Getting my Fender Strat Re-Painted... How much should it cost???

pisces7378

pisces7378

New member
I have a bright red Fender Stratocaster that I bought around 1984-85. It was my first real electric guitar besides two or three $200 student jobbies.
I have bought several guitars since then, (Gibson ES-335, Telecaster, Gibson SJ-200, Ibanez 12-string, Fender Prodogy [bad guitar]) etc. So the old strat kind of fell by the waste side, and basically sat in it's case in my old bedroom at my parent's house for 4 years while I lived in Europe. When I got back...
...the tremelo system was all rusted up, the pickups are pretty rusted on the little magnet dots, the tuning keys are a little jangly and rusted. And I had just remembered how much I HATED the "1980's hair on fire fuck-me-I'm-a-rock-star Fire engine red color that it is. And so I shoved it under my bed in my new apt.
Then a year later after my band and I were playing steady shows here and there... my other guitars had problems... so I broke out the old Strat. It sounds SOOOOO much better than I remember it sounding. Even through all the rust it still sounds descent. Some paint nicks, and rust... but the neck is great and the electronics (knob pots, input jack, and switch) are a little crackly and all but nothing HORRIBLE.
Any-damn-way... I want to fix this puppy up. Starting with the color. I know that it is all vain, and cosmetic to worry about paint. But we play real sweet indi-vintage type stuff (think: "The Band and Crazy Horse" backing up "The Jesus and Mary Chain") all originals. It just fucks with me to be up there playing a piece of lip-stick.
So I have a few questions. How do I go about getting it re-painted. Is this something that I could do myself AT ALL??? Or is that a "Hell No!" with a capitol "Hell"? If I have to get some local guitar repair man to do it for me, how much am I looking at?
What about WD Music Productions ? They sell already finished Strat style bodies for around $225. I don't want anything fancy. Just a solid black strat body. If I have to pay some dude $200 to re-paint it, then I would just as soon buy a new body for it for $225. But then what happens when I try to sell it later (should that day come). Would I be like commiting fraud to call it a Fender Stratocaster? I mean, the neck and electronics, and all the gear would be Fender stuff, but the body would be a WD. Or are WD's somehow accredited by Fender to be sold as "Fender Bodies"?

Anyway this thread is way too long already. What do you guys think I should do?
 
well if you were to get the other body, you could keep the old body abd put the neck and electronics back on it if you were ever to sell it. then you could say it's 100% original.

i dont think you could get anyone to paint it for less than a hundred bucks. unless they were a friend of yours and did it for cost. the price to have someone do it professionally would probably range from 100 to 300 bucks depending on the quality of paint you used and how good a job you wanted them to do.

you could do it yourself. but for really good paint it's probably gonna cost you around 150 bucks (that might be a high estimate.....it could be closer to 100). that's with buying the basecoat/color, the hardener, the clear, thinner, and possibly retarder. but if you dont have much paint experience, you probably wont be able to do an amazing job, so cheaper paint is an option.

you'll need something to spray it with too. all you would need is a cup gun which isn't expensive at all. i think cheap ones go for 70 bucks'ish. but then you would need air also.

so unless you already have painting equipment, or know a painter, it's probably best to have a pro do it or buy the other body.
 
Rust-Oleum at Home Depot.

$4.99/can. Any color you want.

B&D Mouse sander-- $29.99.

Sandpaper-- $10 for a couple different grits.

0000 steel wool-- $5.00.

Voila!
 
c7sus said:
Rust-Oleum at Home Depot.

$4.99/can. Any color you want.

B&D Mouse sander-- $29.99.

Sandpaper-- $10 for a couple different grits.

0000 steel wool-- $5.00.

Voila!
Click to expand...


Come on Csus, man. You know better than that.

Doing a guitar finish right is a strictly professional job; unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to get setup to do it. I could do a Strat body, including all the prep, for about $500. But I wouldn't do it. If you asked me to do it, I would send it to Lay's Guitar in Illinois or Indiana (I don't remember which, but they have a web site). You could send it to them yourself, and save some money. You can also save some money by doing the prep work yourself. Get some Zip Strip or CitruStrip, and get the finish off (if it will come off, that guitar may be a epoxy finish, in which case you are going to have to sand it off, which will take you a year). Then sand it with garnet sand paper from 100 grit to 220. If there are any particularly rough spots, you can start with a 60 grit. Doing this work yourself would save you probably $100-$150.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I just finished sanding mine, all by hand, looks beautiful. Next for the finish. :)
Has some cracks in the body that were hid by the paint, i.e. they were there before the paint job. :eek: so much for mexican quality control.
So far has cost me nothing more than some elbow grease.
This is my third guitar, so far, it has cost me under 50 bucks for good looking guitars. Used spray gun on the other two. Of course I have access to most equipment needed being a machinist.
Dust in the finish is a big no no, must take care.
PS, leaving the strat a natural wood so wont have to paint this one.
 
dragonworks said:
PS, leaving the strat a natural wood so wont have to paint this one.
Click to expand...


