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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2012 6:00 pm
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Well, "tomorrow never comes..." as the song goes. We received about 2 feet of snow in the last 48 hours so you know what I have been doing! There is something about slamming the big Chevy suburban with a hydraulic plow in the front into a wall of snow that does something for a MAN! Stress relief, mind relaxing, snow smashing fun!!!! Anyhow, guitars don't get worked on this way, either. To top it off, I leave for India on Monday morning for a short administrative trip for 8 days. BTW, I still am going to buff this body lightly one more time and use some special wax on it to protect the high gloss shine.

So lets get back to this Firestorm Finish and the CSI redemption of it. Now there are all kinds of stories about these finishes. One is that a guy worked at Fender for about 1.5 years and he was the only one there who knew how to do these finishes. He quit so they stopped....so the legend goes. Mike Edridge at Fender, at one time, stated Fender could still do these finishes but would charge a whopping amount of money to do so. So??? Ummm.... Also to clarify a few things I have read online, and other forums, about these finishes, they ARE NOT Foto-flame finishes like used by Fender Japan in the mid-1990s. I address those finishes on my website here: http://xhefriguitars.com/page7.html

One person said this is done with aluminum foil, hinting like their is foil under the finish. I don't think so, but maybe in another way. Let me explain. This is a painted finish. It is quite clear to see that when you examine it closely. What I think is done is the body is sprayed with a solid red color, similar to lipstick red and is allowed dry. Then it is sprayed with a light coat of black and then while it is wet, the finisher takes crumpled aluminum foil and wipes the finish in single strokes from the route outward. I am using some speculating here, but have done quite of bit of custom paint work on Street Rods over the years. It is allowed to dry and then is block sanded. A back burst is painted around the edges and then the body is clear coated with a clear that has a very fine red metal flake in it.

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Now I mentioned that the neck had been refinished, and done very poorly. I imagine this was done because there was finish peeling on the edges, then some goofball thought they could make it better by doing a refinish job, but did not know what they were doing. The face of the headstock was just clear coated over but the rest of the neck was stripped, thus leaving the face of the headstock darker, as Fender uses a light Maple stain in their process.

I set out to make sure there was no lacquer finish left on the face of the fret board. I applied lacquer thinner and then used a sharp (Romanian) knife to scrape off every bit of finish so I was down to bare wood. This also removed any contaminates that might be on the neck or wood. To my surprise, there was still a bit of finish lurking. CSI is a must.... I used the knife to scrape clean the edges of the frets where they meet the fretboard as well.

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Now for the painful part. I first used 180 grit paper to rough the surface a bit and then used 600 grit and sanded the finish WITH THE GRAIN. If you do what your humanity wants to do and sand between the frets against the grain the stain with show the lines from your sanding!!! What a painful process, especially up past the 12th fret. You can see the color difference between the headstock and the fret board!

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When it was completely sanded and cleaned, I used a liberal amount of Maple Stain. BUT, since this color difference is not very much, I QUICKLY wiped the stain off with a clean paper towel and made sure to get in next to the frets as well. Thus a nice light stained maple look.

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Now look at the color! It is a tad-bit lighter that the headstock but after a few coats of lacquer, it will darken a little. BTW, Allparts catalogs work great for spills and messes, and are a MUST for all guitar repair benches! This needs to dry for about 2 days. Since I leave for India on Monday, Sunday I will shoot two coats of clear on this and let it dry for a week. Then I will sand it lightly and shoot one more coat on and then let it dry again before buffing it. Painful process but the end result should be close to original....I hope! I just want Uncle Murphy to be at YOUR house this Sunday!!!

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:15 pm
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Lots happening today! Packing for a trip overseas, plowing snow and working on guitars. I had the time to get the first coats of lacquer on the face of the fretboard for this Firestorm Maple neck. I was checking out the body again as well. When I get back from India I will buff this again with a little more pinky-winkie and then wax it.

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On these first coats I am going to mask off the fretboard. When I get back I might shoot 2 coats over the whole back of the neck as well, but right now I want to get this wood sealed off. One does not want over-spray on the other parts.

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The first coat went on pretty smooth. I was trying to decide if I was going to shoot this with automotive mixed lacquer or acrylic lacquer out of a can. I opted for the 2nd due to not knowing what the Micky-mouse re finisher used the first time. It seems like the finish was very sensitive to even a little lacquer thinner. Automotive lacquer that is mixed and sprayed is pretty hot, so if I decide to shoot that on the back of the neck it could lift the old finish. The acrylic lacquer in a can is not so hot and is a lot more forgiving. Below is right after the 1st coat was applied. Went on bumpy as first (which is normal) and then flowed out nice and smooth, sealing off the wood as it dried.

