Some advice on refinishing a 66 Tele.

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by jwells393

Bruce ......... what do you plan to use for your color coat? Mix your own or use a spray can? I refinished a G&L Legacy with ReRanch Fender Blond once and it turned out much more yellow than I wanted. I just noticed that he now offers a "Mary Kaye White" . While I think his prices are too high for your project, this just might be the ticket.

http://reranchstore.stores.yahoo.net/marykayewhite.html

I'll try to get a comparison shot of the Fender Blonde and my '66.

I plan to mix my own right now. I've order solid color pigments from StewMac in White and Yellow. Should have today or tomorrow. I have liquid stain tints in Vintage Amber, Tobacco Brown and Red Mahogany here.

I'm thinking I can work with white, yellow, amber and brown in some some lac thinner to get a thinned stain and add this gradually to lacquer for spraying.

I think I'll have more control over the transparency of the finish this way. I can get some grain to show and if it doesn't look right I can deepen things to go for a more opaque look.

I plan to shoot the edges with a white primer first to completely hide the repairs and may have to lightly mist the whole body with white depending on how it looks.

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

Oh, I missed the part about using water based. Yeah, you want oil based. BUT I think you need to sand and seal again. That fills those tiny spots the filler missed or came out of. .

That's pretty much what I've done. Sanded down the water-based and sealed again. Then oil based grain filler over that after it dried overnight.

Originally Posted by Old Cane

And you should be able to sand the filler after leaving it overnight. Shoot a couple of coats of S&S and then sand it the next day. Now, ready for primer/paint.

You can sand the oil based after drying overnight and then prime it? I had read that it should dry up to a week.

What kind of primer?

[PJ]

The only reason I had suggested having a pro "look" at it, was to give Bruce some ideas of cost & time to do something like that.
Even suggest an approach, since I know Bruce was considering different methods to achieve what he was going after. But, mostly,
because, I wouldn't know where to start a project like that. I little over my woodworking skill-level.

[BAW4742]

I sanded back the grain filler and shot a couple of more coats of sealer. Then sanded this back a little and shot some primer.

More sanding and now I'm here.







The white primer showed a few small spots that need some work. So I'll get to those and then shoot some more primer. The 1st coat of white does a good job of hiding the patches at the edges. I'm hoping I can hide a little more with the next coat.

[BAW4742]

Here's a couple of closer shots of the edges.

[jwells393]

Those edges look great.

Just a suggestion here ........... I'd feather back that primer on the front and back until it only extended about an inch from the edges.

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by jwells393

Those edges look great.

Just a suggestion here ........... I'd feather back that primer on the front and back until it only extended about an inch from the edges.

Thanks Jack.

I've actually sanded back a little more since I shot those pictures. And I'm going to have to hit a few spots with some more filler and sand again. The primer showed some tiny spots that I missed with the sealer and grain filler.

I'll sand it back a little more while I'm sanding off that filler.

I'm thinking one more very thin coat of white primer over the whole body after that. That should even the color out a little more overall. Then I can start the color coats.

[Ron Garson]

It's coming along really well. Great work so far!

[jwells393]

I took mine out in the sun for a better look. The grain is visible almost up to the edge. Actually I can see the grain on the sides. Here's an attempt to photograph the grain. If you look closely you can see it's a three piece body.

......

Here's a higher resolution version.

66 Grain Back

Here's the front.

66 Grain Front

[Old Cane]

Originally Posted by BAW4742

That's pretty much what I've done. Sanded down the water-based and sealed again. Then oil based grain filler over that after it dried overnight.





You can sand the oil based after drying overnight and then prime it? I had read that it should dry up to a week.

What kind of primer?

Yeah, I tend to go really fast on this stuff but if you go to reranch.com and read the instructions it's pretty good but you do have to read between a few of the lines. So far, the reranch primer has been the best. I tried krylon this week and can't seem to get the overspray sanded off. I went ahead with the green color coats and it's still rough. I'm going to have to color sand and I was wanting to try skipping that this time. Oh, well.

Hey, yours is looking just great. I think that priming the edge is just the trick. You've really transformed this thing.

[BAW4742]

oops. wrong paste

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by jwells393

I took mine out in the sun for a better look. The grain is visible almost up to the edge. Actually I can see the grain on the sides. Here's an attempt to photograph the grain. If you look closely you can see it's a three piece body.

I've been looking at the Blonds in Duchossoir's book and I really like the 55 and 58 on page 37 and the 61 on pg 38. Also like the 69 Esquire on pg 41 but it might be a bit to yellow.

The top of your guitar is kinda of in that range of color that I have in mind. Sort of a creamy color with less yellow in it.

Then I might add a slight bit of amber tint to the one of the top coats of lacquer and mist the body for some variation in color and shoot more clear over that.

We'll just have to see what happens.

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by Old Cane

Yeah, I tend to go really fast on this stuff but if you go to reranch.com and read the instructions it's pretty good but you do have to read between a few of the lines. So far, the reranch primer has been the best. I tried krylon this week and can't seem to get the overspray sanded off. I went ahead with the green color coats and it's still rough. I'm going to have to color sand and I was wanting to try skipping that this time. Oh, well.

Hey, yours is looking just great. I think that priming the edge is just the trick. You've really transformed this thing.

I used Zinsser BIN primer on the edges. That was what I could get locally and I didn't want to get into mixing color in lacquer yet so I rattle canned it.

[fezz parka]

Amazing thread and just outstanding work. You should feel pretty good about this!

[Old Cane]

I should have tried that kind but I was already at walmart and......

[PJ]

BAW.......I'm speechless. Terrific job. You should be very proud of your woodshop skills! That'll be some nice '66 when you're done.
Looks like the approach you took was the right way to go at it.
Congratulations....and keep the group up-to-date as it progresses further!

[BAW4742]

I took the weekend off for a little RV trip but I got back to work today.


I sanded the body down a little more and then did some light filling with glazing putty. Then I sanded it the putty and shot another coat of primer. This gave me an even coat with grain still visible.




I let that dry and then sanded it back some with 320 and it looked like this.



So it was time to mix some paint. I mixed some white and yellow pigment together and add this to some Nitro Lacquer that had been thinned 2:1 and shot this on the body. It was thin but eventually covered the white primer.



The grain still shows through but it's hard to see in these pictures.

[BAW4742]

I took the body outside and shot pictures in the sunlight but still couldn't capture the color and the grain very well.



It looks a little yellow to me.

There are also a few places where I sanded through the primer and the wash of blond tint didn't fully hide.



I have some more of the tinted nitro and my first thought was to re shoot these places with jamb gun. I'm not sure about that. The guitar is over 40 years old so I'm thinking some of this stuff may be fine when I shoot nitro over it. Might also give me a good place to start the relicing.

Have to wait and see.

[Buckocaster51]

Looks like you're doing just fine.

If it was me, I would fix that sand through.

But me? Me, I'm anal.

If you know what I mean.

As always, thanks for sharing.

[BritishBluesBoy]

You're doing a fantastic job on this one. Thanks so much for sharing...

[BAW4742]

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

If it was me, I would fix that sand through.

Yeah, that's my first thought too and if it was a new build I wouldn't think twice, just fix it but .................

This project is a little different. Might not be too bad to leave this stuff.

[PJ]

Wow....simply fantastic job. Coming together nicely. And, interesting, even with paint on it - it looks like a vintage Tele.

[Joe Gagan]

i read the whole thread last night in one sitting. really nice job, you showed what determination can do. thanks for posting and all the work that goes into photographing, etc.

jwells, you are the master. i really enjoyed reading your posts.