Love you videos, huge help! I just applied my second coat of nitro gloss finish and noticed a small hair/lint on the front and back. How long should I wait before I can lightly sand those out before I apply my final two coats? Thank you so much.
Started finishing an explorer in Olympic white nitro 3 years ago. It was hard to find good info and I ultimately gave up after I made a mistake. Now I've found this video I'm motivated to finally finish it! It's been a wet sanding kinda couple of days 👍
I'm a professional body man over 40 years. Video had one major thing that concerned me but otherwise well done. That is after he waited 24 hours for the paint to dry he went straight to clear coat. At this stage sanding isn't recommended but a midcoat adhesive is. Some will say that's not needed. I have found that in 5 years or more the clear will start to peel. Looks great out of the gate but not for longevity it's not worth missing this step. Especially with enamels and polyurethane. You can buy it in a spray can and it's the same exact step as his sealer. I also found this definitely helps on Sharp edges as well to help hold a little build up. Hope this helps
Yes I do realize this is lacquer. I just emphasize this is needed more over on finishes with hard shells. And a month is sufficient. I prefer to wait 6 weeks even longer for cure.
What a great tutorial. I was looking to buy a nitro finished body but all the ones I have come across do a really heavy relic job. I'm considering just doing this myself and let it wear naturally over time.
Your work have excellent method with a quite clear speech. I will sure be following and hopefully you may go with Polyurethane works as well. Thanks a lot, all the best.
Great video, thanks for posting these. One thing I can’t quite get my brain around though as why in the world you painted such a beautiful piece of wood a solid color! 😮
Just revisiting these tutorials. Really great job Lone Star. I'm just getting into spraying Nitro, and I must admit, I def prefer it over spraying poly
Me too. It's also easy to fix your mistakes and you can use lacquer thinner to go back to the wood and put a new color on. Plus, your guitar will wear nicely unlike poly which is hard as a rock and when it chips, big chunks fly off and make the finish look ugly.
@@TheChattanoogaBandit I don't have guitars with chunks out of them. I've seen on pictures what they do look like. Sometimes what can happen is guitar can fall from your hands or tip over the stand and fall onto hard surface and can crack the heavy poly finish with chunks coming off.
I am refinishing a headstock to match the body on a P bass (capri orange). I did not do a primer coat, just sealer. The color coat is complete orange peel (very small). I intend to sand it with 400 grit and re-spray. Should I reapply sealer or just adjust the color thickness and other variables as described below? I believe this happened for 3 reasons- 1.Temperature was around 90 F. 2. Humidity was high. 3 . I applied it too thick. Any comments/help would be greatly appreciated. Great tutorial, much better than manufaturer's "how - to" instructions!
Very happy to see this. Part 1 got me interested in getting back into making my own guitar, and part 2 has come along just as I am gathering the materials. So many thanks for that! Have you ever dealt with rebel relics in NL? They offer a faded sonic blue spray, which I’ve not found elsewhere, which is perfect for my project, but their website is a little...lacking. Many thanks for your efforts.
Glad to hear that! I haven't dealt with Rebel Relics myself. I did notice that their nitro is quite expensive though. Do they ship overseas? Best of luck with your build!
Lone Star Guitars Agreed on it being expensive, but to colour seems to be unique to them and fits my build very well, so I’ve just accepted paying more. They offered worldwide shipping options, again expensive, so we will see if it arrives. Many thanks.
Awesome tutorial, this is the most helpful by far on YT. Quick question though! How important is letting the nitro cure for 2 weeks? I am building a guitar body for school and I only have 3 weeks to complete the whole thing including painting.
Hey man! Your videos have been super helpful. I had a question with an issue that came up in my finish process. I just sprayed my first color coat tonight and I believe a bunch of moisture got trapped in it. Would you sand that first layer off and start clear coat over again?
Thanks alot, the videos are great! I've got a question though: If I've applied a coat of nitro, and some black particles of dust sticked on it, how long do I have to wait before I'll start wet sanding it?
Haviing troubles with runs in my colour coat too heavy of an application instead of a very light first coat how can I fix this without sanding it back to bare wood as it has a signature on the back.
