Gracie's Paint Colors

[tune_link]

Thinking about painting my Squier VMJM to something like Burgundy Mist from its original Sonic Blue (which has always looked pretty dull to me unlike the higher end Fender's with nitro versions of the same color). I know Reranch isn't operating normally right now and some other OSGers have reported good experience using Gracie's paint. Any of y'all done a refin with one of their colors that would like to show me the finished product and offer tips on how many cans you needed to do it?

[Singlebladepickup]

Surfy dude with the blonde amp redid a squier Jag in Sherwood Gracie's I believe, and it looked good. forgot the username though

[Surfysonic]

Surfy dude with the blonde amp redid a squier Jag in Sherwood Gracie's I believe, and it looked good. forgot the username though

Surfy dude here - I've been using Gracey's Vintage spray paints and they've been working out great so far. You can look up my fairly recent postings about my Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar sherwood green project and my Squier J Mascis shell pink project. Currently, I mean, literally right now, I'm in the process of putting Gracey's daphne blue on a thinline Tele. One can can do a whole body and headstock with paint left over.

Also to anyone interested, I was able to order some more daphne blue, fiesta red, and lake placid blue from ReRanch. Should arrive next Wednesday.

Sorry, forgot to mention my process. Before doing anything, do some research (if you haven't already) on YouTube or the web in general and watch demonstrations and follow their advice based on your setup. Also, if I mention anything incorrectly or there are better steps by those far more experienced than I (which is pretty much almost everyone), please provide corrections/suggestions. Thanks!

I have a really basic (i.e., completely unprofessional setup) I tried hanging the body before while spraying, which resulted in drips running down the body (I believe I also oversprayed - gung ho trigger finger did me wrong). Hanging a body while spraying may work for others. I lay my guitar body down on the top of a clean side of a cardboard box in the driveway. I spray the front and sides of the body while it's laying down. I work on the backside of the guitar after doing the paint coats and before the lacquer

If doing a refin on an existing, poly-coated body:

1. Scuff up the body with 600 grit sandpaper - I spend about 10 minutes doing this. Do the same (less time, obviously on the headstock if desired for a matching headstock. Remember to tape all around the sides and back of the headstock. I typically mummify the neck with painter's tape - probably overkill, but that's how I roll. More on headstock stuff later. Following steps will focus on body for now.

2. Wipe body down with body with rubbing alcohol to remove any sawdust residue from your scuff work. I use an old cotton t-shirt.

3. Follow directions on can. Shake can and make that baby rattle for a few minutes (I'm impatient, which isn't a great trait for refin work, heh). Also, make sure your can is at room temperature. Cold cans aren't good so I've heard.

4. Spray to the left or right of the body before spraying directly on the front and sides of the body. For the front of the body, do one or two quick passes like the top part of the front 1/4 or 1/3 of the guitar and let up on the spray.

If you hold down the spray button too long, you will get droplets and overbuild (i.e., puddles). You don't want that. Move down to the next 1/4 or 1/3 of the body. Remember to start spraying off the body then onto it, then off to the other side. Basically, you don't want to start or end on the body when using a spray can. This goes for lacquer, too. I spray all around the sides in segments as well to prevent droplets.

5. I wait 10 -15 minutes before applying the second of three coats in total.

6. After 2nd coat, wait another 10-15 minutes before applying the 3rd coat. If doing the headstock separately at a different time, same steps apply.

7. I then flip the body over and do the back side of the guitar - same 3-coat process.

8. Once the back side is completed and dry, flip the body back over so the front is facing up.

At this point, depending how much daylight you have left and/or patience, you can maybe hang the guitar up at this point and apply the lacquer on all sides (front, sides, back) following the process in step 9 and onward . Today, I'll probably repeat the same process as the paint then do the back side on it's own last since I suck at spraying a hanging guitar.

9. Wait 30-40 minutes after 3rd paint coat to then apply the first of 3 coats of clear lacquer (assuming you are doing lacquer - I don't want to assume what to do with poly). Wait 30 minutes again before applying the 2nd of 3 coats of clear lacquer. (at least I use clear for now, others may use flat or matte?)

10. Apply 2nd of 3 coats of clear lacquer. Wait another 30 minutes.

11. Apply 3rd (final) coat of clear lacquer. Wait another 30 minutes.

12. Hang up somewhere dry, warm, and free of bugs, leaves, etc. I hang mine up in my home office.

13. I will then wait 30 days for the lacquer to cure.

14. Following various pros' recommendations on YouTube, I'll wipe down the guitar after 30 days to remove any dust.

15. Now starts the high grit sanding process before buffing/polishing. To remove any orange peel like bumps, if any, I start with 1000 or 1500 grit to sand over the entire body.

