Thread: Paint ... I'm so confused!!

I am in tamworth, and the only place I can source Nitro is at the local car paint place. They sell 4 liters for about $65. I believe the sell sanding sealer as well.
I have never had too much success with solid colours. The other thing to do would be to talk to a smash repair place as their spray painters are usually very good. Fender use solid car colours for thier guitars, and I would think that if it can survive a car, it should be able to survive a guitar.
Be sure to keep your air hose off the ground ( the cold floor will create condensation), it should be higher than the sparyer, and get an in-line moisture trap for your spray gun.
Stewmac have a good guide online: http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/Fini...nt/i-5436.html
Make sure you empty the moisture trap in you compressor regualrly (on the bottom of the tank) and the inline moisture trap too.
I am way too impatient, I think, to do solid colours. If I had 30 guitars in a row, I reckon I'd be OK, by the time I had finished them all with a thin coat I could go back and start again.
With me, thin coats always turn into thick coats, and waiting for the paint to dry before I try to fix it is highly unusual, if not unheard of.

So, lots of THIN coats to let the solvent evaporate, makes for a nice hard, slough free job, as opposed to the one thick coat, which never sets properly and ends up looking like wrinkly custard.

Don't worry, you're not alone!

Where to start?
You can buy nitro in a spray can in Australia, but are limited to black, white or clear. The product is VHT Genuine Lacquer. Find at the bottom of this page
http://www.speco.com.au/vht_special.html

If you were in Melbourne I'd tell you where to get it, but if you have a decent auto parts supplier in your area eg Repco, Burson or similar, they should be able to order it for you. About $18 a can.

I've done 2 basses in black, and you can get a pro finish if you're prepared to spend the time, in surface preparation (eg grain filler and sealer), and then using QUALITY sandpaper, not the sort you get at Bunnys or Car Part place. I get mine from Australian Abrasives in Sydney.

Using VHT, under a 1000watt halogen lamp (for a little baking), you need to spray coats evenly. Nitro has 100% burn in, so you need to build up the coat thickness slowly. Rushing the paint job is a big mistake we have all made before. A little bit over a full can is enough to do a bass, then use probably near 2 cans to do the clear coats.

I start at 1500 grit sandpaper to dull the finish, taking care on the edges not to sand thru, then swirl remover eg Meguiars or Stewmac, then polish, and it looks great.

If you're going to use acrylic lacquer cans, stick to either Krylon or Belton RAL as brands. They give great coverage and finish real well.

Hey dadovfor
Check out Durabond
They're in Brookvale
http://www.durobond.com.au/lacquers.htm#4
Make sure you get yourself a decent respirator
dayvo

I've had some good results using the waterbased lacquer and sanding sealer that stewmac sells -

Here


This is a tele I finished up recently (my 1st build actually) , I was able to buff it a week after the last coat (ignore the buffer gouge..).

I have just noticed this posting,
unfortunately I haven't got the time to answer your question properly as in an hour I have to go the airport to fly out.

But NC lacquer is the easiest of all the finishes to apply its the fastest drying and most forgiving paint available. its also very safe, a mask is always a good idea but if you spray it in a well ventilated space you will be OK. No one had booths when this paint was being used in the 1950's 60's.

Unfortunately it is very unstable if exposed to the outside world (sun etc) so it was replaced 40 years ago and is now only available mostly as a clear for the furniture trade. It is still available in good quality solid colors in the USA but most local ones are made for cheap painting of uninportant objects to prevent rust such as wheel barrows where they know the paint is coming off fast anyway.

If you search in "finishing" for Nitro cellulose lacquer you will find exactly how to get the fender/grand piano finish you are looking for.

i was under the impression that nitro was more difficult than poly, and that it has a much longer dry/cure period.

Poly is a lot harder than nitro. It encases the whole instrument in a practically bomb-proof shell Try sanding off the finish from a poly instrument, you'll know what I mean.

Nitro is a lot less hard but its main advantages is that its easy to replair. If you have a nick somewhere you can just drop fill it with a few drops of nitro and it will melt into each other where it'll be almost invisible once you've sanded and polished it (100% burn-in as mentioned above). Polys can't be repaired that way, you'll always see witness marks.

