Proper procedure to finish a kit guitar in Candy Apple Red ?

Could any help me out and give me a detailed process for finishing a kit guitar in Candy Apple Red. It already has a sealer on it.
Thanks
Ian

What are you going to use for spray? Spray cans or a compressor and a gun?

You can get a decent candy with rattle cans on the cheap. From where you are I would prime with white or black, then silver metallic base, then the red tinted clear like duplicolor metalcast (http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html) or krylon X-Metals (http://www.krylon.com/products/xmetals), then loads of clear.

I imagine the same is true for spray equipment as well in terms of the coats, just different paint, thinning, etc. But I've no expertise there.

good luck and welcome.

Classic Fender "custom colours" (back in the day) were automotive paint from DuPont. If I was doing a candy finish I'd check out "House of Kolor". Many options there for interesting finishes. That's the standard supplier for hot rod and bike builders these days.http://www.houseofkolor.com

Is it sanded smooth? I got a grizzly kit that came with a sealer but not sanded. If it is sanded and sealed you basically need to prime it, paint it, and clear coat over it. Check out re-ranch and stew mac for supplies and stuff. Good luck!

Reranch carries CAR. It's a hidden color. To buy it you select any color, then in the comments box tell them you want Candy Apple Red. As for the process, the popular steps are to spray a silver metallic base coat. You could use reranch Inca silver, or maybe duplicolor metal specks silver, or rustoleum silver. Next is the trans red over the silver base. This is the tough part. Sometimes it's difficult to apply the trans red evenly, so take your time.

Originally I believe the base coat was actually gold. I prefer the look of a gold metallic base myself, and plan to use reranch gold top on a CAR project. It's very close to the color gold I've seen on several vintage guitars.

Is just the candy-apple red colour, or the Fender candy-wrapper coating, which I thought is a metallic foil applied to the body before painting, my candy-cola red AmSer certainly has an electrically conducting shield there. Where chipped, it is a gold colour showing through but could be anodized or primered aluminium.

test panels. test panels. test panels. Have I mentioned you should try it on scrap first? Getting the red on evenly but not so thick that it obscures the flake underneath is tough and needs practice so you get used to the materials.

First off I would like to thank all of you for responding to my plead for help.
Yes My kit has been sealed and sanded smooth.
I am hoping to do it with spray bombs, but I do have access to a compressor and spray guns.
thanks for the advice to try it on a scrape piece first, sounds like good advice,
how many coats of clear should I apply after the Clear-red is on?

thanks again

The proper sequence is: grain filler (on ash) or sanding sealer (alder), white primer, gold base coat, trans red shader coats, clear top coats.

Okay, The Gold has been sprayed on , 5 Coats .
Do I need to Sand before I put on the Transparent Red?
Also after the Red is on will I need to sand again before the clear?

Do not sand. You want the flakes to be standing at different angles so that they reflect the most light. I hope you haven't touched it or laid it down on anything, or done anything to disturb the flakes. Look at the body from different angles. Make sure everything looks even and that there aren't any blotchy areas. If there are it will become even more apparent later. I'd do a search on metallics and make sure you got this step done right. There aren't really any short cuts with CAR. There is a CAR survivors club over at the reranch for a reason. Be careful and don't take anything for granted. CAR is Murphy's favorite dish.

No I haven't sanded the gold and have not laid it down, its still hanging, Thanks for the info, I am Assuming no sanding after the transparent Red is applied either. is that correct?

Right. Wait till your clear is laid down and cured. Most likely it's going to be bumpy. When I spray metallics I spray 2 cans of clear. I let that cure for a week or 2. Then I wetsand with 600 or 800 to smooth out the orange peel. Then I spray about 2 or 3 more coats and let that dry for another 2 weeks. 30 days total.