Nitro paint help

[theaudiobully]

Hi all,

I recently painted an old squire strat (sorry, I know it's not a tele but I have gotten a lot of general advice from this forum). Stripped the poly finish and sanded it back. It's made of two pieces of wood and you can see the line where they have been glued together.

I spray painted it with a nitro paint but I can see the line through the paint.

Wondering if there is a way to sort it? The guitar has had 2/3 coats and I'd say is good enough.

 

[Uncle Daddy]

Did you use a primer/sealer?

 

[theaudiobully]

Did you use a primer/sealer?

I didn’t no. Read conflicting stuff so didn’t bother.

 

[Uncle Daddy]

I've alwayed used shellac as a sealer as you can see where the low spots are when you sand it, then a primer followed by the nitro top coat.

You may be able to lose some of the join line in the buffing process.

 

[Freeman Keller]

StewMac has a nitro finishing schedule that covers both porous and non porous woods, opaque and transparent finishes. I have found that following it has yelded perfect finishes

Nitrocellulose Finishing Schedule - StewMac

A step-by-step flow chart of nitrocellulose finishing.

www.stewmac.com

 

[ArtieFufkin]

When painting 2 or 3 peice tele bodies I have followed this basic route to a very decent result with rattle cans.
Grain filler, nitro sanding sealer, nitro primer, then the colour, then nitro lacquer.
In my experiance there are no short cuts.

 

[theaudiobully]

When painting 2 or 3 peice tele bodies I have followed this basic route to a very decent result with rattle cans.
Grain filler, nitro sanding sealer, nitro primer, then the colour, then nitro lacquer.
In my experiance there are no short cuts.

Yeah I basically skipped that and went straight on the wood

Think it's worth stripping it and starting again?

It was just a bit of fun as my Squire was just sat gathering dude, so thought I might as well spruce it up, get some cheap but decent pickups and give it to my daughter when she's big enough to play it. So I'm not massively precious about it being perfect.

 

[LowCaster]

I like nitro because it’s thin and shows the wood grain. Obviously if you don’t want the grain or defects like the glue line to show, you’ll have to seal and fill. Now that you started without filling, it is not absolutely necessary to strip completely. Though it is not as effective, your first coats of nitro can be your sealer/filler, just sand it a bit, apply two new coats, and do it again until you get the result you want…

Wait, show us a pic before!

 

[ArtieFufkin]

Think it's worth stripping it and starting again?

That's your call to make, depends how keen you are to learn I guess. its a lot of work and commitment to get it right and quite expensive in materials (paint).

I purchased everything from here https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/

I followed the steps in this video series





Below are some images of a black tele I sprayed, I let the paint harden for probably 10 weeks before I polished it. Thats the ceiling light reflecting in the paint.

 

[Boreas]

Yeah I basically skipped that and went straight on the wood

Think it's worth stripping it and starting again?

It was just a bit of fun as my Squire was just sat gathering dude, so thought I might as well spruce it up, get some cheap but decent pickups and give it to my daughter when she's big enough to play it. So I'm not massively precious about it being perfect.

I personally wouldn't bother on an old Squier Strat. But if you want it perfect, you will have to - it won't be as hard to strip as the original poly! It is verboten to skip steps on a thin nitro finish. Maybe you just want the practice. But nitro is getting pricey nowadays. May cost more than the body is worth.

 

[AAT65]

Hi all,

I recently painted an old squire strat (sorry, I know it's not a tele but I have gotten a lot of general advice from this forum). Stripped the poly finish and sanded it back. It's made of two pieces of wood and you can see the line where they have been glued together.

I spray painted it with a nitro paint but I can see the line through the paint.

Wondering if there is a way to sort it? The guitar has had 2/3 coats and I'd say is good enough.

I went by the North West Guitars video tutorials (and bought rattle-can nitro from them) - grain filler, sanding sealer, primer, the whole works. Coverage was good (but I still need to sort the clear coat, which went really misty…).