The major disadvantage of nitro lacquers is that you should dry it 3 to 4 weeks before you buff it out and send it off. Nitro dries fast to the touch but takes a very long time to reach its ideal hardness. Apparently nitros continue to dry and shrink over the years too. Polys can be sprayed one day and buffed the next, which is why manufacturers have all moved to those.

Yes I can vouch for Poly being bullet proof. See my gunslinger thread I had to remove a Poly finish, i tried almost everything and NOTHING (ok exagerating a bit) would even scratch the surface.. eventually got it off tho, shame it was dinged everywhere otherwise i woulda left it. i like the idea of a bulletproof finish, makes it really durable.

Ive seen Poly clear finishes in a can, if thats the same poly we talking about being bulletproof i think i will use that as my clear coat over my stained/dyed body.

Thanks for the great feedback everyone . There's a few options here, but there's 3 guitars planned so I have the opportunity to try a few different finishes.

Son #3 has always been keen to give nitro a go so we might start with that. Also, his strat has a small chip out of it so we may as well test the repair / burn in factor that Phil mentioned.

Dayvo, I'm amazed I didn't find that Durobond site in all my searches!? So I'll either head over there for some nitro or I'll see if I can source the VHT locally that Bassbuilderman recommended.

And I appreciate the spraying tips Mongrel, and the links to those stewmac guides.

I'm happy to get more opinions, as well as specific brands / suppliers if you have them ... especially down towards the Shire.

On a related note, and for those of you that have done headstock logos, is clear nitro sprayed over a logo printed on the film that is used for overhead transparencies (mylar?) the way to go? If so, does that film come in different thicknesses? From my memory of it, it would take a fair few coats to build up over the transparency?

Again, thanks.

Look here for your logo tips:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/logo.htm

Originally Posted by fletch123

I've had some good results using the waterbased lacquer and sanding sealer that stewmac sells -

Here


This is a tele I finished up recently (my 1st build actually) , I was able to buff it a week after the last coat (ignore the buffer gouge..).

-------------------------------------------
fletch123 that looks awesome!!! i like the semi transparent look.. u can still see the grains. wats the run down of what u used and did to get that end result?

Originally Posted by Phil Mailloux

Poly is a lot harder than nitro. It encases the whole instrument in a practically bomb-proof shell Try sanding off the finish from a poly instrument, you'll know what I mean.

Nitro is a lot less hard but its main advantages is that its easy to replair. If you have a nick somewhere you can just drop fill it with a few drops of nitro and it will melt into each other where it'll be almost invisible once you've sanded and polished it (100% burn-in as mentioned above). Polys can't be repaired that way, you'll always see witness marks.

The major disadvantage of nitro lacquers is that you should dry it 3 to 4 weeks before you buff it out and send it off. Nitro dries fast to the touch but takes a very long time to reach its ideal hardness. Apparently nitros continue to dry and shrink over the years too. Polys can be sprayed one day and buffed the next, which is why manufacturers have all moved to those.

thanks, what i thought. i will be doing a solid colour on a build for a friend, and am unsure which to do. im leaning for poly as i dont want to wait 4 weeks to polish.

I bought a couple of cans of VHT clear and it produced an awful white finish, so much for clear aye. Glad I returned them. Soon after that, I got my current spray setup and will never look back.

I currently use Durobond nitro and this stuff is really nice, well apart form the toxins ofcourse.

Another thing with nitro, is that subsequent coats melt into the previous coats so you don't get witness lines (eg. can easily drop fill as mentioned above). It's easy to sand and get a flat smooth finish prior to buffing.

I used to finish with epoxy and that stuff seems as bad to work with as poly from what I hear (haven't used poly though).

Interesting mkat.
I never had that trouble with VHT. Mine turned out fabulous. The VHT touch dries very quickly (~10mins). I'd do 2 coats a night, black until your happy with the coverage. Don't bother sanding it back. Then do the clear coats until your comfortable you've got enough on to sand evenly thru it with the 1500grit.

I wouldn't be comfortable doing motifs or stripes etc with VHT, because of the burn in. I'd be worried the colours would run. Maybe clear in between could solve this.

I've done my last 3 quite differently( using various brand acrylic lacquer cans), from motorbike paint to the staff the graffiti'ists use.
Lots of fun