OffsetGuitars.com

Today the weather was good, so I did my clear coats.

This is the clear I used for the body and neck:


For the body that was Dartfords Lightest Brown, which, according to my research, is supposed to be a great choice.
For reference, this is what Dartfords Inca Silver Metallic looks like without clear coat:


After 3 coats of clear things are looking as follows:


I'm very happy how the yellowed Inca Silver turned out. I love the slightly warmer hue, it should look great with the neck and tortoise guard.

Not so sure about the Arctic White supro. I wish the yellowing was a little less drastic, but then again it's not too much off when you look at this nicely yellowed specimen:
We'll see how it looks in daylight and after buffing.

It will be a while until I can wet sand and polish, so I hope I'll find enough time to sort out the broken pickguard and the fret job in the meantime.

Ok, getting closer and closer to the finish line.

Over the weekend I managed to get the fret job done. I'm pretty happy how it all went, considering there was a quite some chipping from pulling the frets. I was being super careful, but the fact that during that era Fender installed the fretwire from the side didn't help. It's a known issue.

So, after a quick levelling of the fretboard with a radius sanding block I started working on filling the chip out with rosewood dust and CA-glue.






Trimming excess glue with a sharp blade


Again, repurposing my skateboard stuff for guitar repair. After the makeshift pickup winder, here's the fret radius bending thing. Works just ok, but it was free.


Carefully clipping out fret tang so it doesn't interfere with the vintage binding.


Leveling & re-crowning




This is the final result. Fret wire is looking bigger than it acutally is. I went with vintage small/medium wire by Ferdinand Wagner.
I think it turned out pretty good.




Here's a recent discovery of mine: Rennaissance Wax Polish. It's a high quality polish that gives a very classy subtle sheen. I applied it after oiling the fretboard with lemon oil and I must say I'm happy how it turned out in the pictures above. I really can recommend it!


So, all in all I'm getting pretty close to final assembly. I must admit I'm getting a bit impatient waiting for the nitro to cure. It's been about two weeks now since I sprayed the first coats, somebody more experienced than me please talk me out of starting the wet sanding/buffing this week.
Better wait? What could happen? I think I won't go for a super high gloss finish anyways, I don't want it to look new.



Above is a first preview of the body to see if the colors work together, and I think it should look pretty decent in the end.
What do you think?

great job on the chip-fill / refret, and those colors work well together on the body.

Neck looks great! Good job on the refret. And interesting stuff that renaissance wax, gonna check it out!

Yeah, that neck turned out great. Well done!

I'm no expert with paint jobs but I'd try & ignore your impatience & wait longer than necessary, rather that rushing in & botching something because the paint hasn't cured properly.

Thanks everybody!

PorkyPrimeCut wrote: ↑

Tue May 04, 2021 2:13 am

I'm no expert with paint jobs but I'd try & ignore your impatience & wait longer than necessary, rather that rushing in & botching something because the paint hasn't cured properly.

I guess you're right. Looks like I'll do it end of May and start working on the pickguard and wiring in the meantime.

Terrific work, thanks for the update. NIce to see this project get close to the finish line.

Great!
While the color isn't at all what would have been my choice (...) it's nice to see you're really doing nice and careful work towards the goal!

BTW, you're in Germany, too, right? Any recommendations for the refret guy? I mean, I would have some jobs for him...

Äh, Pacafeliz, yes, Germany. Refrets done by yours truly

What happened to the pictures on Page 4?

PICTURESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

DaddyDom wrote: ↑

Wed May 05, 2021 6:59 pm

What happened to the pictures on Page 4?

PICTURESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

They’re working for me. Can anybody else confirm this?

ok for me too

DaddyDom wrote: ↑

Wed May 05, 2021 6:59 pm

What happened to the pictures on Page 4?

PICTURESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

I need to switch to Chrome to be able to see them, not sure what's going on...

Same, but I can see the pictures on the other pages. Just not 4.

That’s weird. It’s working on Chrome and iOS. Unfortunately I don’t have time to look into it at the minute.
I wish the forum was less 2000s in this regard and would allow hosting pictures on the platform. It’s a major pain.