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Post by mcook217 on Sept 10, 2018 11:08:18 GMT -7
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Post by mudman on Sept 10, 2018 11:37:56 GMT -7
Lol, nice to see the factory still does stuff like this
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Post by daddyelmis (Greg) on Sept 10, 2018 11:38:30 GMT -7
What are you using to strip that much poly?
I had an antique radio that had about a 1/4” of poly that I had stripped by a refinisher who literally dunked it in a tank of stripper, and that worked great and was done in an hour.
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Post by T-R☼CK ♫ on Sept 10, 2018 11:39:34 GMT -7
I've heard a LOT of nightmare stories about stripping one of these, Matt. I hope it goes well for you.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 10, 2018 12:02:59 GMT -7
I'm just using a heat gun and a putty knife. It's slow going, but more controlled than chemicals. I actually have to do about two passes per section because there's so much finish. The heat only penetrates down to the polka dots, scrape it then hit it with heat again to get down to the wood. I can really only do a couple inch section at a time. I hadn't really heard any stories about stipping them. Just that people had and a few videos of folks doing it to squiers on the youtubes. Had I heard some of those nightmares I probably wouldn't be doing this So far things are going well. Once I have it all off I'll give it a light sanding since there were a few spots I got a little too much heat by the wood and darkened it a little, but I've learned from those spots and doing better. I'm not too terribly worried about this going awry since I'm not going to baby this guitar once the new finish is on. I'm not going to "relic" it by any means, but I'm hoping to get the finish right on the first coat so it's nice and thin and will wear through quickly in all the right places naturally. I'm good with a spray can, so I'm not too worried.
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Post by Maddog on Sept 10, 2018 14:19:33 GMT -7
Why can't I see these pix? Anybody else having probs??
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Post by Paul (TRANE) on Sept 10, 2018 14:45:55 GMT -7
Why can't I see these pix? Anybody else having probs?? I can see all but two of them.
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Post by LT on Sept 10, 2018 14:49:31 GMT -7
Why can't I see these pix? Anybody else having probs?? I can't see any of them either. Must be a Texas thang Lee!
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 10, 2018 15:09:39 GMT -7
weird. sorry guys, they're showing up on my end. I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll try a different picture hosting site.
EDIT: Switched hosting sites. Can you all see them?
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Sept 10, 2018 15:55:05 GMT -7
That's a crazy thick finish. Was it a heavy guitar when you started? Just be careful of fumes from the hot air gun. That could be very nasty. Don't ask how I know. I'm anxious to see what the bare wood looks like after you get her all cleaned and sanded. Hang in there and get a dust mask or do it out in the garage with the door open!
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Post by Maddog on Sept 10, 2018 16:09:09 GMT -7
weird. sorry guys, they're showing up on my end. I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll try a different picture hosting site. EDIT: Switched hosting sites. Can you all see them? I can now see what I think are the last 3 of 6. It's certainly enough so that I get the idea, very cool! Crazy how thick the finish is! Thanks, Matt!
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 10, 2018 17:34:47 GMT -7
That's a crazy thick finish. Was it a heavy guitar when you started? Just be careful of fumes from the hot air gun. That could be very nasty. Don't ask how I know. I'm anxious to see what the bare wood looks like after you get her all cleaned and sanded. Hang in there and get a dust mask or do it out in the garage with the door open! very noxious fumes. I opened the garage door and turned a fan on. It was pretty heavy before. I realized after I got the back done that I should have weighed it first just for curiosities sake. But I would say it was around Les Paul weight. I'm pretty used to it so it doesn't bother me too much, but it was just shy of boat anchor status. From how the back looks I'm a little surprised they hid the wood under so much paint. It's a three piece body, but I think the grain looks as nice as most multi piece bodies I've seen with a burst. I'm going to be going for a semi transparent blonde finish. I'd love to have a bit of the grain showing through. There's only 3 pictures so I'm not sure why it would show the potential for more.