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Ok the next pictures are for Mr. C. I know his spying eye does not miss the finest details and he loves to take in the "behind the scenes" thingys in the pictures. (have not heard from Mr C for awhile!) Here is the work bench from an angle and as much as I hate to show the mess downunder (absolutely no reference to you Auzzies or Kiwis!!!) this is the shelf under the "cat scratch" work bench. What a lot of guitar "gems" are stashed down there:

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When you turn to another corner of the "guitar work room" you see this mess! A few old 1970s Bassman Amps and a couple of my "kicker" guitars and some parts....

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Ok now a few hours have passed and I am ready for the second coats. They also laid down very nice. After drying for an hour or so I pulled off the tape and took a few pictures. I will allow the finish to dry a little over a week before going the last round of finish. The first two picts with the TAPE REMOVED are with natural light with NO FLASH and then the last one I used flash.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:56 pm
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Watching with much interest. It already ios a beautiful and once restored, even more so. I love this Fireburst.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2012 10:21 pm
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I'm new here but love what you do! I've been watching this with huge interest and can't wait to see the final outcome. We need more people like you and less of the amateurs who 'molested' this beauty! Keep up the good work! :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 12:28 am
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The Strat Ultra was also available in Firestorm.

Not sure if it's another custom build from yours:

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:52 am
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chromeface wrote:
Not sure if it's another custom build from yours:
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Not one of my guitars but did bid on this one as it was on eBay a few weeks ago. I was communicating with the seller as he did not really know what was done to this guitar. i share a little to help him advertise it better. Seemed like s really nice guy. Looks kind of cool with the Chrome Domes and the B/R/B pickguard!

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 4:08 am
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Most of your custom builds had SSS, HSS and HSH pickup layouts.

Not sure if you plan building a Flame superstrat with two (HH) or three humbuckers (HHH).


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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:06 pm
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I spent part of the day wet sanding the neck (finally!) And decided to also wet sand and buff the pickguard as the previous owner also used the steel wool to polish this as well. Supper micro-scratches everywhere. I will have more picts on Sunday and I do some more buffing and start putting this back together. I will take some picts of the buffing process to boot.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 9:25 pm
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I like the darker burst


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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:16 pm
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This is just beautiful! Such an unusual finish, brought back by one of the masters.

And...to get a glimpse into the workshop...what a treat.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finishing touches.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2012 4:42 pm
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Ok, Where did I leave off? Oh ya, the pickguard (scratchplate for you Britts and Auzzies) The thing had all those micro-scopic scratches on it. So as i showed you previously, I took it apart. Now i have it on me buffing bench. I have templates underneath all that rubbing compound, where I can screw down Strat, Tele, and back plates from Fender guitars. I screwed this one down and put on a good amount of fairly course rubbing compound.

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After a good lower speed buffing applying some pressure, this cuts the finish scratched off and starts to add the shine. Them I take my pinky-winky compound. This is really some hard to find old "swirl mark remover" made years ago by NAPA. is is a super fine polish that removes biffing marks and adds a high gloss luster to a finish.

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Here is the end result!

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I gave the body another pinky-winky rubbing and then went over ot with a fine clean polish cloth. Then used some micro-wax to finish it off. This protects the finish and keeps that high gloss shine. Then I put it all back together. The end results are very nice. I am still working on the neck. Had to put on a few more coats of clear and will have that done this week and this will be completely put back together. (hope.... :? )

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 8:26 pm
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ALL DONE!!!!! the guitar look very new, not prefect (Did I mention I am OCD?? :lol: ) The neck turned out nice and everything is clean and shiny, just the way a guitar like this should look! Here is the finished product.

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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:00 pm
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all i can say is "wow" :mrgreen:


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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 5:16 am
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Very nice Xhefri, I'm stumped as to why anyone would use steel wool on any guitar, BARBARIC. Thank God the guitar found you.

For what it's worth, I believe I have seen the blue version of this finish. It was at some jam in the 90s, I didn't know a lot about Strats at the time but I'm pretty sure it had those pole-less pickups. The streaks had a distinctly "done by hand" look about them. The "scrunched tin foil on wet paint" theory is a good one, it explains why the one posted by Chromeface looks so different.

Keep it up X, I'm watching with interest.

Goodonya ....Mark.


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Post subject: Re: Strat Plus DX in Rare Firestorm Finish - CSI Forensics
Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2012 11:59 am
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Cool job, well done!

BTW, I'm airbrusher or at least used to be in the 90s (too many hobbies, some hat to freeze, like my airbrushwork).

You get similar finishes by spraying the paint while placing a brush or something similar (or bigger, as in this case) onto the surface. Some of the paint will go through the hairs of the brush, some don't. Gives some pretty cool effects, especially when you try to airbrush the fur of an animal. ;)

This finish looks pretty much like done in this style. Just don't know, what he used to cover the body. Some big brush or broom??

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