Spraying a Custom Finish - Part FIVE

Here it is - the big one. Today we are going to spray the toner to make this blond finish butterscotch-ish. 

I used lacquer thinned about 2:3, two parts lacquer to three parts thinner (maybe a bit more thinner than that), then added my teaspoon of white pigment, and then I added six drops of vintage amber and the secret ingredient was four drops of medium brown. The vintage amber was just a tad too yellow. This mixture came out perfect, I think.

I marked the side of a jar with my ratios for thinner and lacquer. This makes it easy to pour your ingredients the same every time.

Once again, make sure you mix all your ingredients somewhere else, then pour it into your gun.

My mixture turned out looking like coffee with creamer. MMMMM!

Don't forget your respirator and safety glasses! This stuff is NASTY! Even with the respirator, I was developing a nasty cough if I sprayed for more than an hour at a time.

Here's my first try. I sprayed with the grain, which helped hide any streakiness from my horrid technique. You're supposed to keep the gun the same distance from your work at all times, start and stop off the piece, and overlap your layers of paint by 1/2. I was holding my guitar with one hand and spraying with the other while standing outside in the wind, so - yeah, my technique was less than ideal. It is possible, though!

I started to get a run here, but instead of continuing spraying, I stopped, put the piece flat, and let it sit for a while. Lacquer is pretty forgiving. For the most part, it wants to flow out and make itself smooth, which is what happened here. Once it dried a little, I finished spraying the rest of the piece, and now you'd never know!

First coat on the neck. Needs a bit more, I think.

Some pictures of the back and front before I toned the sides, so you can see the difference there. Pretty crazy, huh?

And the final product. I think it looks just about right!

A word on toners - you should consider your usage of the guitar before you decide how much toner to add to your finish. Wood naturally darkens over time, and the lacquer I sprayed actually yellows as well, so if I were to leave this guitar out in the sun regularly, it might actually get much darker and much more yellow than I want. I am very particular about keeping my guitars indoors or in cases, however, so I felt comfortable spraying my finish fairly butterscotch-y right from the start. Some other builders have skipped the toner and just left their guitars in the sun for a period of time to achieve the same effect. The choice is yours.

Now all that's left is spraying clear lacquer (4-5 coats, 2 hours apart), then wet sanding and buffing and/or spraying a flash coat. I'll keep you updated! Then maybe I can finally put all the pieces together and get this thing set up to play some tunes!! Can't wait!

Spraying a Custom Finish - Part FOUR

When are we actually going to get to see you spray a finish, Jon?

Now

The first step in the blond finish is the white under layer. White helps to reflect light back to the eye, so any transparent finish we spray over white will look that much more vibrant to our senses. Here I mixed up lacquer 2:1, meaning one part lacquer, 2 parts lacquer thinner (use the same brand by the way, or you could end up with problems). Then I added about a tablespoon of white pigment (from StewMac) and shook it up. This first batch was mixed in the spray gun itself, which I do not recommend. The white pigment is very heavy, and will sink immediately to the bottom of any receptacle, which in this case meant all the white went directly down the gun toward the spray nozzle. My first few squirts were almost opaque white! My bad. After that debacle, I started mixing my lacquer in an old jar, then pouring it into my gun. Much better.

So here we are after sanding the grain filler - you can see the sheen of the vinyl sealer just coming through.

and here is the last coat of vinyl sealer. Ready for blond!

And I got greedy. You have to be very careful when you spray the white, and the next step -toner, not to spray too much and create runs - like I did here. If I had just waited for it to dry, then sprayed another light coat, there would be no issue. But I just had to get it done tonight. Oh well. Better push your schedule back another day, Jon cause you just earned yourself a day worth of sanding to fix these runs. BOO!

Here you can see my device for sanding small areas. I tore off a small piece of sandpaper (this is 400 grit, by the way, 220 was too much) and i rolled a piece of tape sticky side out around my finger, then stuck it to the back side of the paper. Works great! 

Sanding...

More sanding...

Almost there!

So this was a bummer - as I was sanding the runs out of the neck area, I accidentally brushed the back of the guitar body against my HVLP gun holder and dinged it. Hopefully I can fill this in with lacquer. Otherwise, I guess it's the first of many dings, dents and scratches. Guess it's a relic guitar after all.

I ended up having to use the airbrush to spray more white in the places where I sanded through. I think I got it pretty much even. 

Here's a flash coat of white to blend in my airbrush fixes. VERY VERY light.

Pretty good? I think so. Now on to the vintage toner to make this thing look 50 years old.