Want to repaint my MIJ Jazzmaster Whats the best way?

[yoshiii]

Hello

I want to paint my MIJ Jazzmaster Black or blue maybe seablue or something. The original color is white.  It has cracks in the paint in many places and the lower rear bout  finish is crack and has a huge piece of paint missing on the lower rear  bout corner down to the wood like it just fell off. There are dents and digs in various places on the top edge of the guitar.

How should I repaint this? I have never painted or stripped a guitar before. I have research here for how to do but I can't find anything to explain exactly.

Please help

[robby]

yeah please help! i too want to refinish my cij jag (it also was white) also in blue or something but also dont reall know how...
sorry that im not of a big help to you 

[the older brother]

The thick poly finish on a MIJ is a tough one to get rid of - If it had been in better shape (minor dings and cracks) - I should have just sanded it smooth - using it as undercoat and sprayed the new colour on top. But yours seem like it is in a real bad shape (hard to tell without pictures). I suggest you use a sanding machine (or two - a belt sander for front/back and a vibro/excenter sander for other surfaces) and a lot of extra sandpaper - coarse paper at the beginning and changing to more fine grit when the finish is almost off

- BEWARE -
Don't use the machines all the way - change to manual work when doing the final sanding.

Another way may be to use chemical paint remover, but I have no experience with that on poly laquer.

I used a heat gun and a paint scraper on a MIJ JM, but that isn't to recommend - it ended with some bad scratch marks in the wood that were hard to get invisible afterwards - it also got some burnmarks.

[NickH]

I would actually recommend the heat gun method. Just go slow and don't use too much heat as it seems to cause the bottom layer to fuse to the wood. As well too much heat can scorch but if you go slow and gentle it will come off in big strips.

Here are some pics from when I did it. You can see the middle of the back where I went to hot and it scorched the wood a bit

[Haddock]

Here are some pics from when I did it. You can see the middle of the back where I went to hot and it scorched the wood a bit

You skinned a Candy Red JM ? 

[theworkoffire]

One of the problems with a heat gun (especially with a multi-piece/laminated japanese body) is you run the risk of melting the glue between the timbers or of warping the timber. Low heat is definitely the way to go - looks like it worked ok for you NickH.

You'll find a really good tutorial/overview of refinishing here: http://www.reranch.com/basics.htm