Removing finish tips.

Hello guys, I've been wanting to start a little project with my stratocaster but don't know the right equipment for this small project, so I was wondering if anyone in this forum can help me out.

Alright, well my stratocasters body is a light bluish color and it's a 95' mim strat, it's beginning to get the "vintage" wear on the finish, but as much as I love the natural vintage look on a strat, I could've only wished that the body color would've been white! I've been wanting to remove the finish of my strat for several months now but I was indecisive about this, but I've finally made up my mind. I'm going to do it! I love my strat and there isn't any other strat that plays like this one! So buying a white strat won't be an option for me, plus I don't have the cash for it. Haha.

Alright, alright. Can anybody give me some tips into how to remove the finish, should I use sand paper? If so what size grit? I don't have the Cash to buy fancy equipment for this project. Also I was planning on removing the finish as of now and then coating it with a clear coat and keep it as a natural color for now before I go out and buy the actual white paint, again because I don't have the cash for that as of now.

For now I would like to know what would be the best grit sized sand paper, and the best clear coating for this small project?

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The finish on that guitar is almost certainly poly. I would not use sandpaper. A chemical stripper (use it in a well ventilated area) or a (very carefully applied) heat gun is probably best for removing poly.

Poly is a VERY tough finish and can take forever to sand away.

Another very good option is to scuff sand it (220 would probably be sufficient) and paint directly over the current paint.

Thanks for the advice, I might go for the Chemical Stripper. How exactly does this chemical work? I'm completely new to this. Do I just apply it to the body and stripp it down with a scraper?

Here are some pictures of my guitar.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/markrendon/Guitar1.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/markrendon/Guitar3.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i17/markrendon/Guitar5.jpg

The heat gun is the way to do this - imo. Sandpaper will drive you crazy and stripper takes forever and is too messy and expensive. You have to be the judge of whether or not you trust yourself to do this with a heat gun. When done correctly - you can sometimes remove the paint and leave the sealer which means you can go straight to prepping and then priming. One word of caution though - be VERY aware that sometimes the finish on these guitars is so thick that you can end up with setup issues because the bridge sits lower on the body. This results in bridge saddles that will not adjust high enough to achieve the desired action. In a couple of extreme cases I have ended up having to deepen the neck pocket and shorten the tremolo block because it protruded out of the back of the guitar when the re-finishing was completed. :shock: :shock: :shock: Those guitars were MIA and in both cases the stripping and refinishing were not done by me. When in doubt, get someone who has experience to look at it.