I have a Black Ibanez SA 300 Bass (1996) that was handed to me with the statement "do what you can for it"

It's in a nasty condition. I managed to get all the "stickers" off. The finish has been "reworked" in some spots with a pocket knife etchings down to the wood and likewise the neck has "FAITH" carved into the rosewood in positions 2,4,6...in the same manner.

The pots will be replaced and harness re-wired.

Back to the body, which I understand is Agathis? I have no experience with this type wood and hesitate to take the heat gun after the coat. I would rather buff the current coat of Black Poly,? and spray over it but I am not set up for elaborate spraying. I cannot find Black Poly aerosol.

The owner is not expecting a "like new" refinish, and its a cheap instrument, but I am new at this, and like the challenge. Anyone with some good suggestions thanks in advance.

(Sorry no pictures at this time.)

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I remember when we were free!

The "Big Woo" on refinishing poly finishes is removing the original finish. It is almost as big a pain as doing your own itemized tax return. If you can refinish OVER the existing finish you avoid a ton of labor. That is what I'd recommend for a quick cheap fix.

Guitar paint yielding decent looking results is not the stuff in aerosol cans usually. There is one exception. Visit the resources page in my signature below, then scroll down and left click upon the red link for REFINISH, RESTORE & MAJOR REPAIR. Once that page opens skip down the page to just below the color chart links to the section on Re-Ranch Refinishing Products and left click on that link. While I do not recommend refinishing a guitar yourself since the result is rarely what you expected, if you must do so then they are an excellent source for products that are easy to use and yield more predictable results than stuff from the hardware store or Wal-Mart.

Another good alternative to painting it yourself, if you are not in a hurry, is to make friends with someone at an auto body shop. They will have a black car to paint and something to clear coat eventually. It won't take them 5 minutes to spray another coat on the guitar body and another 5 to do the clear coat. This actually might be cheaper than a can of black and a can of clear coat plus will look more professional than doing it at home or in your basement.

I for sure would avoid stripping or starting to strip the body in general. Once you start stripping you have to finish. Instead I would just lightly sand anywhere anything is fitted to the body prior to painting so everything will go back together without sanding after painting and clear coating. That means neck pocket, cavities, etc needs to be lightly sanded around the edges where things fit to it. Otherwise things won't fit back together so well.

brotherdave: that bit about the autobody shop is a great idea! they can do such a pro job and if you find a color you like, it would be so easy to have the painter squirt a coat of that color they are painting the car on you instrument it would only take literally minutes!

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Squier For Life!

Peavey Mark IV Bass head
Peavey 2x10
Peavey 1x15

Nothing to lose, then. Have at it.



To politely differ from Dave, above, stripping polyester with a heat gun doesn't have to be a big deal. If memory serves, this one took me about an hour including taking the photos:



Add another 30-60 minutes to prep-sand the wood ready for spraying and you're ready to to. If the existing poly is cracked and dented it'll probably be more effort to sand it enough to get it flat than simply to strip back to timber. Though either approach is workable.



No. But you can go to any auto parts shop and pick up an aerosol of black car paint and have at it. It will have a different formula to Fender's polyester - these days it'll likely be acrylic based - but provided you stay within one paint type for the job it won't matter in the slightest.

Also, if you spray several coats of black it will then be thick enough you can buff it all over with first P1000, then P1500 and finally P2000 wet-and-dry paper without going through the paint. You don't actually have to spray clear coats, which will simply make the finish thicker to no particular purpose. Finally, polish it up nicely with automotive swirl remover or simply with household metal polish and, bingo, job done.

No reason in the slightest why you can't achieve very serviceable results by this method, for the price of an aerosol or two and some wet-and-dry. And some elbow grease, of course.

Cheers - C

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Thanks Ceri,

I have a heat gun, and have decided to attack the poly. Depending on the realtive beauty of the wood I will either leave it natural or go back with some color. The owner has given me full freedom.

thanks for the video segment.
OL

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I remember when we were free!

Hi guys! Cool project!