16. I then go up to 2500 or 3000 grit (depending on what I have on hand). Repeat sanding over the entire body.

18. I then go up to 5000 grit. I then apply a little Norton Liquid Ice use my buffer for polishing. If it ends up looking sucky, I'll take it to my guitar tech and have him do the final buff/polish to correct my errors. I'm thinking about getting a proper buffing set up from Stew-Mac. If you plan to do a lot of refin work, you might want to look into it, too.

If painting a new, unfinished body, you have to put on a sealant all over the body before putting paint on it (I just use my lacquer spray) to seal the wood so that the paint (after sealer is dry - paint after 30 minutes on final coat of sealer) doesn't just sink into the wood. I think one coat of sealant/lacquer will do it, but I'm paranoid, so I do 3 (30 minutes in-between each coat). Possibly overkill.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Good luck. I've got to get back to my refin'ing!

[tune_link]

Surfy dude with the blonde amp redid a squier Jag in Sherwood Gracie's I believe, and it looked good. forgot the username though

Surfy dude here - I've been using Gracey's Vintage spray paints and they've been working out great so far. You can look up my fairly recent postings about my Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar sherwood green project and my Squier J Mascis shell pink project. Currently, I mean, literally right now, I'm in the process of putting Gracey's daphne blue on a thinline Tele. One can can do a whole body and headstock with paint left over.

Also to anyone interested, I was able to order some more daphne blue, fiesta red, and lake placid blue from ReRanch. Should arrive next Wednesday.

Sorry, forgot to mention my process. Before doing anything, do some research (if you haven't already) on YouTube or the web in general and watch demonstrations and follow their advice based on your setup. Also, if I mention anything incorrectly or there are better steps by those far more experienced than I (which is pretty much almost everyone), please provide corrections/suggestions. Thanks!

I have a really basic (i.e., completely unprofessional setup) I tried hanging the body before while spraying, which resulted in drips running down the body (I believe I also oversprayed - gung ho trigger finger did me wrong). Hanging a body while spraying may work for others. I lay my guitar body down on the top of a clean side of a cardboard box in the driveway. I spray the front and sides of the body while it's laying down. I work on the backside of the guitar after doing the paint coats and before the lacquer

If doing a refin on an existing, poly-coated body:

1. Scuff up the body with 600 grit sandpaper - I spend about 10 minutes doing this. Do the same (less time, obviously on the headstock if desired for a matching headstock. Remember to tape all around the sides and back of the headstock. I typically mummify the neck with painter's tape - probably overkill, but that's how I roll. More on headstock stuff later. Following steps will focus on body for now.

2. Wipe body down with body with rubbing alcohol to remove any sawdust residue from your scuff work. I use an old cotton t-shirt.

3. Follow directions on can. Shake can and make that baby rattle for a few minutes (I'm impatient, which isn't a great trait for refin work, heh). Also, make sure your can is at room temperature. Cold cans aren't good so I've heard.

4. Spray to the left or right of the body before spraying directly on the front and sides of the body. For the front of the body, do one or two quick passes like the top part of the front 1/4 or 1/3 of the guitar and let up on the spray.

If you hold down the spray button too long, you will get droplets and overbuild (i.e., puddles). You don't want that. Move down to the next 1/4 or 1/3 of the body. Remember to start spraying off the body then onto it, then off to the other side. Basically, you don't want to start or end on the body when using a spray can. This goes for lacquer, too. I spray all around the sides in segments as well to prevent droplets.

5. I wait 10 -15 minutes before applying the second of three coats in total.

6. After 2nd coat, wait another 10-15 minutes before applying the 3rd coat. If doing the headstock separately at a different time, same steps apply.

7. I then flip the body over and do the back side of the guitar - same 3-coat process.

8. Once the back side is completed and dry, flip the body back over so the front is facing up.

At this point, depending how much daylight you have left and/or patience, you can maybe hang the guitar up at this point and apply the lacquer on all sides (front, sides, back) following the process in step 9 and onward . Today, I'll probably repeat the same process as the paint then do the back side on it's own last since I suck at spraying a hanging guitar.

9. Wait 30-40 minutes after 3rd paint coat to then apply the first of 3 coats of clear lacquer (assuming you are doing lacquer - I don't want to assume what to do with poly). Wait 30 minutes again before applying the 2nd of 3 coats of clear lacquer. (at least I use clear for now, others may use flat or matte?)

