Strat Nitro painting - please advise on my finish (pics)

[jimification]

Hello, as part of the partscaster I'm building up (sonic blue strat body, mint green pickguard, one piece maple neck) I'm painting an American red alder strat body with nitro cellulose (using rattle cans) I'd really appreciate some advice on this from someone who has been through the process as it's my first finish and I really want to get it as good as possible.

At this point, I've sanded the body (to 600 grit) applied 1 can of white primer and 1 can of sonic blue colour (I havn't sprayed any clear coat yet):-

http://sites.google.com/site/jimification/_/rsrc/1281550744642/Home/strat-build-colour-coat-pics/strat_colour_coat_01.jpg

It has a few issues and I'll detail them below for each pic:-

1) Grain showing through.

http://sites.google.com/site/jimification/_/rsrc/1281550754950/Home/strat-build-colour-coat-pics/strat_colour_coat_02.jpg

Of course another colour coat would help with this but will it actually fill in the grain? or does it need some kind of filler / sealer? I read up on this and there seem to be conflicting opinions as to whether alder needs grain filler or not.

2) Scratches showing through:

http://sites.google.com/site/jimification/_/rsrc/1281550765320/Home/strat-build-colour-coat-pics/strat_colour_coat_03.jpg

http://sites.google.com/site/jimification/_/rsrc/1281550773352/Home/strat-build-colour-coat-pics/strat_colour_coat_04.jpg

Is there a way to fill this at this stage? or should I sand it back so that area is level and reapply colour?

3) Visible ridge lines on contours:-

https://sites.google.com/site/jimification/_/rsrc/1281550780923/Home/strat-build-colour-coat-pics/strat_colour_coat_05.jpg

The sanding looked ok to me before I painted it but you can see here that there are small ridges on the wood at the end of the horns. Can these be gotten rid of later on in the clear coat? or should I try to sand it smooth now? Any tips for getting these perfectly smooth / round? - for some reason (ineptitude mainly) I'm finding it very difficult to get them perfect.


So the main thing I want to know is what's my next step? Can I fix this at the current stage with strategic sanding and another colour coat before moving on to the clear? or do I really need to start again, sand it back to the wood and apply grain filler before starting again with primer, colour and clear all over again?

Many thanks for any advice anyone can give!

[travisvwright]

hmm


(actually I want to seethe responses but worry if the arrow isn't beside this thread I won't remember to check back in, so consider this a bump.

[Jan Folkson]

I usually don't grain fill alder unless the pores are pretty open. Instead of primer, I use vinyl sand and seal (which I often tint white under sonic blue). It's got a higher solids content and fills the voids better than lacquer. The idea of the sand and seal is that you spray then sand and repeat until the surface is level and ready for color.

I'd probably strip it and start again. Nitro is very easy to strip and should come right off with a chemical stripper or even just acetone. Once you get the body to bare wood you can get those indentations out with a soldering iron and damp towel (if they're dents). If its the grain, you may opt to grain fill.

The forums over at reranch would probably be helpful. There's also lots of good info over at the tdrpi diy and finely finished forums.

[Stk1520]

As Jan says above, you still need to apply sanding sealer on alder. Two coats then sand it . . . one or two more and then sand again . . . then primer. Lowe's carries Deft sanding sealer and it works very well and dries fast.

(EDIT --- Oops, saw that you're in the UK. Not sure what's available over there!)

I don't know that I'd even strip what you already have if you're going with a solid color and you've used lacquer --- just block sand it and use the sanding sealer over it. After the sanding sealer stage, I put a magnifying visor on and REALLY look closely at the body under good lighting --- go over the entire body and look for imperfections. If you see anything at this stage, you will surely see it once the color and clear are on. Here's one I finished earlier this summer using the Deft SS, Reranch color and Minwax clear lacquer:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc18/Fastocker/SFSpecial-003.jpg

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc18/Fastocker/SFSpecial-001.jpg

Good luck!

[Zero]

That looks like a guitar body I recently did (in original post). I don't paint very often and am not that patient with that aspect of building. It's funny how you don't notice that stuff until the paint starts going on. I said screw it and kept going. After the final polish it isn't THAT noticeable unless you get close.

[old goat]

The main problem is the sanding--the scratches are from the coarse grit paper. If you don't get the coarse scratches out with the next grit, or if you skip a grit, it doesn't matter how fine your last grit is--you'll have scratches. The ridges on the horn are from not enough sanding as well. As you found out it's hard to see this stuff before finishing. Use side lighting and sight along surfaces to try and pick up imperfections. For actual dents you can also raise the dent by using a clothes iron over a damp towel, but I don't see anything that looks like a dent in your pics. (With a dent all the material is there--it's compressed and the moist heat uncompresses it. With a scratch or gouge material has been removed and new material in some form or other has to be applied (or the surfaces resanded). I don't know enough about this type of finishing to advise you as to whether or not to strip and start over. Professional finishers do have all sorts of techniques to clean up imperfect woodworking--there's a nice article in the current FineWoodworking for example.

I read an article once byt a guy who built an acoustic guitar without using any fillers, sanding, or finish. He said the woodworking had to be a lot more precise because there was no way to fix mistakes.

[jimification]

Thanks a lot guys, that's really helpful!

Travisvwright: Heh heh, be interested to hear what your situations is.

Jan Folkson: Thanks, I actually gave it another go with sanding last night and managed to fix quite a few of the issues. I think I am going to try some sand and sealer over the paint and see how that goes. If it doesn't work I figure I won't have lost much anyway. Thanks for those forum recommendations too, there's a ton of useful info there!

Zero: Thanks, that's reassuring. My impression so far is that it's harder than it looks but I'm encouraged by seeing other peoples results: that it's completely possible to get a *very* good finish at home.

stk1520: Now that I have some finish on I can totally appreciate what you're saying about any imperfection showing up. Thanks for showing that body: That's a superb looking finish you got there! That sounds like a good plan with the sand & sealer over the top of the current finish.

old goat: Yes, you are totally right about the scratches and sanding. I actually had another crack at it last night and managed to sand out most of the scratches. I also found a good way to get those round overs back to shape too. In doing so I've removed most of the paint from the edges (looks like a relic job now heh heh!)