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Post by LT on Sept 10, 2018 18:06:15 GMT -7
weird. sorry guys, they're showing up on my end. I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll try a different picture hosting site. EDIT: Switched hosting sites. Can you all see them? Yes! I agree with Dave....lookin forward to the end result!
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Post by goodez on Sept 11, 2018 4:48:53 GMT -7
This looks much more labor intensive than my current re-Tolex job. You’re a brave man. I’m looking forward to seeing the end results.
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Post by Lefty on Sept 11, 2018 7:16:32 GMT -7
I stripped a few guitars back in high school. A no name bass, an Ibanez RG560 (I loved that guitar), and a couple MIJ Strats. All had thick poly on them. My weapon of choice was a belt sander. Much to my mother's dismay I chose to do it in the laundry room.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 11, 2018 8:18:37 GMT -7
Yea this is definitely a labor-intensive job. But, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than sending it away, and since I don't have the money for that I'm not averse to some time and elbow grease. I'm 6 hours in and the stripping is almost done. It will be another couple of hours for sure. I would guess it'll be a full 9-hour job. Plus probably another hour or two of sanding, probably another hour of prepping for paint. Here are the updated photos of how it's looking. I'm through the top couple of layers down to the buddy guy layers and the back is completely off. Not bad looking grain. Too bad it was under so much paint before. Also, I did find a clear coat over the dots. So there really is enough paint on this for 2 full guitars. You can see the difference between the bottom right dot and the top one.
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Post by Maddog on Sept 11, 2018 9:06:20 GMT -7
Hey Matt....quick Q.... Will you have to shim the neck pocket (in the body) to get the neck to fit snugly in the pocket area after removing 1/8" finish from all sides of the contact area? Or are you gonna leave the finish in the pocket?
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 11, 2018 9:34:07 GMT -7
Hey Matt....quick Q.... Will you have to shim the neck pocket (in the body) to get it to fit snugly in the pocket area after removing 1/8" finish from all sides of the neck contact area? Or are you gonna leave it? They actually did a pretty decent job with the neck pocket. It's actually quite clean. Just a bit of overspray really, where they didn't tape it very well. I'm going to clean up the tiny bit that got in there, but it'll still be nice and tight. They did well there and in the jack and the trem routs. There's pretty minimal finish in there compared to the rest of the body. I've been able to get everything out of those except for the grain filler. which is fine because I'm going to tape off all of the routings when I spray it. If it's not going to be seen it isn't going to get finished.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 12, 2018 8:55:45 GMT -7
Finally got it all off. Got a few more burn marks than I would have hoped for, that crap was hard to get off with how thick it was, but we'll see how much of it I can get out with some sandpaper. If all else fails I guess I order a can of black from stewmac and a single-ply black 'guard and go for that David Gilmour look. Here's what she looks like now after a wipe down with a damp rag.
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Post by Maddog on Sept 12, 2018 10:31:34 GMT -7
Looking good Matt....
I'd stay after it with the sander and see if those black blotches will lessen/disappear....
You might take a steam iron (medium heat) and a very wet wash cloth and steam those places (iron the wash cloth with the guitar body as an ironing board {black spot areas only}) ....it will "raise the grain" .... Let it dry and then sand it.
Dig the crazy grains! That GIANT pickup cavity makes it the perfect pickup experiment station!
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 12, 2018 11:28:52 GMT -7
Looking good Matt.... I'd stay after it with the sander and see if those black blotches will lessen/disappear.... You might take a steam iron (medium heat) and a very wet wash cloth and steam those places (iron the wash cloth with the guitar body as an ironing board {black spot areas only}) ....it will "raise the grain" .... Let it dry and then sand it. Dig the crazy grains! That GIANT pickup cavity makes it the perfect pickup experiment station! That's a good idea. I'll try that out. Yea the guitar was routed for HSS and I expanded the top part so I could put 2 P90s in it. When it's all done it will be 2 P90s and a strat middle pickup and using a superswitch to give me: 1. Bridge 2. Bridge/Middle parallel 3. Bridge/Neck parallel 4. Neck/Middle parallel 5. Neck I'd like to get the middle pickup by itself somehow, but I'm not sure how much I would use it so I'm not going to worry about it. These are really the only combinations I need anyways. (2 and 4 won't be hum-canceling but I'm usually on my tuner when I'm not playing anyways.)