Just as an info: My beaten and loved to bits Yamaha Pac 012 (ohhh boy - what memories!) has an Agathis body. I stripped it too one day, and just one word of advice: It is an insanely soft wood. You can severely mark it with a little pressure of the fingernail. So once I saw what was underneath the 4 mm of paint I understood why Yamaha's capable workers had slopped on such a thick poly coating.
So when you repaint, make sure to build up enough thickness of the new paint to make it nice and durable for many years of use. Otherwise small dents will make the wood compress so much that I fear your paint will crack & fall off.

The wood itself is not beautiful. It's nice and light though, so ideal to keep it au naturel if you need a light instrument. The paint was the heavy thing about it...

Make sure to post some pictures! I can't believe all the other members have omitted to mention this very important point....

Cheers

Nutter

Thanks Nutter,

I will keep this in mind.

OL

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I remember when we were free!

Excellent, way to go!

I've never (knowingly) handled agathis and am interested to read what Nutter says about its softness. The idea of putting on an extra few coats of spray paint sounds good to me: remember, you'll take some of it off again when you buff up the surface with the wet-and-dry paper. Just follow the instructions on the tin as regards timing of paint coats.

Good project - good luck!

Cheers - C

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I am considering trying out the aerosol Nitro finish that Stewert MacDonald offers. The offer a Cherry, Amber, Brown or Black in this product.

I have always been attracted to Fender "crimson red transparent" and thinking alternate layers of cherry and amber might approach this color.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_s ... cquer.html

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I remember when we were free!

Well I gave it a shot with the heat gun.

This stuff must be the same thing they put on tanks a armored vehicles to protect them from road-side bombs. I managed to start a small spot on the back of the body and heat it up and shaved a little of it off.

I thought perhaps this tuff would "let go" of the wood like I have seen in some photos of similar projects, but no way! What I did manage to get off did not respond to my scraper. My pocket knife came to the rescue but for cleaning the whole body its too small. I just picked up a razor blade tipped scraper at the local hardware. It shaves a 1 inch swath and I am hoping it will do the trick.

The wood underneath is a yellowish looking type, and that meshes with the photos of Agathis I have seen.

This is gonna take some time.

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I remember when we were free!

More heat!

But I remember the poly on the Pac was hard to get off as well. Don't tell anyone, but I ended up sanding it off....

I guess the agathis wood is so porous that the wet poly just soaks into it, never to let go. Then again I may be spreading it on thick!

Anyway. Good luck with that one little scraper blade. It'll wear out quite quickly I think.

WE WANT PICS!



Nutter

Update,

I bought a Red Devil 1 1/4 inch puddy spreader. It has a stainless blade. works great. Got right under the poly and its peeling off pretty good.

Have the back done 100% except for the tummy cut. I am not sure how best to attack the rounded edges of the body. The flat portions are relatively easy.

I took pics but have to figure out how to post them. Photobucket?

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I remember when we were free!

Ahhhh, it's time for my infamous photo-posting-post!



Cheers

Nutter

P.S.: What to use for round bits: care. You'll get there.

[/quote]

I am considering trying out the aerosol Nitro finish that Stewert MacDonald offers. The offer a Cherry, Amber, Brown or Black in this product.

I have always been attracted to Fender "crimson red transparent" and thinking alternate layers of cherry and amber might approach this color.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_s ... cquer.html[/quote]


Question for you...
When doing this do you start with the darker or lighter finish first?
Or does it mater?

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Hi tyronne: it's an interesting point.

Layering transparent lacquer could be thought of as quite like putting successive sheets of coloured glass on top of one another. As more layers go on the effect can only get darker, not lighter.

So as a general principle with trans finishes you start with the light tones and progress to the darker ones. That's how a Fender three-colour sunburst is done: first they tint the whole body amber, then add the brown and finally the black. So whether oneal is doing a sunburst or a one-colour trans finish he'd want to start with the amber and then add the cherry till he'd brought it to the degree of darkness of his choice. Might be fun to make it darker round the edges for a cherryburst effect, but a uniform amber-red would also be gorgeous.

I can't wait to see pix!

Cheers - C

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