painting a tele body black

[thunderbyrd]

a few years ago a shop near here had a black custom shop telecaster that i was crazy about. but the price was somewhere above $4000 and there was no way for me to justify that much money.

so i have had it in mind ever since to build one as much like that one as i can get. i want to try to paint the body myself. i did finish a strat body in tru-oil a few years ago, but have never tried to paint one.

i just want to know if i can just spray paint a body with rattle cans and get by. what's the right number of coats? what color should the primer be?

 

[Freeman Keller]

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Black is one of the hardest colors to spray and get it to look perfect. When I'm shooting color I might use 2 or 3 coats of vinyl sealer, 6 or 8 or more coats of color, 12 or so of clear, Sand to 320 between groups of three, get the last clear coat as good as you can, wet sand to 2000 and buff. Depending on the wood you may or may not need to pore fill.

ps - get the little nozzles that StewMac sells, they give a much finer pattern than regular rattle cans. They can be cleaned in lacquer thinner after each use.

 

[stratisfied]

Is this your first build?

 

[thunderbyrd]

Is this your first build?

i've got a guitar tech buddy who will put the parts together for me. i just wondered how difficult painting it myself would be.

 

[Fenderbaum]

i've got a guitar tech buddy who will put the parts together for me. i just wondered how difficult painting it myself would be.

Tru-Oil is very easy, painting and laquering is a different ballgame. Mush harder but not super hard.
If you want a poly or nitro gloss, there is some patience involved with it.

I would turn the process around. Assembling the guitar is easier than painting it.
If your tech got skills in painting bodies, let him handle that and assemble the guitar yourself. Much more fun.
If wiring up electronics is not for you, might let him handle that or get finished harness or Obisidian wire kits.
Assembling Fenders is not that hard. Telecasters are the easiest.

Are you, or have you bought your body unfinished or do you make one from scratch.
Could do it easy and find a finished lacquered one. But if you wanna give a try i see why not.

 

[bumnote]

This was my first finish job from a few up years ago, all spray cans. Reranch LPB & Deft Gloss lacquer from Amazon.
I didn't use a primer or sealer, it's about 4/5th's of the LPB can & half of the lacquer can...I want it to age. I sanded it very smoothly to start, so skipping those steps wasn't a problem, the first couple of coated of LBP were greenish though without a primer base.
Later I checkered the finish with a $20 space heater & 3 cans of compressed air. Heat up the finish and then quickly blast it with an upside down can of compressed air.

Honestly it's not hard...if you study up on it a head of time. LOTS of good tutorial videos out there...and if you screw up, sand it bare & start over. Had to do that once on another project when I rushed & did pay attention to humidity.
I'd skip Reranch & Gracey's & use Dupli-Color car paint...1/2 to 1/3 of the price and there's a ton of color options. That's what I've used on my last couple of projects.
Two $20 space heaters from Amazon during the wet paint & lacquer on the body will solve that.

 

[Happy Enchilada]

+1 on the StewMac nozzles - far easier to do it right than with the standard rattle can nozzles.

Trick I learned recently goes back to how Fender used to paint single-color bodies. They had a board with 4 nailheads sticking up that they'd balance the body on top of. Then spray the top HORIZONTALLY so the danger of runs is somewhat less. It's tempting to hang the piece up and shoot it, but you're asking for runs when gravity turns on you. Instead of a board and nails, I put a kleenex box down on my bench and covered it with a towel and then set the guitar on top of that.

A friend also made a special stick that's the size and shape of the proximal end of a neck. It has a hook on the other end to hang from. Two screws go in just like attaching a neck, and in addition to making it easier to handle the body, it protects the neck pocket from getting paint in there and gumming things up. This lets you hang it up and shoot the back of the piece VERTICALLY if you want, but watch those dagblamed runs!

 

[Freeman Keller]

^^^ I always shoot my guitars laying flat on their back or top (I don't do the lazy susan with nails however). I can walk around the guitar and control the amount of finish and the pattern on the sides. I tried hanging a few, just wasn't good enough to make it work.

 

[985plowboy]

My son and I painted a Tele body.
We bought an Alvarez telecaster shaped guitar at a pawn shop cheap. It was black and my boy wanted it orange.
We stripped it with a heat gun and sand paper. Skim coated it with wood filler and sanded again.
We used Walmart spray paint options.
Couple coats of primer, 4-5 coats of color, 3-4 coats of clear.
It turned out good enough for what we put into it and we had a lot of fun.

Not only is it orange in color, but it has the texture of a Valencia as well!
Not just everyone has something that authentic.

 

[stratisfied]

I also like to paint my bodies laid flat.

The reason I ask if this is your first attempt is that black is very unforgiving by nature of its reflectivity. Imperfections stand out and you must use a sanding block (rigid for flats and flexible for contours) as your fingertips will leave ridges and waves in the finish that are visible when you angle the surface to the light. You can hand sand but must use a light touch with the side of your hand, not your fingertips.

If you can spray even coats without runs and sand a surface dead flat for buffing and polishing, you can pull it off, especially in lacquer. If not, you should prepare practice pieces and finish them from primer through buffed-out final finish to practice your technique.

The painting process is no different than any other color, it just requires higher standards of preparation, wet sanding and buffing. The better your prepared surface, the fewer clear-coats and wet sanding will be required.

 

[bumnote]

Here's a tip on how to apply paint & finish.