10. Apply 2nd of 3 coats of clear lacquer. Wait another 30 minutes.

11. Apply 3rd (final) coat of clear lacquer. Wait another 30 minutes.

12. Hang up somewhere dry, warm, and free of bugs, leaves, etc. I hang mine up in my home office.

13. I will then wait 30 days for the lacquer to cure.

14. Following various pros' recommendations on YouTube, I'll wipe down the guitar after 30 days to remove any dust.

15. Now starts the high grit sanding process before buffing/polishing. To remove any orange peel like bumps, if any, I start with 1000 or 1500 grit to sand over the entire body.

16. I then go up to 2500 or 3000 grit (depending on what I have on hand). Repeat sanding over the entire body.

18. I then go up to 5000 grit. I then apply a little Norton Liquid Ice use my buffer for polishing. If it ends up looking sucky, I'll take it to my guitar tech and have him do the final buff/polish to correct my errors. I'm thinking about getting a proper buffing set up from Stew-Mac. If you plan to do a lot of refin work, you might want to look into it, too.

If painting a new, unfinished body, you have to put on a sealant all over the body before putting paint on it (I just use my lacquer spray) to seal the wood so that the paint (after sealer is dry - paint after 30 minutes on final coat of sealer) doesn't just sink into the wood. I think one coat of sealant/lacquer will do it, but I'm paranoid, so I do 3 (30 minutes in-between each coat). Possibly overkill.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Good luck. I got to get back to my refin'ing!

This sounds very practical to me. I tried refinishing an old strat a year or two ago and got hasty and ended up ruining it. It was a very very cheap 90s Korean Squier and the body had a lot of damage so I ended up just throwing it away. I did the spraying like you mentioned above by laying it on my driveway flat on a large piece of cardboard and spraying it at a good distance just kind of hazing it on in sections. Problem I ran into was that I got a bad sprayer on the paint can and it at one point sprayed out in large wet droplets basically destroying the work I’d done to that point.

I’m thinking this time will be different though. I’m using my Squier VM JM and I think if it goes poorly I’ll just send it off to maybe MJT and let them redo it for me or something.

I do have one question, when you do the paint and you’ve got it on one side of the guitar, do you follow that 10-15 mins of dry time and then flip it over to immediately start the back or do you have to let one whole side dry for much longer when done before being able to flip it over to do the other side?

[Surfysonic]

I work one side first with the 10-15 minute intervals for all 3 coats. After the final coat's 10-15 minutes dry time, I'll then flip it over and repeat the 3 coat process. As mentioned, I will do the guitar's sides' 3 coats usually at the same time as the front 3 coats. 30 minutes after the last coat of the back of the guitar, I'll then do the lacquer clear coat.

Sooo, I may have mentioned before that I do the same process with the lacquer but by this point in the day, I get tired and impatient, so I then carefully do the hanging process so that I can apply all 3 coats of lacquer (with 30 minutes dry time between coats) on all sides of the body at once. Try what works best for you.

I would like to improve on the hanging process when applying the paint coats. On the thinline tele I worked on this weekend, I ran into some problems as where I was on the driveway had a bit of a slope, and paint puddling and running drip here and there occurred. I might as well as tried the hanging process. After twice sanding the body back down, I finally just went for the hanging process.

Funny thing, in total, I put about 9 coats on the guitar (end result after sanding and re-sanding, just 3 (maybe 4-ish) coats of paint - all with one can of the Gracey's Vintage Daphne Blue - and then the 3 coats of clear lacquer. This time, it didn't go as well as the Jaguar with the sherwood green refin but it's good enough. Now to wait a month to cure then I'm hoping I can fix some minor issues in the high grit sanding and buffing process.

I can live with some imperfections even though I will strive to improve the more I try to do this.

[hexes]

Thinking about painting my Squier VMJM to something like Burgundy Mist from its original Sonic Blue (which has always looked pretty dull to me unlike the higher end Fender's with nitro versions of the same color). I know Reranch isn't operating normally right now and some other OSGers have reported good experience using Gracie's paint. Any of y'all done a refin with one of their colors that would like to show me the finished product and offer tips on how many cans you needed to do it?

I have nothing to add, other than do you plan on doing a thin coverage to let some of that sonic blue through eventually? I think BM over that very spectral 'sonic' blue would be absolutely beautiful once the finish starts to wear through.

[rank]

Thinking about painting my Squier VMJM to something like Burgundy Mist from its original Sonic Blue (which has always looked pretty dull to me unlike the higher end Fender's with nitro versions of the same color). I know Reranch isn't operating normally right now and some other OSGers have reported good experience using Gracie's paint. Any of y'all done a refin with one of their colors that would like to show me the finished product and offer tips on how many cans you needed to do it?

I am having this painted by my tech & he used Gracie's. He has been raving about how much better it is than ReRanch & it is the color you mentioned.

[tune_link]

That looks great! I like how dark it is too, every once in a while I feel like the Fender BMM on some models is a little on the too light side for my taste.