need my guitar repainted (sorry if a double post)

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Elmo89m

Elmo89m

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Do any of you know of a place that will sand and paint a guitar to factory quality for around 100 dollars?
 
Elmo89m said:
Do any of you know of a place that will sand and paint a guitar to factory quality for around 100 dollars?
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No one can do a professional job for that cost. Period.

To get it done right, you are looking at spending at least 6-7 times that.

IF you want a professional job, you need to take it to a professional, who needs to get paid for his time, or he is losing money.

But the good news is it is almost never worth you while to refinish a guitar.

If you really want to do it, Lay's Guitar is really good.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Hate to burst your bubble but just the materals to properly refinish a guitar will cost as much as you hope to pay for the complete job, then there is the labor. Your guitar will also be in the shop for quite a while, a complete restoration is not a quick job. Restoring a guitar is a lot more complicated than refinishing a table or painting a bookshelf.
 
As mentioned, your looking at between $400 and $800. Depending on what color (assuming 1 solid color) materials alone will be between $150 to $300.
 
Why in the world does it cost so much just to refinish a guitar body? I mean, my father and I just painted a whole CAR with some excellent quality paint and clearcoat for about $400! Granted, we already have an air compressor and such, but still, I just cant see finishing a guitar costing more than a whole car.

If you have access to the tools, and of course the time, I bet that DIY is the way to go. If I were to refinish (which I am lookin to do soon, my strat is lookin shabby) I would get some paint mixed and pick up some clearcoat and fine grit wet sandpaper, and its a done deal. But I am totally unqualified to speak on this, so pay me no mind!

Carl
 
If you are really capping it off at one bill, you're in trouble cause nobody will touch it for that. Hell, I probably wouldn't even spray bomb somebody's guitar for that :D ...j/k.
If you get interested in the DIY approach here is a site with some good tips:

http://www.projectguitar.com/
 
Save some money, have fun, and do it yourself!

Refinishing a guitar body like your Mustang is pretty easy to do... why not do it yourself? Here's a link to a company that sells all the finish materials (including the original seafoam color) for pretty reasonable prices :

http://www.reranch.com/

They also have the refinishing instructions posted at their site, along with lots of photos of guitars refinished with their stuff.
 
I'm getting ready to finish an unfinished guitar body myself. I looked around for some DIY info. One place that helped was www.frettech.com. I think his instructions are for stains/dyes, not for regular paint, but I might be wrong. Even so if you em him I'm sure he could help you out. I contacted a pro and he quoted me $50 an hour, of course he didn't tell me how long it would take, but what I've seen probably it would cost around $300. So I agree, try it yourself, like someone else told me, if you screw it up, sand it and try again, or then get a pro.
 
DefenderOfRock said:
Why in the world does it cost so much just to refinish a guitar body? I mean, my father and I just painted a whole CAR with some excellent quality paint and clearcoat for about $400! Granted, we already have an air compressor and such, but still, I just cant see finishing a guitar costing more than a whole car.

If you have access to the tools, and of course the time, I bet that DIY is the way to go. If I were to refinish (which I am lookin to do soon, my strat is lookin shabby) I would get some paint mixed and pick up some clearcoat and fine grit wet sandpaper, and its a done deal. But I am totally unqualified to speak on this, so pay me no mind!

Carl
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Doing guitars right means doing them with nitrocellulose lacquer, because it SOUNDS better (also looks better, but that is just my opinion).

Nitro is a highly toxic and highly explosive material, not at all like the polyurethane you probably used for you car. It also takes a lot longer to dry. But one of the big things with nitro is safety equipment. You MUST have an explosion proof exhaust fan, a respirator rated for organic vapors, and explosion proof lighting (no finishing by candle light).

Here is my refinish procedure, just so you can get some idea of the time involved (which is the real cost, because if you think anyone will do a professional job without getting paid for their time, you are an idiot). I charge about $25 bucks for materials, by the way, because that is what it cost when you are buying stuff in bulk quantities, as I do. This assumes a Fender Strat type body, and not finishing the neck.