Bad idea. Wood needs a finish or it will have serious problems with the enviroment. If you want the guitar to last, you MUST have a hard finish on the instrument to protect the wood.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Bad idea. Wood needs a finish or it will have serious problems with the enviroment. If you want the guitar to last, you MUST have a hard finish on the instrument to protect the wood.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...

Cmon Light, give me more credit than that. What I meant is I am not going to paint it, of course I will put a clear coat on her. :)
 
dragonworks said:
Cmon Light, give me more credit than that. What I meant is I am not going to paint it, of course I will put a clear coat on her. :)
Click to expand...


Just making sure.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
How much should it cost?

Hi,

Forget about a 'professional' of bike shop chances are that it won't come in less than the $225. Go to a crash repair shop, check out the colours they're spraying it'll only take an extra few second for them to spray the guitar while doing a car. If they're not doing black ask them to give you a call when something comes in. Most of these guys get a kick out of doing something different and seeing the end poduct.

Alternatively if you have a good crowd at a gig you could get the lead singer to ask in the middle of the gig if anyone can do something about the god awful red guitar, wouldn't be surprised if you get a fan to do it for free :)

If theres a decent lump of timer under that paint the fastest and cheapest option is to oil it for a natural timber finish.

Good luck,

Paddy
 
Just something I feel I should mention here. Automotive finishing guys and guitar finishing guys have a lot in common, but our prep issues are quite different. Their stuff is metal, and has no grain lines. Additionally, they can fill in irregularities with Bondo, which we can not. They do not have the same kind of experience filling grain that a guitar finisher will have. Now, the alder they use for most strats is not too bad for filling (not like ash or mahogany), but it does need to be filled if you are going to get a professional finish.


Also, most automotive guys these days are shooting urethanes, and they have a number of problems from the guitar perspective. The main one is that they do not sound as good as nitrocellulose lacquer, which is what most guitar guys use. If they are using a lacquer, it is an Acrylic Lacquer (invented, or at least perfected, by John Kosmosky{spelling}, who's House of Kolor store front is just blocks from my house, btw). Acrylics just don't sound as good.

Additionally, nitro has one major addvantage over all other finishes (except schellac, but nitro is more durrable than schellac). Aside from color matching, I can make any latter touchup in nitro disapear. I can soften the lacquer around the touchup so that the new lacquer blends into the old completely, and you will never be able to see where the new starts and the old ends. This is not true with Acrylic Lacquer or Polyurethane. This is important to some people.

I am not trying to discourage you from taking it to an automotive guy, just making sure you understand some of the issues as I see them. Some of the things I have seen those guys do on bikes and cars is amazing, and I could never do it. I have great respect for what they do. Just be aware of the issues.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Come on Csus, man. You know better than that.

Doing a guitar finish right is a strictly professional job; unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to get setup to do it. I could do a Strat body, including all the prep, for about $500. But I wouldn't do it. If you asked me to do it, I would send it to Lay's Guitar in Illinois or Indiana (I don't remember which, but they have a web site). You could send it to them yourself, and save some money. You can also save some money by doing the prep work yourself. Get some Zip Strip or CitruStrip, and get the finish off (if it will come off, that guitar may be a epoxy finish, in which case you are going to have to sand it off, which will take you a year). Then sand it with garnet sand paper from 100 grit to 220. If there are any particularly rough spots, you can start with a 60 grit. Doing this work yourself would save you probably $100-$150.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...

I disagree that "Doing a guitar finish right is a strictly professional job; unless you want to spend several thousand dollars to get setup to do it."

I refinished my '66 strat in lake placid blue nitro laquar, and I would put it up against a professional job any day of the week. It is beautiful, and slick as glass.

Go to this website: www.reranch.com They sell all the paint in aerosol cans, every gauge of sandpaper you need to cut and buff the finish, and the finishing polish to put the final gloss on your guitar.

You get complete instructions to walk you thru the whole refinishing process (from taking off the old paint to buffing out the new finish). the only thing you will need that they don't supply is a drill and a buffing pad.

The paint is top quality and never in my life have I seen aerosol cans spray as even a pattern as theirs. It is amazing.

My cost for a "professional finish":
2 cans of color ($15.95 ea.)
2 cans of clear ($12.95 ea.)
7 sheet pack of sandpaper (different gauges) ($5.95)
1 can of nitrocellulose sand and sealer. S&S acts as a grain filler but also levels the wood before shooting the color coats ($8.95)
One Pint of "Finess It" (enough for about five guitars). $14.95

Total= $87.65

There is no way in hell that a professional will even think about doing a finish like mine for less that $300.00 (that would be cheap). I wouldn't trust my guitar to someone, who claimed to be a pro, if they would do a paint job for under $300.

Reranch carries dies, 2 and 3 color sunburst packages, and when you e-mail them with a question they get right back to you.

I wanted a very high quality finish on my '66 strat....I wanted nitro laquar. It is not the "original" finish, but it is the "correct" finish (with the correct white primer).

It takes a little elbow grease, but it is fun. Like I said, check out the site and look at some of the "do it yourself" finishes posted there.

Its the only way to get a really high quality finish for under $100 bucks IMO.
 
