SOON: White Jag goes Pink. (body & headstock refin)

[PixMix]

Thanks-
It's Duplicolor "Magnesium Pearl Metallic".
Still needs to sit a few days before I try my hand at wet-sanding.
THAT'S the part that has me most nervous.

The Duplicolor goes on easy- I'd have sprayed my strat body with another
of their cans if I could've found another colour I liked.

Just take it easy and you'll be fine. In finishing, every mistake is fixable, but it might just throw off your projected timeline. It's not like when making a body from scratch, where a router slip can simply ruin the body. This is just paint, it can go on, it can be removed, it can be redone... Of course, the faster it's done the sooner the guitar gets played, but rushing can backfire. You'll be fine. That's a top notch looking finish so far.

[Shadoweclipse13]

^ Agreed! I wouldn't have guessed that finish so far is from an aerosol paint can. Keep up the kick ass work! Also, thanks for the color name! I might use that color for my Jazznado

[preservation]

The cool thing is that with metallics you can get away with lighter coats, so by the 3rd workaround you already get a very good idea of the finished product.
Duplicolor DOES make a beautiful metallic light-green similar to a surf green hue but I had no luck finding it on Amazon

[PixMix]

There is an eBay seller that sells Duplicolor cans for 2.99 plus something reasonable for shipping. They offer only a few colors at a time, but they are usually the more obscure and hard to find colors.

I think the green color you are talking about is called Hampsted Green Metallic, and it looks almost like the one that Fender is currently offering in their Professional series jazzmaster.

[preservation]

^

B I N G O

we have a winner.

[preservation]

the guitar gets put back together Saturday.


i decided i'd start the wet-sanding process 2 nights ago w/ 1000, 1500, and 2000-grit sandpaper.
slightly soapy water, turtle wax & a buffing pad was the only other stuff i used.

i'm glad i started on the back b/c if you look up close (2ft away or less) you can see a few little
spots where i wore through the blue into the primer. each dot is the size of a pen tip (if that).

that's when i said "screw it" and went straight to the ultra fine 2000-grit.
i know it's because i didn't put enough clear lacquer on the body (theoretically- even though i shot it at least 5x)
i certainly wasn't pressing hard at all.


anyhoo, i got rid of the gritty texture and the rest of the guitar's finish is beautifully in tact.
only slight boo-hoo is that i can't seem to bring it to a mirror-finish. i've buffed my shoulder off.
of course i did it manually without a machine, but maybe i didn't have enough clear lacquer ?
i don't really know.

all i know for sure is that i'm a lot happier than i expected to be doing my first finish & that this might
one of my favourite guitar colors of all time.

stay tuned for completed pics.

[preservation]

slight update-

realized that only the bottom edge of the guitar was actually mirror-like, so i realized i may have rubbed what little lacquer i had right off.
i just sprayed another coat of clear and will do at least one more in the next hour or so.
i don't think i'll buff it again (maybe), but i'll be happy w/whatever.

i just don't want to start having my beautiful "magnesium pearl metallic" get scratched - mirror-shine or no mirror-shine.

[preservation]

would there be any point to turtle wax + buffing after additional clear lacquer coats WITHOUT wetsanding ??

[dmb]

would there be any point to turtle wax + buffing after additional clear lacquer coats WITHOUT wetsanding ??

Personally, I would get another two cans of clear, and cover the whole thing again (3 light coats per day). Then wet sand, going through all the grades of wet and dry.

When you wet sand, you take a couple of those coats off. The most coarse grade is used to flatten out any orange peel - it will be a very dull finish at this point, but you should see no orange peel (i think this is the stage you got to before switching to 2000?).

The next few grades are there to remove any really fine scratch marks in the clear (from the previous grade of wet and dry) - you'll notice a shine starts to appear as you continue through the grades. I don't think you would have sanded through the clear to the color coat (i think you would notice that quite badly with a metallic), you're just at the stage where you need to continue through the grades. 2000 probably wasn't up to the job at cleaning up the dullness from the 1000 grade.

The color looks beautiful, and you've done an amazing job for a first refinish - so now it depends on whether you want to make the most of the work you've done so far.

[preservation]

^ i get it, it's just that the 1000 grit was taking blue paint off the back of the guitar so i had to give that thing a rest.
then instead of switching to 15000 i just assumed 2000 was what i needed...


i DID add 4 more full coats today...

[dmb]

^ i get it, it's just that the 1000 grit was taking blue paint off the back of the guitar so i had to give that thing a rest.
then instead of switching to 15000 i just assumed 2000 was what i needed...


i DID add 4 more full coats today...

Sorry, I wasn't paying attention!

[preservation]

here we go:



better photos to come in time.
in my dark basement it's virtually impossible to detect the metallic specks : (

[Shadoweclipse13]

here we go:



better photos to come in time.
in my dark basement it's virtually impossible to detect the metallic specks : (

Wow. That is stunning!! I LOVE your choice combo of pickguard and pickup cover colors!

[PixMix]

Nice! Turned out great. Love the color! Really classy look.

[preservation]