Using a Panelbeater to refinish a guitar?

willow13 · Post by **willow13** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:31 pm

BG wrote:Flying cars next

but the police'z tell us that that's why the road toll is crap

willow13 · Post by **willow13** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:33 pm

actually just thinking about it "self healing" paint.....why did no one tell john kirwan (oops sorry sir john) about this

if they had painted the lines on the field with it it might have helped him to stop "freaking out"

Post by Bg » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:34 pm

Emos could buy self harming paint instead.

Try the veal

Miza · Post by **Miza** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:35 pm

I had a mate, who was a car painter at the time, paint an SG I used to own. He is also a guitarist, but at the time neither of us knew anything about guitar refinishing, paints to use, etc.

We left it natural wood and he used just a standard polyurethane to add a clear coat, but did 10 coats!!!

Needless to say the guitar didn't sound like it was made out of wood anymore.

At the time I didn't know why, but it had lost its mojo. Just sounded dull and lifeless.

Sold it to a guy in a metal band, he didn't seem to mind.

Post by Bg » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:48 pm

It's just poly so 10 coats is about standard fender thickness

willow13 · Post by **willow13** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:49 pm

babytaylor wrote:
Sold it to a guy in a metal band, he didn't seem to mind.

yep scooping the mids solves all tone issues .............

Post by **Slowy** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:44 pm

mr_sooty wrote:A friend of mine once had his Stingray Bass refinished by a panelbeater. Seemed to come out alright. Anybody else tried this? What kind of paint do those guys use?

Sooty, on my black Tele, I used aerosol cans of Nitro lacquer from Wairau paints and would do it again.

Couple of points: The spray finish is heavy orange peel. The lacquer needs to cure for a few weeks then you sand it down with wet & dry and polish it up. I was delighted with the results, it looks and feels like an old finish. Mine is heavily relicd so I wasn't worried about perfection. It's time consuming; probably why polished nitro is expensive, but the finish is thin and feels really good.

All up cost about $90 and a tired arm.

Post by Bg » Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:49 pm

slowfingers wrote:All up cost about $90 and a tired arm.

Hang on, is this a thread about webcam sites now?

Post by **GrantB** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:29 pm

The veal is proving very good.

jeremyb · Post by **jeremyb** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 6:46 pm

Sand it back, dye body, Tru oil, WIN!

mr_sooty · Post by **mr_sooty** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 7:07 pm

slowfingers wrote: Sooty, on my black Tele, I used aerosol cans of Nitro lacquer from Wairau paints and would do it again.

Couple of points: The spray finish is heavy orange peel. The lacquer needs to cure for a few weeks then you sand it down with wet & dry and polish it up. I was delighted with the results, it looks and feels like an old finish. Mine is heavily relicd so I wasn't worried about perfection. It's time consuming; probably why polished nitro is expensive, but the finish is thin and feels really good.

All up cost about $90 and a tired arm.

Cool cheers. I'm just thinking about the incoming Jazzmaster and it's rediculously thick polyester coat. Would probably be quite a mission to strip it back though.

SammyD · Post by **SammyD** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:11 pm

BG wrote:
slowfingers wrote:All up cost about $90 and a tired arm.
Hang on, is this a thread about webcam sites now?

Wowowow! $90? How many minutes is that for?

But seriously, I've been thinking about getting my SG refinished, anyone know anyone in Chch that does this kinda thing? I once asked Alan but he said no...

ash · Post by **ash** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 2:56 am

mr_sooty wrote: Cool cheers. I'm just thinking about the incoming Jazzmaster and it's rediculously thick polyester coat. Would probably be quite a mission to strip it back though.

Getting a panelbeater to fix a thick factory finish is rediculous... sorry, I mean ridiculous. The main reason I disapprove of such a course of action - it will come back worse, not better and it will still be the same polyurethane. Other reasons include the fact that painting wood comes with different pitfalls to painting bog and steel, I've never seen a panelbeater buff a guitar finish properly (with one exception and he charges keenly for it), some actually use bog as grainfiller because that's what they do on cars, and finally they stll charge a lot to do the job properly if they're willing to do it properly at all.

That's not to say panelbeaters can't do it properly, they just don't seem to bother. The same applies to some of the pro guitar cowboys out there. One of the reasons I don't do refinishing right now is that I got caught up with fixing other luthiers' major cockups far too often. Some absolutely shocking work at full price. Getting flawless thin finishes on guitars is really hard. Especially refinishes and $400 I was charging on average just isn't enough unless you get it right first time every time, which doesn't happen that often. Most people aren't willing to pay what it really costs and those who do expect not just reasonable perfection but absolute perfection. It's just better to say no until I have more capacity and lower costs.

Now of course there will always be a chorus of "my mate painted my guitar for $150 and it was good"... but from what I've seen not everyone has the same eye for quality when it comes to paint work. And therein lies the problem.

Oh, and when your guitar body (because you can't trust them to disassemble/reassemble it) comes back with paint in places it shouldn't be and bits don't fit anymore, or it's thinner because they stripped it with a belt sander, or it's thicker because they just painted over the original finish or it's metallic because they decided it looked cooler, or the glue joints have opened up because they baked the finish or stripped it with heat, or the paint peels off in sheets because the auto primer won't stick to the resin in the wood, or, or, or all the other things I've seen and been asked to fix... you'll know why I'm so grumpy about this particular topic

Post by Bg » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:22 am

Mr Grumpybloke indeed

Post by **Slowy** » Tue Jun 05, 2012 7:34 am

Why do guitars need perfect finishes anyway? They're power tools not jewelery FFS.

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