Resurrecting a bucket-list guitar

[Silverface]

This one was a bit of a challenge.

I was given a softshell case containing a beaten-to-death, black Mustang body with a huge bridge PU rout, giant screw holes and other fun stuff, some weird pickguard and pickup, a bag full of original and non-original screws, no pickups, switches, tuners or trem arm, the original trem tailpiece, original control plate and controls/knobs, original pickguard - painted black - and the original neck with "MUSTANG" and a couple patent numbers scraped off.

Neck has a mid-'64 date. I was entering Jr. High then and playing sax in a surf band, but more than ANYTHING else at that time wanted one of those new red, white or blue Mustangs Fender had just released. But my parents, in their misplaced wisdom, bought me a hollow-body Japanese "St.George" (can you say "low budget Teisco"?) because I could play it acoustically as well (I think I eventually burned it in the fireplace!).

Never did get one. Hundreds of guitars later, no Mustang. So, since I'm turning 60 this year one of my tech buddies "blessed" me with this....interesting...Mustang.

Easy stuff - fixed the decal (but not the patent number...oh, well!), ordered electronics and bridge. Hard stuff - stripped the body (only to find scraps of the original Dakota Red and the original brass shielding!), was amazed I could strip the black-painted pickguard without too many blotches, glued a block to fill in the missing parts of the pickup rout, used Bondo glazing putty to repair major digs/cracks, filled holes with dowels.

Sealed/filled the body with Duplicolor gray high-build primer/sealer - I like this stuff as it fills some cracks as well, limiting grain filling and Bondo were only a limited amount is needed. Sanded smooth with 320 grit, removing most of the gray except for fill spots.

Sprayed the mostly bare wood with a dull-gold aniline dye through an airbrush to approximate the color of Fullerplast, then primed with Valspar lacquer sanding dealer shot through my Capspray HVLP, sanded, primed again, then sanded with 600. (note - all sanding up to this point was dry). No pigmented primer.

Deep reds are a hassle to custom-mix (and the colors have a nasty habit of shifting or "floating", where pigment separates from the vehicle, or resin part of the coating), so I hunted around and found Duplicolor Flame Red was a dead-on match to slightly-aged Dakota Red! Happy - Duplicolor has a nice fine-finish aerosol tip (like ReRanch, Montana Gold and Mohawk's gloss clear).

Sprayed 3 3-pass coats. Wanted some "shinkage" into the grain to show when I was done and was NOT going for a perfect, glassy finish.

Did NOT sand the color coats. Advice - NEVER sand color coats unless you get a run, and then wait a day if you can. There's no reason to (the clear will melt into the color) and 7 times out of 10 you'll create a blotchy surface (plus there's too much of a chance of "sand through").

Added one 3-pass coat and 4 wet coats of Valspar Gloss shot through the Capspray. It came out almost finshed-product smooth, with the heated air of the Capspray and extremely low HVLP pressure (under 4 PSI with a huge amount of heated air) - so I needed very little sanding. I used microfiber pads, working through the grits: 600, 1000, 1250, 1500, 2000, 4000 & 10,000 (the higher numbers are their estimates of equivalents in "normal" wet-or-dry-paper. BUT - I started with a light pass of 320 gold to create some random scratching that none of the following procedures could erase.

Generally I dry-sanded. I only wet-sand every 3rd grit or so to use the slurry as a rubbing compound. With modern sanding materials there's very little actual need for wet sanding - it's more of a habit. Good quality abrasives don't need a water rinse - you can simply brush the "loading" off with a fiber brush.

By final sanding with the pads it really was done, but I still (out of habit) like to polish, so I grabbed a stick of purple polish a jewelry grade, by 7" buffer and lightly gave it a finishing touch. At that point it looked like a well-cared for but obviously well-played 46 year old guitar (the scratching looked worn down, which was the idea behind the 320 grit).

Then I hit just 3-4 spots with random dings, a couple around the neck attachment area and bottom through the primer (only the yellowed (fuax-Fullerplast" dye shows, the gray having been mostly sanded away and the reason for using a clear sealer instead of white primer should be obvious now).

I'd ordered pickups, new switches and correct white-knob Klusons; also did a lacquer-coated inkjet print of the word "MUSTANG" (took 45 minutes to get the size right, which was critical because it was faded on the headstock!). Wired/assembled it all (could not believe the screwball wiring worked immediately - my mind wanted desperately to wire it in some "normal" fashion!) and did a setup. Frets and nut are in decent shape so that was a breeze.

Cowabunga! Everything works great with a set of .011's on it (remember, it's a 24" scale!) - might try .010's later. Had to borrow a trem arm but one's on order. Here it is - the guitar I always wanted...now I just need to find a new surf band - I have this and my '62 Jag!

(test fit of pickguard after I stripped the black paint off it):


(Colors here are a bit pink - actual Dakota Red/Flash Red are much darker)

[mefgames]

My son is still playing his 65 Mustang that I brought back from the dead 20 years ago.

You did a great job on yours !!!!!!

[Tim Armstrong]

BRAVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tim

[Thundersleet]

That's really awesome. Very nice job on that.

A Mustang is on my bucket list too. I was looking at them a few years ago when they were still under the collectors radar and somewhat reasonably affordable. I never did get one though. Now I can't afford a Fender on the headstock so I have my hopes up for a Squier.

[Jupiter]

[Ed P]

Outstanding job!!!!!

[Paul in Colorado]

Back in Jr. High one of my favorite local bands (S.P.E.C.T.R.E.) had two guitarists with Mustangs, one white, one blue. The white one went through a Twin and the blue one a Vibrolux. The guy who played the blue one was left handed and flipped it upside down without changing strings. He was the lead guitar player. There might have been a fuzz box involved, but I kind of doubt it. They played some originals and everything from Kinks and Animals to Moby Grape. If you can't do it with a Mustang, it can't be done.

Congrats on bringing yours back from the dead!

[oramac7891]

Nice work. She's a beauty.