Hey jimistone,

Thanks for the info and incouragement. Do you have any photos of your hand-finished Strat?

Also, I wanted to ask about all this "sound" business. Could someone shed some light on how much affact different kinds of "paint" can affect the sound of the guitar? I mean, if I blind-folded 10 people and played the same Strat finished in three different "paints" could anyone HONESTLY tell the difference coming through a cranked Marshall? Or even through a sweet Fender Reverb turned down low and clean?

But like I said, thanks jimstone. Any photos?
 
I have some pics. I will have to find them and load them on my hard drive. I'll do that and post them.

I will say this about finish and sound:
I got that strat in 1976 and it was sunburst (original nitro finish). I was 16 years old, dumb, and natural wood finish strats were all the rage. I sanded the original finish off the guitar (very "16 year old" boneheaded move...I admit it). To my dismay, the alder wood didn't have the right look....the 70's natural wood strats were ash wood.

The guitar sounded fantastic with the original finish. After sanding off the finish, I found a rebel flag pickguard and painted it Confederate grey and put the new pickguard on. I was in the military and had access to all their paint , activator, primer, and spray guns. The paint they were using to paint helicopters was Dupont Emoron. Emoron is a very tough polyurethane paint....the grey I used was emoron. I put coat after coat of that stuff on the guitar and sanded in between coats. Next I put coat after coat of clear on it. I bet that guitar had 20 coats of poly paint on it. It sounded just as good after that paint job as it did with the original thin nitro laquar coat. That was in 1979. The rebel flag pickguard didn't last, I put a black guard on it and it kept the grey poly paint for over 20 years.

Last year, I decided that I wanted another color. I wanted it to be period correct for a 1966 strat (gey poly isn't even close). So, I talked to the luthier that did my fret job (he is the best I have ever seen). I told him I wanted the poly taken off down to the bare wood and painted back 3 color sunburst...using the correct yellow dye ( fullerplast?). Anyway, He said "man, you are talking about a major ordeal, and I can't even really give you an estimate on that job". I wanted it right...but I didn't want to sink $600 in a paint job. Bottom line is this, I found out about the reranch website and I decided to give it a shot (nothing ventured, nothing gained).

The hardest thing in the whole refinishing project was getting the Emoron off. I applied coat after coat after coat of the heaviest duty paint stripper known to man. It took me 2 weeks of working every day to get it off. (you have to be careful if you sand it...you could change the contours of the guitar...I wasn't going to sand a '66 and take that chance). I researched all the color options for 1966 strats and decided to go with lake placid blue over white primer. I put all the original plastic and pickguard on back on it (until Ted Nugent signed the pickguard....then I put a blue pickguard and black plastic on it...didn't want to rub off the signature and cartoon Ted put on it).

I was offered $3500 bucks for the guitar (I paid $150 for it in 1976). I would never had that kind of offer with the grey poly paint job. But, after haveing that strat for 28 years...Im not ever going to sell it anyways...so, who cares.

It dosen't sound any better with the new thin nitro paint job than it did with the thick ass poly paint job. The thickness and type of finish just dosn't make that much difference IMO
 
One more thing as a "by the way" comment. When I stripped off the poly paint, the original yellow dye, original factory pickup cavity markings, and original factory neck pocket markings were still in place...who would've ever dreamed? Those Fender factory black markers and yellow dye was some tough stuff!
 
the pic files were too big lasttime,,,see if this works
(had to do these in "low quality" to get them to upload)
 

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jimistone said:
Its the only way to get a really high quality finish for under $100 bucks IMO.
Click to expand...


For every person who comes in with a success story like that, we get ten who fuck it up. Guitar finishing is not particularly difficult, but it does take a great deal of practice to learn to spray a wet coat without sags, and most amateurs put on too much finish. Mostly, though, most people do not have enough patience. Also, where did you spray it, and I did not notice the cost of your explosion proof fan, nor of you organic vapor respirator. Doing finish work without these is flat out stupid. You are risking you life in the short term from an explosion or in the long term from lung diseases. The reason it is a professional job is because the safety equipment is quite expensive.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I have a metal utility building (12 X 15), that I keep my mower and yard tool in, thats where I did the spraying. I took everything out of the "shed" and wetted the floor and walls down to get rid of the dust in the air. I used a respirator I got at walmart (It worked pretty well and was cheap). As far as applying the paint, The website went into detail about that. Lake placid blue is a metallic with aluminum particles....if applied to heavy the particles will not "stand up" right, the metallic will not reflect properly. You have to "dust' a metallic finish on. It takes more coats, but the results are worth the extra time it takes. The blue metallic cannot be sanded (like most other colors) before the clear coat (same thing with the aluminum particles not reflecting properly). I sprayed 3 thin coats of clear, level the finish, then sprayed the rest of the clear coats and did my final cut and buff.

You are right light, most guys want it "painted and put back together today!!" and will half ass a finish. That is why I put the link to the website. If someone uses their product and follows their directions, they will get professional results.

I think the biggest chance for non-pro results is the body preparation stage. Getting the guitar body 100% perfect before applying the finish is VERY important.
 
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