Is it possible to create a mold with masking tape to paint a design? I would create the design with the tape, paint the rest of the body, then apply tape to the rest of the body and spray the design
Time 14:36 you said you like to let the color dry before clear coat. You should spray the clear coat over the paint as the paint tacts up just like any other coat. So after the last color coat , wait until it tacts up and start your clear coating. In my opinion, don't let the color coat dry for 24 hr before the clear coat, any dirt or bad spots can be sanded out of the clear coat and polish but don't sand though the clear.
The only time you should wait for a week or so is if you're spraying lacquer clear on top of acrylic color coat for example. To let the acrylic fully vent out before applying lacquer on top of it. Some paints specifically tell you to apply clear immediately after the color coats or you have to wait a day or two before applying clear. Something to do with the color coat still being gassy and clear needing that gas to adhere to the color coat.
hello sir!! its pretty cool tutorial! but may I have a question? Ive got quite expensive gibson with the satin finish, its really nice wood-looking walnut model, and I noticed I can do too many deep scrataches. I can do the big scraches with the finger-nail only!! is there any chance to put some lacquer on it without ruin the wooden structure? thank you many times!
Hi great Videos. So after you apply sanding sealer If im understanding correctly you sprayed a coat or so of lacquer finish coat before primer? Or did I misunderstand you.
I'm using a Satin clear coat. I don't have orange peel. My coats are thin and nice, but they feel micro gritty. Is this normal for a satin finish? If I feel I need to sand between sets of coats,.. how long do I let it dry before sanding? Which grit of wet sand should I start with? What grit is compatible with a Satin finish? Can I sand Satin smooth enough to switch to a Gloss? What do people do with a Satin finish if the goal is not a mirror finish? Apologies for all my questions. This is my first Satin nitro finish and I had not anticipated it seeming so dramatically different than a Gloss. Thank you.
Really nice tutorial, very clear. Do you know if I can use nitrocellulose such as these on stripped metal? The metal belongs to a pre-war typewriter and has been stripped of old paint and rust and is slightly abraded. If so, do you think the primer you use here also be a good choice? Thanks!
I’m painting my guitar, if theirs orange peel showing in the base colour then you clear coat over it and buff later wouldn’t the orange peel in the base show through the clear?
The clear coat will dissolve into the color coat. That means you won't see the orange peel through the clear, but the clear might have the orange peel effect as well. Very minor orange peel in the color coat is okay. Major orange peel in the color coat should be sanded flat. Then apply clear.
I noticed that your spray can had a much wider path than what I purchased at the hardware store. It looked like you have about a 6" spray vs mine that is about 3" to 4". I like your product better.
Awesome ! Can I overspray my T-style guitar ? It has a swamp ash body and the back is transparent....I would like it to be brown see-through finish ! Can I make it ? Thanks for your answer and help 🙏👍
Thank you for taking the time to produce such a clear and informative video! It it necessary to grain seal Alder bodies? If we do see orange peel after spraying, what is an appropriate amount of time to wait before sanding? Thank you.
Thanks! Alder usually does not require grain filling. If I have to do any sanding in between coats I usually wait 48 hours and then very carefully wet sand with 1000 grit sandpaper.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge. I have followed your advice, and have finished painting, ready for topcoat. The guitar looks awesome, even better than I expected. One problem I noticed though is a few small paint splatter drops. I feel like if I dry sand or wet sand to try to knock down the drops, then I need to sand the whole body. Other than the drops, the body is really nice and smooth. Any advice? Thanks.
You are very welcome. Why do you feel like you have to sand the entire body after knocking down some drips? Yes, those spots will look different (less shiny) from the rest of the finish, but when you apply the clear nitro it will dissolve into the color coat and everything will look smooth again. So no worries. Just make sure you clean the sanded areas well (make sure there isn't any sanding dust left, because that WILL show up in your clear coat), and check for any bubbles / pinholes in the finish where those drips used to be. Best of luck!
This is an amazing video!! I was wondering if I could use vinyl sealer as a top coat though after I’ve applied color and primer? did you apply sealer primer and lacquer all in one day? Thanks for sharing your process!
Thank you! I've never used a vinyl sealer, but I think it's meant to be used as a sanding sealer, not as a top coat. I usually apply sealer and primer on the same day. The next day I'll apply color. The day after the clear coat. Technically you could apply all of them on the same day, but I like to thoroughly inspect the dried primer coat before I continue.
www.stewmac.com/How-To/Online_Resources/Learn_About_Instrument_Finishing_and_Finish_Repair/Nitrocellulose_Finishing_Schedule.html Basically you can do the initial 3 coats or so with the lacquer that youre using. Just make sure the coats are thin and have ample amount to dry.
I think that vinyl sealer has some kind of particles in it that will make it easier to sand and those will take the shine away from the last coat when you sand it down. I guess you could use it if you want a satin finish. I wouldn't. I would use satin nitro lacquer if I was going for satin look. That way I can be sure the top coat is transparent and doesn't have stuff in it to mess with the color coat.
Thank you for this video!! Only one question: After grain filing we sans with 240 grit paper, and then directly go to the sanding sealer? Is there no finer grit paper to use before the sanding sealer?
I assume you're using the sanding sealer as a primer. In that case use 200 to 400 grit max. sandpaper. Any finer and it will clog up quickly. All a sanding sealer is, is a clear lacquer with more pigments and maybe more plasticizers, levelers, etc. in it to make the lacquer thicker so that it will fill pores and imperfections in the wood before color coats are applied. Otherwise you'll use ton of clear lacquer to fill the pores. Actually, wood filler is better than sanding sealer or lacquer because it won't sink into the wood. Any lacquer will sink into the wood overtime. Some people will prefer that old sink into wood look ie. relic freaks :) A primer's job is to create a level layer for the color coats.
Great videos! Just a quick one, I'm looking at doing a strat build with a swamp ash body and sunburst nitro finish where you can also still see the wood grain. Would probably look at using the grain filler to make a nice smooth body, but it was when you applied the white primer to this that you couldn't see the grain. If you want the grain to be visible, would you still apply a primer? Are there clear primers or would the process be a little bit different? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I'm sorry for the late response! If you want the wood grain to show visually (meaning that the surface WILL be flat / grain filled) just follow all of the steps EXCEPT for the primer. Just apply grain filler, then a (transparent) sanding sealer, then your semi-transparent color coats and then your clear coats. A primer is not absolutely necessary. Best of luck!
After the last color coat, you mention a small amount of orange peel is ok and can be smoothed out later - is this because the clear coats will bind with the color coat, as nitro does, and the minimal orange peel referred to will be filled in by the clear? I notice the color of the color coat changes as it is polished. I’m trying to find out if the color coat needs to be sanded to acquire the color desired or if the clear coat serves this same purpose. - I may not be asking the question exactly right. Hopefully you’ll know what I mean. I appreciate any help. Thanks for putting these tutorials up. Very helpful.
Yes, the color and clear will melt together and will level off. There might be some orange peeling on the last coat of clear but buffing will usually get that out as the heat will melt the last coat and level it off.
Magnificent...just one question: do you have to maintain the temperature and humidity as mentioned during the 22 days? If the answer is yes, now how could it be done in a garage for the duration of that period...finally, thank you very much...
You want the temp to be steady for the whole month ideally. A few degrees won't matter. But, don't take it from a hot garage, into a cool room or you'll get checking in the finish. The temp needs to be stable. This is why many ppl only spray during spring/summer months. Winter isn't good for spraying, unless you have a climate controlled booth to spray
Great videos! Really appreciate all the work you put here to show in detail how to do this. I'm thinking of building a Mary Kay finish Tele, what process would you follow to get that finish?
Great video! Will start spraying as soon as it´s warm enough outside. Question: For what ever reason I have a FFP2 mask here... :D Is that sufficient for doing one body? Or do I need more protection?
I have a question! My friend is hand-painting some artwork onto a custom build I'm putting together. I'm creating an alpine white base to my body before she works on the designs. Should she paint after the colour coat and before the clear coat? If not, what point would be best?
Hi!!!! Thanks for the video. In the last color coat you got tiny bit orange peel and you said is easily be sanded later. You sand before clear coats or after?? And what sand paper use for it?? Thanks again for the video
Great video series! Question: if my primer stage reveals that I didn't fill the grain sufficiently, what do I do? Do I need to sand away the primer in that area to bare wood and patch fill with the grain filler or can I patch fill without sanding away the primer and then just do more primer coats afterwards?
@@scottjua no, I never did. Now that I've completed my guitar I would say it depends how much you care. I did not go back and sand down to bare wood but I think it would be a nicer finish if I had made sure the guitar was totally flat with grain filler before continuing. That being said, I'm pretty happy with the results and you can only really see the imperfections if you tilt the guitar at a steep angle against backlighting. Otherwise, it's glossy and looks really nice straight on and at most angles. Probably the biggest mistake I made was not using enough nitro for the finish coats. I did one can for four coats and thought that was enough. Nope. I polished right through it after the wet sanding. It's really confusing because I think (don't quote me on this because I don't remember specifically) the Reranch site recommends one can for one guitar whereas Stewmac suggests four cans for one guitar. ?????? Anyway, I didn't totally burn through the initial finish because I just stopped soon as I saw I was cutting through but bought 4 more cans and just sprayed the hell out of it (with careful even layers).
@@camaperture8116 thanks for the reply. I'm going through it all now. On the clear coats day 1. I was using Oxford and they too said one can, but that wasn't even close for pelham blue. It took three cans of pelham blue to get a decent color coat. I've gone through three cans of clear as well and that's not enough either. I did screw up and got a small buildup run so I need to fix that before going forward with more clear. I'll let it dry a day and tackle that and more clear tomorrow.
If you get heavy orange peel on the first coat, do you sand and then spray your second coat? Or can you apply all of your costs and deal with the orange peel at the end before starting the clear coat process?
why would you cover that grain? and ash to boot, at least clear cover it or a sunburst, man that was nice grain, do you have a lot of this nice Ash, any lightweight chunks?
I’ve just applied a colour coat, and the can I am using says to wait 2-3 hours between coats, and it doesn’t say to sand. Should I be waiting 2-3 hours? Or 20 minutes like you have said in the vid?
Use pvc pipes and drop cloth for spray booth. Cheap and can be taken down after job. Use two T's in the roof of the booth and put a cross pipe that you can use to hang guitar from.
Yep. I repurposed my wife's greenhouse of PVC by wrapping it in clear plastic. Its in my garage. Punched a hole near the floor and run a shop vac for ventillation. Spritz water to keep dust down.
Thank you for the interesting tutorial. How many spray cans of color/clear finish do you advise to purchase in order to apply the number of coats shown in the video? Thanx
Thank you for these videos. I'm currently painting my guitar and following these steps. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. 1. I am applying the sanding sealer from stew-mac but it is not a spray. It is the water based one where you brush it on just like you did with the grain filler. Since it isn't a spray, do I need a mask to protect myself at this point? The particles wont necessarily be in the air. 2. My guitar had a stock black color on the inside cavities and it seems to be directly on the wood. Can i just apply all these principals (grain filler, sanding sealer) to the outside wood and leave the cavity as is, since it will not be shown anyway? Would that cause a problem?
1. you will probably be safe you are outdoors or in a well ventilated place. 2. no it won’t affect anything. because once you start putting on primer and paint color ... it will be hidden
Superb videos! I have a build that I am going to be starting soon that consists of a flamed maple top over poplar. I intend to spray the poplar butterscotch blonde and use an oil based finish on the flamed top. Any issues that you can see with this approach? Any hints appreciated. Cheers.
Thank you! Are you planning on applying nitro on the top as well? I would not recommend only applying nitro on the back. You can of course spray the back butterscotch blonde while having the top taped off. Then apply your desired finish on the top. But then be sure to seal the entire thing off with a clear coat.
Lone Star Guitars Thanks for the reply 😀 I wasn’t thinking of nitro on the top too. But if the clear coat is the way to go I will follow that approach. I wouldn’t be applying paint if the poplar was a bit nicer looking, but oh well.
Hi there After applying my coats of paint, I noticed little inperferctions, how can I fix it? Can I sand it? If yes with which sand paper? Should I wet sand it? And how long should I wait before sanding after my last coat of paint? Thank you
Try to apply couple more coats and see if they melt the bottom coats and the imperfections disappear. If they still persist then use wet and dry 800 grit sandpaper and wet it in a soapy water and lightly sand the top coat to level the imperfections. Stay away from sanding the edges of the guitar as you'll go straight into the primer coat. You should wait at least half hour or longer. Depending how thick you applied the last layer. The thicker the more time you need for the paint to outgas and dry. A normal light coat takes about 20 minutes to dry.
@ittech7967 0 seconds ago Hi, Great video. What are the chances of finding any decent wood ( for a clear coat ) on a black colored Indonesian "Squire", Tele or a "First Act" Tele? Thank you
I have completed my color application. I repaired and re-coated a small run by the jack port. I have some orange peel affect. Do I wet sand at this time or do I let the body cure then move on to clear coat , polish etc.?
If the orange peel is very bad (like the example shown at 1:58) I would sand it lightly before continuing. Let it dry for about 48 hours first and then very carefully wet sand with 1000 grit sandpaper. Try not to take away too much material. Then continue. Best of luck!
Fintan Doran The larger holes for the actual ferrules are actually not blocked. The smaller holes (for the strings) are. I like to put a couple drops of the liquid grain filler in them. This prevents water from entering and swelling up the wood during the wet sanding process later.
It's not absolutely necessary to apply a clear coat, but I would recommend it. You can polish the color coat, but in my experience it doesn't produce the same level of gloss as a clear coat would. Of course you can give it a go, and if it doesn't match your expectations you can always apply a clear coat afterwards.
@@LoneStarGuitars i wanted to wear the paint off eventually thats why i was asking, not like a heavy relic but actually wear off the paint over use and time So i was hoping i can paint it as less coat as it can, so i can get it to look wear off sooner. Would that work at all or what advoce would you give me to avhieve a look like that? Thanks in advance
@@enzonuestro1721 I would still apply clear coat so you have some checking going on. The thicker the clear coat the sooner the checking will happen but also the longer it will take to wear thru the paint.
No, it did not. It's possible to just polish the color coat to a high gloss and be done with it. In my experience though, the clear coat will have a glossier shine when polished than the color coat.
Hello. I've been watching a lot of your work and i have a question about Orange peel. Do you have any experience with metallic nitro color paint with orange peel? I'm doing my first project now wich will be multiple nitro colors over each other and finally a relic. The til color coat will be in a metallic color. Do you recomend to sand it down if it gets a orange peel effect before clear coat? I read on some forums that metallic paint should not be sanded since it will lose it's effect. What do you recomend?
The clear coat will melt into the orange peel layer and will level it off so no need to sand the orange peel. I think when you sand the metal flakes then the light won't reflect differently for each flake and all will look the same.
Nope. The two will melt together and level out as one. Might want to lightly sand the very last layer of the clear coat to level the surface so it shines.
@@alonelian5684 Yes. I would use soapy water and dip the sandpaper in it for 20 minutes to make it pliable and the soap will reduce the friction so it will be easier to slide as you're sanding. I would try to stay away from the edges as those are the ones that are likely to be sanded thru into the wood. I believe the final buffing will also remove some of the orange peel as the finish will heat up and melt a bit.
@@jcd13able Do I absolutely need to use finishing compounds or is it possible that after 4-6 coats of clear that the guitar will look ok as is? I'm currently on coat #4 and its beginning to look glossy and nice
@@alonelian5684 You don't have to. What I've done is I used non-silicone paste wax from Johnson in a yellow metal can that is used to polish wooden floors or bowling alleys and applied it with a rag and let it sit for couple minutes and then wiped it off. I never buffed my body and still get a nice shine on it. I bought the paste wax from ace hardware store but I'm sure other stores will have it. It has to be non-silicone if you ever going to repaint or touch up your paint work. Paint doesn't stick to silicone and it can't be easily cleaned off, it gets into the pores and stays there.
Keith Schlotthauer that's what I use. I love it. I can't always spray nitro, so it's a good choice for doing both poly & nitro. Check out crystalac brite tone. Another great product.
