Painters & Finishers! Help me out!

[dean]

I just got my '67 Starfire III, and I need a little advice. It has been stripped and sprayed with clearcoat (nitro), and the wood looks pretty nice. I studied the ReRanch Cherry Red process and am wondering if it will work on this guitar since the wood is darker mahogany.


Is there any way I can get a decent original looking Guild cherry red color without first dying the wood? Is there a way for me to just do the spray steps and get the original color? Seems like a coat of sander/sealer plus the color and clear coats might do it. I'd rather not have to sand the guitar all the way down to the wood. I can see where the dye might be necessary for a lighter maple veneer, but what about the mahogany?

Any advice on how to go about refinishing this Starfire is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dean

[Martinp]

I'm not real sure what your axe looked like initially, but if you us the Reranch Heritage or Cherry Red spray lacquer (it's one color).
it'll give you a nice sorta SG color over mahogany.
I'd prep it with come 400 grit, and I'd put a shellac sealer over it so the finish below won't melt
and shoot the Red followed by lots of clear and wet sanding.

it's not hard, you just have to go slow to get good results
mp

[BLACKCAT69]

to dial in the proper mix of alcohol or water with your dye to achieve the colour you want. There are a lot of factors to consider, in particular the fact that the mahogany has darkened considerably with time.

[Teletwang]

dean, first off, cool Guild! Don't you like the natural
look? I think if you really want the cherry look, it
should be stripped, washcoat, filled, sealed, colored,
binding scraped, build-up coats, sanded, finish coats,
sanded, final coats, wet sanded, buffed. I'm not
so sure the ReRanch is what this guitar should have.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2384&item=37648740 96&rd=1#ebayphotohosting[/img]

[dean]

The ideas help a lot. The more I think about it, the necessity of stripping it back to wood is probably the best way to go - that way, I'll have control over the entire process. I have done a fair amount of finishing/refinishing, so I'm pretty confident I can do a nice job. If I don't use ReRanch products, I'll have to use a Preval sprayer - I have access to a spray booth but no spraying equipment.

Teletwang - you wrote:

I'm not so sure the ReRanch is what this guitar should have.

Could you elaborate on that a bit? Any other opinions?

Thanks, again.

Dean

[Drak]

Here's what I would do:

1) CAREFULLY take everything off the instrument, label and bag everything carefully, and strip it down to bare wood. Be -SO- careful whatever way you decide to strip it, NO strippers (will eat the binding and may loosen old glue joints) just take your time, that is a SWEET guitar!

I'm going to bet that that top is a veneer, it's too highly figured and perfect to be genuine wood all the way thru, so be warned, you're dealing with a thin figured veneer top over some other wood, probably plywood, no heavy sanding or it's all over! Haha!

2) I would strip it clean, sand up to 320, blow it off, and clear coat it with several coats of lacquer, then carefully sanding it back until it's smooth.

This will give you time to appraise the look of the guitar in a natural finish, it's so pretty, you may want to stop right there and just finish it up in natural.

I would NOT dye the veneer itself. IF you're not happy with the natural look, then mix your red dye into your lacquer and apply it as a shader coat.

Again, this is to your advantage because trying to dye the wood itself, you'd better get it perfect the first time, or you're toast. Shooting shader coats over clear, you can shoot a light coat, look at it, if it's not dark enough, you can shoot another, so you're buying yourself some 'insurance' room here, and that guitar will look better with shader coats over natural rather than dying the wood itself anyway.

Then shoot 1/2 dozen clearcoats over your last shader coat, let it dry for 3 MONTHS, not weeks, if you don't want pore holes showing up.

Slam, a gorgeous guitar.

PS, don't forget to fill in all the little screw holes before you refinish it so your screws will have some new meat to bite into once you put it all together again, especially the tailpiece screw holes.

I really love that guitar!

:)

[Teletwang]

Originally Posted by dean

Teletwang - you wrote:

Could you elaborate on that a bit? Any other opinions?

dean, I meant that I'm literally not sure about
using ReRanch. I imagine it works well for solid colors.
Here you're trying to duplicate that Guild transparent
red. I've only used McFadden lacquers w/ proper
equipment. I guess I'm a little old school that way
but if you feel confident w/ yourself another way...
go for it. Mostly I posted to assure you that starting
w/ bare wood is the way to go for this Guild.



http://www.lawrence-mcfadden.com/