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Post subject: Buffing up polyurethane finish on a strat--tips?
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 9:05 am
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Hi, I am in the awful process of removing blue spray paint from a gorgeous 2001 Sienna Sunburst strat. In two very small spots I see a few scuff marks on the order of 1-4 millimeters in length and quite shallow- definitely NOT all the way through the coat of poly.

I could use a bit of detailed information on how best to buff out these marks to restore the finish to its original glossy lustre. In particular, what should the buffing wheel be made of, how fast the rpms, should I use any sort of compound, this sort of thing. All help is very appreciated. I will post the before and after picks. The "before-s" are already up here in a threat with the keyword "RUINED" in it if you'd like to see what I have to start with. Thanks.


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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:51 pm
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Location: Staffordshire, UK
Hi sustayne,

I am actually a car sprayer by trade and so can give you a few pointers on the way I would go about it (can't be too much different).

Firstly, I would use a piece of very fine 2000 grit flatting paper and gently wet sand the area with a soft edge block (if you don't have a block, just fold the paper into thirds to make it a little firmer and eliminate sanding ripples from your fingers) and a drop of soap in the water for lubrication.

Constantly keep checking the progress by dyring the area and checking to see if the scratches have been removed. You are looking for a continuous flat, dull finish all over the area you are working (being careful not to sand through the clear coat, the depth of the scratch should be assessed before starting, but you do mention that they are certainly not through to the base colour).

Once you are at this stage, the paint is now ready to be buffed back to a glossy finish. I would use a soft sponge buffing head at a slow/medium speed and a cutting compound (such as G3) and buff gently with a slightly moistened buffing head, not allowing too much heat to be created (the paint will easily burn).

Keep checking the progress untill all of the 2000 grit sanding marks have been removed.

The area will now possibly look a little hazy from the cutting compound. It will now need buffing over once again using the exact same technique with a finer machine polish (such as G10) to bring the area back to a perfect glass like finish.

Once this is complete, I would give the body a good wipe down with a soft cloth and then give it a coat of a good guitar polish.

That should leave it as good as new!

That is the way I would tackle it anyway, if the scratches are only very fine, you could always try the buffing processes first to see if they can be removed by buffing alone. Normally though, if you can feel the scratches with your finger nail, they will be too deep to remove without a little flatting to begin with!

Hope this helps, It really isn't difficult, I have to do it all the time on car bodywork!

Russ :)


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Post subject: Now we're gettin' somewhere!
Posted: Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:22 pm
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Quite alot of the blue paint has now been removed, believe it or not , with a .77mm guitar pick. It does the best job. There has been practically no damage to the original finish using this approach. Now I need to start looking at putting correct items back in place. I have the original neck, but I need to pull out the harness and the pearloid pickguard which was badly installed. I don't know if these were issued with an HSS config, but that is what is there now, but it is in black and looks bad.
If anyone has any good suggestions about the pickup config and model type I should put back in, I'd appreciate it. For the most part, I am happy to make this guitar look "stock" even though it has a Floyd Rose very nicely installed in it.(I am OK with leaving the FR in it, actually.

Since the underlying finish is in such nice shape, I can easily state that this is going to be a very, very nice instrument when I am done with it. Iw will be hard to let it go.

S.


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