 

[Uncle Daddy]

I went by the North West Guitars video tutorials (and bought rattle-can nitro from them) - grain filler, sanding sealer, primer, the whole works. Coverage was good (but I still need to sort the clear coat, which went really misty…).

Probably too cold or damp when you sprayed it.

 

[ArtieFufkin]

I went by the North West Guitars video tutorials (and bought rattle-can nitro from them) - grain filler, sanding sealer, primer, the whole works. Coverage was good (but I still need to sort the clear coat, which went really misty…).

Humidity probably too high. I've had that happen, had to wait for dry weather

 

[AAT65]

Probably too cold or damp when you sprayed it.

I agree… and it was over a year ago, but I didn’t think I’d get good dry spraying conditions for a few months so I put it all together again and just played it… now I don’t know when I will summon up the energy to dismantle the beast and fix it!
(BTW here is my (Re)Finishing thread.)

 

[eallen]

It doesnt matter if it is a squire or a $10,000 custom shop body any surface deviations in wood are just going to show thru in the finish. The purpose of sealer is the higher solid content & type allows slight imperfections to be filled with minimized shrinkage. Nitro will also continue to shrink for extended period especially if applied excessively heavy coats.

When you say you "painted" it with nitro, i assume that means color coat and no clear? After a year Nitro has done quite a bit of its shrinkage. An advantage of Nitro is more clear can be applied. Option 1, wipe with naphtha to remove any contaminates. For long setting Nitro I like to wipe down very lightly with lacquer thinner. Others will differ. Start building up with 8-9 light coats of clear 40 minutes apart. Block sand level, follow with a couple more coats. Let set until hard for buffing.

Another advantage of nitro is an entire finish job can be wiped off in 30 minutes with lacquer thinner or acetone wearing the proper PPE. Wipe it off, apply sealer, block sand flat, color, clear.

 

[theaudiobully]

I like nitro because it’s thin and shows the wood grain. Obviously if you don’t want the grain or defects like the glue line to show, you’ll have to seal and fill. Now that you started without filling, it is not absolutely necessary to strip completely. Though it is not as effective, your first coats of nitro can be your sealer/filler, just sand it a bit, apply two new coats, and do it again until you get the result you want…

Wait, show us a pic before!

Tricky to capture on photo but here’s the best i could do

 

[theaudiobully]

It doesnt matter if it is a squire or a $10,000 custom shop body any surface deviations in wood are just going to show thru in the finish. The purpose of sealer is the higher solid content & type allows slight imperfections to be filled with minimized shrinkage. Nitro will also continue to shrink for extended period especially if applied excessively heavy coats.

When you say you "painted" it with nitro, i assume that means color coat and no clear? After a year Nitro has done quite a bit of its shrinkage. An advantage of Nitro is more clear can be applied. Option 1, wipe with naphtha to remove any contaminates. For long setting Nitro I like to wipe down very lightly with lacquer thinner. Others will differ. Start building up with 8-9 light coats of clear 40 minutes apart. Block sand level, follow with a couple more coats. Let set until hard for buffing.

Another advantage of nitro is an entire finish job can be wiped off in 30 minutes with lacquer thinner or acetone wearing the proper PPE. Wipe it off, apply sealer, block sand flat, color, clear.

yes bud that is correct - just a straight colour coat. TBH I'm not massively bothered, I just wondered if there was a quick(ish) fix. If there isn't then I'll just leave it as it is. I have a bunch of decent guitars so it's not like it's my main one. It was just a fun project as I had some free time and wanted something fun to do.

 

[LowCaster]

Ok, I fear that a straight line like this may keep showing through multiple layers of finish. If you want to hide it it would be better to start over again and do a real preparation work.

On the other hand it’s not really disturbing, and also it would disappear under some racing stripes, stickers or other artwork that the kid will be happy to put on it.

 

[AAT65]

Tricky to capture on photo but here’s the best i could do

Looks pretty good to me!
FWIW if I hold my American Elite Tele to the light just right I can see the seams of its 3-piece body through the poly coat.