Update. There's finally been some warm weather around here so i've been able to get a good start on this project. First step was cleaning out the neck pocket which was a thick mess of paint from lord knows how many old finishes.
I wasn't too worried about getting all of the paint off, really just wanted to get it sanded smooth.
The body's in pretty good shape with only a few dents and scratches which I wont fill since i'm not really going for a 'brand new' look anyway, and this way the body will still match the rest of the parts. I did as little sanding as possible since apparently past owners were pretty heavy-handed when it comes to sandpaper. These are both 62's
Sanded:
I taped up all of the cavities since they still show the original sunburst finish. I kinda like the idea of preserving a little bit of the guitar's history eventhough it's hidden away.
Dilemma! I had pretty much decided on white but when I did a couple of last minute mock-ups on my kitchen floor and was tempted by black and sunburst:
I waited a day and decided to stick with white, I already have black and sunburst covered so might as well go with something new.
Time for primer. I used BIN primer which shot out of the can like a freakin' firehose leaving runs everywhere, talk about a pain in the ass. Not a big problem though, I actually kind of enjoy sanding things so I had it smoothed out in no time.
A quick mock-up, and don't worry, the chunks on the body are just sanding dust that I hadn't cleaned off yet
Time for colour. I went with Dupli-Color wimbledon white which has a really cool aged olympic white look to it and is actually a near perfect match to the pickup covers:
Improvised 'spray booth':
Ran into a few problems and ended up with a couple of runs and some orange peel. It seemed that no matter what I did I was either spraying too dry or too wet, I could never find that happy medium. I've painted trucks with a spray gun before and never had a problem getting a smooth finish, I guess I just kinda assumed that rattle cans would be as easy to use. In hindsight maybe I should of practiced on a scrap piece of wood first. Lesson for today, never assume things.
The 'damage':
Shouldn't be a problem to fix though, I sprayed thick enough that I'll be able to sand down the runs and get rid of the orange peel no problem. To get rid of the runs I figured the easiest way would be to tape around them so i can dry sand with a rougher (300ish) grit paper without touching the surrounding areas.
Hopefully I can get onto wetsanding this weekend. Stay tuned.....