  • disassemble the instrument - up to about an hour
  • strip with a paste striper, such as Zip Strip or Citrustrip - 2-4 hours, easy, if you want to do a careful job
  • neutralize the striper - 5-10 minutes
  • Let it sit overnight at least, preferably for about a week
  • sand guitar with 100 grit garnet paper - 1-3 hours, depending on how bad it is
  • Sand with 150 grit garnet paper - up to 1 hour
  • wet the instrument to raise the grain, and let it sit overnight - about 5 minutes plus the waiting
  • Sand again with 150 grit garnet - probably about a half hour, as it is a lighter sanding
  • Sand with 220 grit garnet paper - 1-2 hours, as this HAS to be perfect, or your finish will suck. The others I will do at least partially with a random orbit pneumatic sander, but I always do 220 by hand
  • If you are using any kind of stains or dyes, you do it now. This could be a stained sunburst or a dye to emphasize the figure of a fancy piece of maple. If you are dying for figure, you then have to sand it back. All of this could take anywhere from 1-6 hours, plus 1-3 days of waiting around.
  • Spray a sealer coat. I use McFadden's vinyl sealer, as the vinyl gives the finish more resistance to weather checking than a sanding sealer. Including cleaning the spray gun, probably about 15 minutes.
  • Let it sit overnight
  • If the wood has a lot of open pours, such as mahogany or ash, you need to pour fill the wood. Applying and removing most of the excess filler takes about up to an hour, and then it sits overnight (or two nights would be good), and then you sand it back with 220 grit - for another hour or so
  • The sanding back of a sealer will remove a lot of filler, so you need to reseal - another 15 minutes
  • If you are spraying any color coats (wither solid colors, sunbursts, transparent colors, whatever), this is when you do it - including cleaning the gun after the color, which is more time consuming and more important than with clear or sealer, this takes an hour or so.
  • First clear coats. I like to do 8-12 over the course of a day or two on electrics. On acoustics, you need to do less, but you don't usually have the color on acoustics, so sand throughs don't matter quite as much - about 15 minutes each coat, and there must be at least an hour between coats
  • Let it sit for at least 5 days, and I like a week. Longer would be better. While it is sitting, you need to drop fill all the little pin holes and dips - depending on how well you did your pour filling, this could be anything from 1 hour to 6 over the course of the week, in 5 minute increments
  • After a week, sand it back. For this sanding I use a 220 fre-cut paper, which has a soap like lubricant embedded on the paper - 2 hours, easy
  • Spray 4 more coats of clear - about 15 minutes each coat
  • Let it sit, and drop fill. You absolutely MUST get all the pin holes and such filled at this point, as it is your last chance to do so - again, 1-6 hours
  • sand it back, this time I like to use 320 grit fre-cut - 1-3 hours
  • spray the last two coats of lacquer, and make damn sure you don't get any sags, dips, or runs. - 15 minutes a coat
  • Let it sit for at least 2 weeks, and I like at least a month, to let the finish get really hard as it continues to off gas. Waiting a longer time will make the polishing go easier, and will keep the finish level longer, though it will always will sink into the grain lines in time (which I think looks really cool, myself)
  • Wet sand with 600 grit wet-or-dry paper, using a little soapy water to lubricate - 3-6 hours, no kidding. I hate wet sanding
  • let it sit at least overnight
  • Wet sand with 1000 grit wet or dry, and some soapy water - 4-6 hours
  • let it sit at least overnight
  • Polishing. I have a Baldor buffing wheel, so it only takes me about an hour to do a run at polishing a guitar. I do two runs, one with a fine Menerza wax polishing compound, and one with an extra fine. It needs a day, at least, between polishing, as the wheel heats up and softens the finish.
  • The wheel does not get everywhere, and polishing the horns on the cutaway and such adds another 2-3 hours to the polishing.
  • final glaze/polishing with a nonabrasive polish (3M's Perfect It, for instance) - about 1 hour or so
  • reassembly and setup - 3-6 hours, depending on how well everything goes back together


Now, if you figure my shop rate of $70/hour in to all that, I am not charging nearly enough to refinish guitars, but then, I don't do refinish work anymore. I send people to Lay's, as they do the least expensive refinishing I have seen and been satisfied with. Anyone who charges less than Lay's, I would not trust to spend the time necessary to do it right.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Wow Light, thanks for taking the time to give a detailed explanation. Yours is much better than my simple one of it's a lot more complicated than painting a bookshelf.
 
IronFlippy in a PM said:
How important is it to fill the grain and what happens if you don't? I just read your in-depth reply on refinishing a guitar and it looks like you do a lot of grain filling. I'm refinishing my bass by hand and it's a pretty crappy bass. I just want to do it for experience before I build my own guitar. Thanks in advance for the time and effort!
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It depends, on the wood, and on what you want the finish to look like. If you want the mirror like surface which is the standard for a professional finish and if the wood has a very open grain, such as ash or mahogany, it is essential. If you do not fill the grain, then the coats which follow (both color and clear) will sink into those open pores, and you will either have big open pores one the surface or you will have to fill the pores with clear coats, which will lead to your putting on WAY too many coats of clear. That much clear, and you are all but guarantied to have problems with weather checking.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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