Natural Relic of one of my builds (pics)

[exodus]

So about 2 years ago, I put together a '66 style stratocaster. Its a 1-piece body I bought, '66 jap neck that I refinished and all new hardware. I did the finish myself... trying to replicate old school fender practices. It's acrylic lacquer (true olympic white) with no clear coat.

Anyway, it was very white when completed in '07. See below:

So for the past two years I've been leaning it up against my amp which is by a window. Seems the sun has been working on the plastic. Anyway, thought I'd show what it looks like 2 years later:

Seems to be aging nicely with no chemicals or sand belts involved.

Feel free to post some time lapse pics of your natural relics.

 

[joeybsyc]

looks like sonic blue now.

 

[exodus]

looks like sonic blue now.

i always thought that sonic blue looked close to oly white. i do know that oly white does have a blue component to it....

 

[Leonardo]

Cool. Are these plastics made by Fender?

 

[exodus]

Cool. Are these plastics made by Fender?

No, I think i bought all the plastic from WD. Everything was pure "brand new" white when it was installed.

 

[stormin1155]

Yes, that will look really sweet in 15 years or so. It is coming along quite nicely.

 

[newswede]

Wow, you REALLY use those controls! Careful with that selector switch! Looks great - you did a nice job.

 

[cowboytim]

Where can I buy guitar parts to build a guitar, yours looks GREAT!

 

[Gas-man]

Leave it next to your gym shoes long enough and the relic-ing will really start to kick in!

 

[buddastrat]

Yeah it looks like it's going towards that blue/grey since no clear to yellow it. I love the big headstocks!

 

[exodus]

Thanks guys. Yea- I do have to get a new switch knob, that part did break off on me.

As for the parts (if your curious):
Body: Warmoth 1-piece alder body i found in the "showcase" section.

Neck: fender Japanese '66 I found on ebay. It's the only place I could find a round laminate rosewood neck. Stripped the poly and refin in nitro with a correct decal.

Plastic: i took another look and it seems its all fender '62 reissue stuff that I bought new.

Hardware: Callaham hardware kit. (really high quality stuff). I kind of want to get double-line Klusons for the vintage effect.

Pickups: Fralin Woodstock '69.

Finish: prep materials (sealer/undercoat) were from Re-ranch. The oly white is acrylic lacquer I found at an online auto paint supplier. They still use the same color codes from an old fender chart that I found. At first I was going to have a pro shoot it, but I couldn't find anyone that would use acrylic lacquer. Most guys also wouldn't do it without the clear coat either. Surprisingly, it wasn't all that hard.

 

[GreenKnight18]

Leave it next to your gym shoes long enough and the relic-ing will really start to kick in!

You beat me to this.

 

[monty]

That looks just about perfect. My old Strat has the same "color" knobs.

 

[pfflam]

Here is mine - the pickguard is patinated brass, at first its all blackish-purplish

Then my finger rest started to wear a spot:

The spot grew:

Now the spot is gigantic its embarassing - I want to re-patinate it, but I don't know the formula: