Painting Your Guitar Posts

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Nam, with enough care you CAN get a beautiful job from cans. Stewmac sells probably everything you need. Many years ago, painting custom bikes was one of my hobbies. I have a complete compressor system but I haven't used it in years. For guitars it was never worth the trouble to get it all together for such a small spray job. Most auto paint stores sell aerosol spray containers. Just a glass bottle with a screw on aerosol sprayer for just a few bucks. You can put in whatever you want. With this and/or spray cans from stewmac, you should be able to do a nice job. Nitrocellulose lacquer is probably the best finsh to use. Acrylic lacquer, the finish of choice for custom bikes and cars (at least in my day) would work too. If I was going into like a pearlescent or a flake job, I'd use acrylic, but for black I'd probably use nitrocellulose. The secret is in the clear finish and the sanding. Use your black spray (either can or put in your aerosol sprayer). Several things to be sure of: Temperature between 68 and 82 (in REAL degrees); dust-free area, use several light coats being careful not to be too close or apply too thick or you'll get runs or sags. Let each coat dry thoroughly before the next (a hair-dryer won't hurt). Have good lighting so there are no shadows. When the black looks perfect, give it another coat anyway. Wipe it off when its TOTALLY dry with a dust/lint-free rag or tack-cloth (you can get it at the auto-paint store). Now give it a few coats of clear. If you're using a can give it probably three coats. If you're mixing and cutting your own in the areosol sprayer (or compressor system) mix the clear a little thicker than recommended for two coats. Let it dry thoroughly. Now you need to wet sand it. Wet sand paper comes in all different grades all the way down to a roughness measured in microns so fine it almost feels like just paper. I'd start with a sixteen-hundred grade (pretty fine). LIGHTLY sand the finish. Keep the paper wet, a very gentle touch being sure you don't go down to the black. Dry it off removing the water and sanding dust (save the sand paper because now its a little finer than it was new). Two more coats of clear. Repeat the above with the old 1600 paper. Another coat (if you're mixing it, make it a bit thinner now). Go to your next finer grade of paper (I think it'll be in microns now) and repeat. Repeat again with the finest grade you can get. Now with only lacquer thinner (and be careful, as its VERY easy to run) spray LIGHTLY with only thinner. This will microscopicly cause all of the tiniest of bumps, paper-scratches, etc to bleed and blend into each other. Let all this dry thoroughly (even overnight). You may not even need to rub it out. If you do use a product (made especially for black, but works for other colors as well) called Liquid Ebony (available at the auto-paint store and, I think, also at stewmac's). Then wax it and buff it. Different guys may have slight variances on techniques,but this is mine (as I learned from doing custom cycles). If I left anything out, Lou should catch it Again, let things dry thoroughly and don't let anything contaminate the surface. One speck of oil will cause a "fish-eye". And good luck.


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First of all you need to have put a gloss finish for your clear-coat. They make several rubbing compounds for automotive finishes. One called McGuire's is a good one, that comes in several number-grades (fineness of the compound). McGuire's Mirror Glaze is a good one. If your color is black use one called Liquid Ebony. After it's rubbed out, then you can wax and polish it. (And welcome to GTU.)


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No, I wouldn't remove the original paint if it's in good condition (maybe fill a few dings if necessary though.). First, I'd dis-assemble the guitar as much as possible. Remove all hardware. Anything you can't remove, mask off really well. Clean your guitar really well with a de-greaser and de-glosser. Make sure there is NO wax on it. You might want to also use a Scotch-brite pad, a really fine-grade one to remove the glossiness so the new paint has better adherence. Or a fine wet-sanding. I would suggest acrylic lacquer paints because they come in a really wide variety of custom colors like pearlescents, candy colors, metal-flake sparkle, tinted clears, etc. Go to an automotive paint store and ask to see the sample sheets for these kinds of paints for some ideas as to what's available. You should spray the whole guitar with a primer first. There are primers available made to separate un-like coating chemicals. Most modern guitars are painted with a polyurethane paint. Once dry, they can usually be painted over with just about anything without the chemicals clashing because of incompatibility. (But always try a small area first, before really getting into it.) The guy at the paint store can tell you what primer you need to do this. Do any filling and repair (if necessary) before priming. Now, after you've primed it, depending on the kind of style you want, you'll probably need a base-coat of the major color you want to work over. Since you want to do figure art, I'd suggest this. First do your guitar in whatever color scheme and type you want. (I'll choose one for explanation). Say you want a metallic blue that's a little darker at the top and fades to lighter, maybe a little pearl-tone on it. You'd first (after primer) spray a base color coat. Next a metallic blue, a little pearlescence mixed in clear and misted over the top. Now you'd take a blue-tinted clear-coat and apply it where ever you wanted to darken it up, maybe a couple of mist-coats at the darkest area. If you wanted to fade that blue into purple for example, you could also mist a candy apple red over that area (the clear-red over blue would give purple). Once you get your guitar in the basic color scheme you want, that's when you start the figure art. Before you do, I'd put several (four or five) good layers of clear-coat over it. This will protect the new base-color in a clear shield. Now, with that over it, if you do an art-thing and make a mistake, or want to change it, etc. You can remove the art-part by gentle wet-sanding with a very-fine grit paper and your original finish will still be intact and you can try again (after another coat of clear, just in case!). When you have your art done and you're satisfied with it all, now re-spray a couple of good coats of clear over that. The finish should feel pretty smooth. Make sure you've clear-coated it enough times so you can't feel any raised areas or lines for the added art, etc. Now, let it dry thoroughly (a day or two). Buy a few fine grades of wet-sandpaper. You can get it REALLY fine (so fine it doesn't even feel like sandpaper). Gently sand the finish. Keep the paper nice and wet as you do. This acts as a lubricant and also gets rid of the dust. Be gentle, you don't want to go through the clear into the art or color. Go from the coarsest grade (still REALLY fine though, like 1600-grit) to the finest (maybe 10-micron). When you're done, wipe it off well with a damp, lint-free cloth. Your guitar should now be VERY smooth now, but kind of dull from the sanding. After you're sure it's totally dry, re-spray it with a light mist of acrylic lacquer thinner only. This will totally restore the luster and shine. It should be REALLY a high gloss after this. Let it all dry for several days or more. Now, you can rub it out if you want (you might not need to at all). McGuire's is a good brand of rubbing paste in a bottle, if you do, use a fine grade number. (Black is different, there's a rubbing compound called Liquid Ebony for blacks and very dark colors). Then wax and polish it. That's it. Acrylic lacquer is a very forgiving finish. If you make a mistake, or get a run, etc, after it's thoroughly dry, you can wet-sand the mistake off and try again. These finishes can be mixed to different thicknesses with lacquer-thinner, depending on the type of finish, what you're trying to do, etc. You can mix and make any color you want from them. Ask the paint-guy for advice. You may want to get a book, or try all this out on a practice piece (you should have plenty of extra paint). It's hard to explain enough to make someone a custom finish painter in a post, but this should give you an idea of what to do. If you're creative and intelligent (and you sound like both), a little care and trial and error should take care of it. Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

With that much said, I'd like to add that finishing like this requires a compressor and spray-gun or air-brush. There's an alternative to the compressor and equipment part. You can buy small compressed-air spraying bottles. A small cannister (sort of like a butane lighter refiller) screws onto the top of a small glass bottle. This allows you to spray paints you have mixed onto small areas (like a guitar, I wouldn't try doing a Corvette ). Everything I said above applies as far as base colors, etc. The actual art you could do with an artist's brush (using acrylic laquer paints so as to be compatible chemically). The clear-coats mentioned above are important in case you want to alter or remove the line-art (or fine-art!) part and start over. Also "burying" your finished graphic in clear-coat after you're done to make a smooth line-free finish. Those little spray bottles are available at most auto-paint supply shops. I don't know where you live, but http://www.stewmac.com also sells them (and lots of other finishing supplies) by mail order.


Mix and spray your own custom stains and finishes
Preval Spray Unit
The Preval is a handy alternative for custom touch-ups or finishing jobs when shop spray equipment is unavailable. The outfit includes a disposable aerosol power unit with siphon, and a removable graduated glass storage jar.


I hope this gives you an idea how to proceed and the basics of what you need to start and what to expect. If you have other questions, just let me know and I'll help if I can.