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Post by nicholas on Sept 12, 2018 16:11:25 GMT -7
I can't believe how thick that finish was!
You could also roll with the burnt finish. After some stain and clear nitro it would look nice. Here's a generic vid.
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Post by Chilly Gibbons (Todd T.) on Sept 12, 2018 17:35:00 GMT -7
That is some really nice looking wood under there. I love how they matched the grain pattern on the top and middle pieces.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 13, 2018 4:17:11 GMT -7
That is some really nice looking wood under there. I love how they matched the grain pattern on the top and middle pieces. right? I can't believe they hid it under so much paint. If it were a Tele I think I could go with the shabby chic barn caster look but that's not really how I like a Stratocaster.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 30, 2018 14:07:48 GMT -7
So I started into sanding the body after a little break from the project (stripping takes a lot out of you ) and my craftsman sheet sander that was my grandfather's from the 50s or 60s started making me the ground, ouch. So I bought a new black and decker and it quit on me after about 20 min of use, so I went and got a dewalt orbital sander and that did the trick. I also routed out the rest of the pickup cavity to a full pool route, just to clean it up a bit, take a few ounces off and to keep my options open for the future. It's looking really good so far. Now I just have to hit a few small spots with some wood putty and go up through the other grits of sandpaper and hope the humidity isn't too high to paint this week.
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Post by pcns on Sept 30, 2018 14:19:08 GMT -7
Hey, wow, that cleaned up really nice! thanks for the project updates, its fun to follow along Todd
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Post by purpletele on Sept 30, 2018 14:45:55 GMT -7
When do you start the relicing measures?
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Post by premiumplus (Dave) on Sept 30, 2018 15:02:06 GMT -7
Nicholas has a good idea, with the right stain that grain might really pop. Maybe try some in the cutout. You could get a good idea how it might look with a little water too.
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Post by mcook217 on Sept 30, 2018 16:48:00 GMT -7
I'm not a fan of completely transparent finishes on strats. I love the custom colors but since stewmac had really limited selection it's going to be their blonde finish. I'm going to try to get it in one thin layer so it will wear naturally but still allow some of the grain to show through. I'm not going to drag it behind my car or beat it with chains or any of that sillyness... I might stick it in the freezer to get some checking but that would be it.
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Post by mcook217 on Nov 2, 2018 7:48:08 GMT -7
just a quick little update: I decided to get a new neck, this guitar had a maple fretboard neck with a satin poly finish and I didn't want a body that would age and a neck that wouldn't, I also have been realizing more and more that I'm actually more of a rosewood board kind of guy. So, I custom ordered a warmoth neck and I decided to go for something a little different and went with their mooncaster neck which is a Fender Starcaster style headstock. I went with a standard flame maple neck (couldn't afford AAA) and Indian rosewood neck with cream dots. It's a boatneck profile and has stainless steel 6105 frets. 1 11/16 nut width and 10-16" compound radius. It's a beaut. I'm putting a gold pickguard on the body so i decided that since the starcaster neck can have the two tone look I'm painting the main part of the headstock to match the body and the little sliver at the bottom is going to be painted gold to be all matchy matchy with the pickguard. So far I've painted the body and the matching headstock and everything is looking really good. This weekend I'm going to remask the headstock to paint the gold and then everything will be on hold for a few weeks before I can spray the clear coats. Then a day of buffing and a day of putting it all back together. This should be on track to be finished up by December. I'll post some pictures after I get the gold on.
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