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Hi all - a few years ago I bought a rundown 65/66 parts Mustang as a project, and have gradually been acquiring the bits I need, along with refinishing the body (it had been stripped and varnished, looked OK but I prefer a more original look. Acquired a yellowed 60s MOP guard, white button F tuners, etc., and painted the body with sealer, primer and a coat of red. Finally got a late 60s bridge pickup at a reasonable price (thanks Will!) but I got busy at work and put it aside. Today I got out all the bits and realised I could actually put it together complete. Did a test fit and ... hm. Looks like the nice red is a bit too brilliant when placed against that yellowed guard - it's SUPER yellow and the whole thing looks a bit clown like. What do you guys reckon? I thought maybe a tinted topcoat on the red might knock it down and reduce the contrast, but would that look right on a Mustang, since they were painted pretty cheaply and wouldn't have had a clearcoat?
Anyway - here's the current situation:

(also if anyone wants to sell me a string tree, this one had a screw in string retaining bar added but I've taken it off).

Ah maybe a clear coat is legit - here's a '65 listed on Ishibashi, not much doubt there:

Yeah they definitely had a clearcoat, and the same type as Fender's other guitars. Pre-1968 was nitro, 1968 on was poly.

Original Mustangs were definitely a lot brighter than the "Dakota Red" everybody calls the surviving ones now. (They were never Dakota Red, they were just "Red", officially.) That dark red is partly from the clearcoat darkening. You can see in old ads that they look brighter than they do now; maybe not to the level of your Mustang's red, but not too far off. I do think the pickguard kind of throws the color scheme off, because in essence you have a new-looking paint job with an aged-looking pickguard.

So if you want to match what an older Mustang would look like now, I think you're probably best off just doing an extra coat of some darker red because I don't think a tinted topcoat would quite get you where you want to be. But then you probably do want to do a topcoat of some kind too, since that's realistic.

Mustangs were finished pretty cheaply, but I actually have a red 66 Mustang and its finish is quite thick; much thicker than the higher-end guitars of that era that I've seen. So they seemed to cheap out in a different way than you're thinking. They just put a ton of paint and clearcoat on to hide whatever blemishes the wood might have. So it wouldn't be unrealistic if you end up with an extra coat of paint and a pretty thick top coat.

Thanks - good thoughts.I guess for the degree of yellowing on the pearloid I am going to have to shoot for something a fair bit darker, viz:

That looks like pretty thin coats, clear on red on white. Some work ahead!

Mine doesn't have any white primer. Like a lot of Fenders at the time, they probably just did whatever on any given day. It looks like two layers of red to me on that one, though, on top of the white.

I'd post a photo showing how thick my finish is but my imgur account seems screwed (and photobucket's dead) - hopefully I can fix it shortly.

Thisis probably dumb of me to ask, but would lightly sanding the pickguard make it look whiter?

spacecadet wrote:Mine doesn't have any white primer. Like a lot of Fenders at the time, they probably just did whatever on any given day. It looks like two layers of red to me on that one, though, on top of the white.

I'd post a photo showing how thick my finish is but my imgur account seems screwed (and photobucket's dead) - hopefully I can fix it shortly.

Yep, fender was incredibly inconsistent with its finishing methods in the early-mod 60's. Demand was high and sometimes they skipped steps.

Many of the custom colour guitars have white primer, some don't. Most have a clear coat, but some do not. There are no absolute rules regarding their methods. Like for that double-layer red, there might have been a defect in the first red coat that they just sprayed over. They were known to do things like that.

Life has interrupted this project (and several others) but I promise to do it justice someday. Thanks for the input, forumites!

The only clown-like thing I'm seeing is you if you don't love that Fiesta + yellowed pearloid pairing. Especially gorgeous with that dark rosewood. I'd vote to keep it as-is.

amv wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:35 pm

The only clown-like thing I'm seeing is you if you don't love that Fiesta + yellowed pearloid pairing. Especially gorgeous with that dark rosewood. I'd vote to keep it as-is.

+1 that guitar looks perfect now!

Well, six months later I have taken steps to remedy this ... not quite the way I originally planned, but ...

and a sneak peek:

pic could be better but that refin sure looks the part color and wear wise. nice!

MatthewK wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 25, 2018 5:49 am

and a sneak peek:

Nice, it's a slabboard neck example (but I guess you are fully aware of that)
BTW: the refin really looks like the original color, nice!!

Well, the secret is that I bought another body with original paint ... was looking into the cost of a pro refin and realised it'd probably be the price difference between selling the body I had and buying another. It was already a mongrel so no loss of originality.
And yeah the pic is terrible but I finished it at 11pm and it's midwinter down here - daylight shots will have to wait. The paint checking is pretty nuts.