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What kind of paint won't get dissolved by nitro lacquer?

littleman
May 21st, 2012, 06:03 PM
I'm working on refinishing a telecaster, and have a bunch of StewMac aerosol cans of nitrocellulose clear gloss. I've got the body stained and sealed (with StewMac nitro sanding sealer) and I'm planning to have my wife draw some designs on it. Problem is, it looks like most paint mediums would get dissolved when I lacquer over them. Can anyone think of a black artistic medium that won't be affected by the solvents and thinner in the clear coat? I know acrylic is out, as are sharpies. Maybe India ink?

Thinlineggman
May 21st, 2012, 06:12 PM
Have you thought about maybe burning the drawings into the wood? I saw a bass that had a big stingray on the face that was burned in with a soldering iron. It looked really cool!

musicalmartin
May 21st, 2012, 06:34 PM
Artists acrylics are fine as are Tamiya model paint as are most water based paints .Just try them first to make sure on a scrap of wood .I used this all the time on model autos .A base coat of Acrylic artists color and then a top coat of clear nitro .One method is to make sure the first coat is just a frosting or light dusting and dries off a bit before hitting it with a heavier wetter coat but water based acrylics are fine .Tamiya is the best paint . Very high quality .Make sure any decals are nitro proof .

Bud Veazey
May 21st, 2012, 08:55 PM
I have used nitro over acrylic (see pix below). You just have to start off with a a couple of very light coats. There was some bubbling where I hit it with a little too much nitro on the first pass, but after the initial coats, everything was cool.

Silverface
May 22nd, 2012, 04:52 PM
Not all acrylics are out.

I've used a product called "Breakthrough" by Vanex corporation for many years on certain relics. It's easily tintable with acrylic medium from some place like Aaron Brothers, dries in an hour, sands well (if you need to) and I've always topcoated it with clear or toner lacquers. I gave a pint pour-off to a buddy specifically for the type of application you're looking at - he did some kind of artwork, tinting several colors (I think he used Tints-All) and used Mohawk aerosol lacquer over it with no problem.

Breakthrough is usually stocked by Paint stores that deal with commercial and industrial coatings contractors. It has tremendous adhesion and is used in the trade for painting anodized aluminum windows.

littleman
May 22nd, 2012, 08:33 PM
Thanks for all the input. I think we're going to go the wood burning route - I looked up some other woodburned guitars on Google Images and really like how they turned out, and it will work well for what I had in mind, which is an amber stained wood finish with a tree drawn over it.

I'll be sure to post pics when it's done!