of a finish...I just started peeling this cracked finish thinking a relic look might be cool. Not on this guitar...the body is made of about 10 layer of wood pressed from bottom to top. something like having 10 maple caps, except in the middle of the guitar and it's not maple....looks like alder to me.

[r9player]

What are you using to refinish it?

[alvagoldbook]

This is the baby I'm working on. My first guitar. I bought her for $16 from a friend, when I was 15, money I got from pawning 4 CDs. She's a Korean Strat copy by a company I believe was Series 9. that was about 15 years ago now! jesus i'm getting old.

http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/11586/2005645371398939555_rs.jpg

http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/9701/2005688250266735578_rs.jpg

http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/12755/2005667059127408750_rs.jpg

I loved and hated this guitar. I hated it because it sucked, and I loved it because I played the hell out of it. The nut looked something like a dried up banana peel that was glued to the headstock.

http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/12212/2005690632013140257_rs.jpg

The frets look liked rejected rebar from a nuclear waste dump. The pickups sounded like raking the sides of quarters against a metal clothes hanger. It sounded awful. The cool thing though was that I could press the strings down onto the pickups and it would make all these phucked up noises. I eventually named the guitar "Bitch", because that's what she did.

The headstock was shaped less like a fender copy and more like a dildo. The face of the headstock was finished in two tone sunburst too, which I hated. My first modification to this guitar was take my dad's electric sander and sand off the entire finish off the headstock. I put my band's name (at the time) on it instead. Needless to say, the tuning machines sucked to, so at some point after I put them back on after sanding the high E tuner fell out of the gear shaft never to be found again. I played this horrible guitar with 5 strings until my parents feeling sorry for me broke down and bought me a new set of tuners for christmas.

http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/11580/2005602274199789455_rs.jpg

At some point in all this I decided to scroll an anarchy sign into the crappy one ply pickguard and rub red pen ink into it....hey I was 15.

It wasn't long after this that the electronics began to die from dust and dirt getting into the components. When the guitar didn't work I would have to whack the side of it or strum on it as hard as I could until the dust moved just enough the let the electrons flow from deep within the bowels of this beast. Finally, my band's new drummer gave me a 1970's Japanese strat copy that was built a hell of a lot nicer. That was 1996, and I haven't played this guitar since.

Now I'm refinishing her and gonna turn her into a 70's era Olympic White strat with mods. So far here is my progress in getting the old finish off.

http://aycu02.webshots.com/image/11361/2005625237955448143_rs.jpg

everything on the lower horn came off easily with my thumb nail!

http://aycu24.webshots.com/image/11623/2005637333739616174_rs.jpg

you can see here in the tummy contour the 10 or so layers of wood this guitar is made of, all of which I think is alder.

http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/11209/2005695530652550049_rs.jpg

they grey patches is the lacquer still on the guitar...that black crap seems to be a shoe polish type substance that this guitar company put on the edges of this guitar to make the edges look black with the brown lacquer sprayed around the edges. Sanding it is like trying to get rid of a very fine coat of bubble gum off your axe.

http://aycu23.webshots.com/image/9462/2005697061018819238_rs.jpg

another view of the black bubble gum/grey from sanding lacquer perspective.

[alvagoldbook]

I was thinking of using the Reranch aerosols to refinish her.

[r9player]

ReRanch stuff is very cool and easy to use, but don't think it is fast because it is a spray can! Oh and don't forget a breathing mask.
It takes a long time to get a really nice smooth well hardened finish with ReRanch.

[Giraffecaster]

reranch takes about a month for it to fully cure before you're supposed to polish. to do a proper job you probably need about 2 cans of clear, one color, one primer, one sand and sealer. that doesn't count the sandpaper, polish, and all other stuff.

painted bodies are cheap and pleantyful on ebay and you can pick up a nicer painted body for less hassle than the paint and supplies to refinish a ply body. i'm not trying to be negative i'm just trying to say that it takes a lot of time and value wise you're not gonna come out ahead. if you're really set on finish it i'd recommend rattle cans at the hardware store. and if you really want "nitro" for clear, get Deft brand.

[alvagoldbook]

geoff, thanks for the advice...i've already decided i'm not gonna come out ahead on this...and really i'm only doing it because this guitar is special to me. I've actually thought of just ordering some car paint in a spray can and just nitro finishing it. right now, I'm just trying to get this damn old finish off without setting the body on fire. sanding to create something...like a new finish is nice.....sanding to destroy a finish makes me angry.

[daddyo]

The guitar is made of plywood. The more you sand the edges, the more the core voids will open up and require filling. I'd sand off loose finish only - leaving the rest of the finish as a sealer. Feather chips, use spackle to fill voids, sand everything with 220, seal with Zinszer sealer/primer, and paint it a cool solid colour.