ShortScale.org

If anyone saw in the classifieds Pat wanted his Mustang painted and I agreed to do it. Instead of sending PMs back and forth we thought it would be nice to start a thread detailing the progress. I enjoy doing this kind of stuff and it gives me something to do when I get home from work instead of sitting in front of the boob tube drinking beer. Now I can drink beer and work on a guitar :]
While I was waiting for the body to arrive from Pat I used an old Music Master body to spray some samples that I will show in a couple of posts.
There are tons of pictures and unfortunately my girl lost the charger to our digital camera so every picture was taken with my Iphone. Not the best quality, not the worst.
Here is what we are starting with:


The clear coat was put on with a brush so the first thing I had to do was block sand it to get a level surface. There were also 2 golf ball sized dents in the front from being over sanded when the paint was stripped originally. I filled those and any major dings I could find. For the most part I left a bunch of what I thought were minor bumps to give it character.

Here it is with primer on. After this dries I will go over it again looking for any big dents I might have missed. I can already tell I'm gonna have to sand out and reprime a couple of sags and a piece of lint. Once that is done it's going to need sanding with some 320 or 400 grit to get ready for paint. Hopefully I will get to that by the weekend.

looks great, rod. ace work per usual.

Here's the part that is pretty subjective, the color.
I'm going to kind of go on my own experience to get a good aged looking color for the guitar. Pat suggested sending the neck with the body, but I knew before I even started that there would be no way to get it exactly the same using only reranch products. I could have used a different brand of paint, but I've used reranch before and am comfortable with the way it flows and have had good results using it before.
These pictures should be self explanatory. Due to the shitty camera and poor lighting it will be imposable to get the color to photograph 100% accurately so please just believe me when I say what they look like. Ok Pat?
As I said I used an old MM body to draw the samples on. Don't give me grief about it, it's routed to shit on the front and was resprayed a long time ago.
I hardly did any prep to it and it shows, though I did lay down some primer to block the red before starting, then shot a couple coats of LPB. Once it was dry I masked off 2 stripes one in Daphne Blue and one in Sea Foam Green. I sprayed one with straight clear, one tinted and a section with no clear at all in the hopes that it would show what a huge difference they all are from each other. After it dried I put a 2nd coat of tint over a section of the 1st coats in order to get a good idea of how multiple coats would affect the overall look.
While looking a the shots just now, the lines arn't crisp. Not to worry, I used a shittier brand tape for the samples.






And a couple in different light:

hotrodperlmutter wrote:looks great, rod. ace work per usual.

Thanks Hotrod.

I'm going to make one more big post tonight, but it takes me a while to get my thoughts typed out and keep the pictures in order.

Plaidstang is hot. No grief here. Sides, experimentation is everything.

It would be funny if you buried a Blackhawks decal in the clears.

Here are some comparisons with a couple of old Mustangs that have aged way different from each other. They are both '69's and the 1st one has greened A LOT. The second is one you've all seen before, but it shows how the forearm wear is a different color than the rest of the body. The third is of Pat's headstock. It's in different lighting and taken with a different camera, but maybe someone will Photoshop them side by side?

Green '69:



not so green '69:



Both of them next to the tinted samples:



And all 3 together:



Lastly Pat's headstock:

DGNR8 wrote:Plaidstang is hot. No grief here. Sides, experimentation is everything.

It would be funny if you buried a Blackhawks decal in the clears.

Haha, not a bad idea......maybe next time I build a guitar for myself.........hmmmmmm......

I think I've got just enough parts to put it together (minus bridge). It would look sweet next to my calico Bronco i used for test painting before :]

Would you be able to get a good, daylight pic of that test body? I'm interested in a lot of those colours.

James wrote:Would you be able to get a good, daylight pic of that test body? I'm interested in a lot of those colours.

Sure. If it's still light out when I get home from work tomorrow I'll do it then. If not, it might not be till the weekend.

oh man i'm giggling all over!!! this is gonna be SO cool, and i'll NEVER gonna sell this guitar!!!
looks all cool so far... i'm curious what's up next!
thnx,

Pat.

here's a couple more pics of my headstock:







note how it looks greener in the sunlight...

but man, as i said before, do it like YOU would like it. i see some very close colors in there... i trust your good taste and knowledge!
rock on, i'll be watching this one (like, every 10 minutes haha!)

Pat.

Glad yer diggin it, Pat.
At work right now, but got time for a quick post. my plan is to spray the body, use Daphne for the stripes, Spray straight clear until the stripe is buried and then just one coat of tinted to finish it up. That way as you play the guitar it will wear away the tint in the common places like the forearm, making it look more natural.
That's the plan any way.

oh wow that sounds like a killer idea!!!
can't wait to see how it's gonna look like...

thanks man, really!

Pat.

What are you using to fill in the dings?

James, unfortunately daylight won't be around for a few more months. This time of year it's grey skies until March, even when it's not as cold like today.

I took some shots any way:

taylornutt wrote:What are you using to fill in the dings?

Drywall compound.....just kidding. It's called plastic wood.

i love the one on the left.

Awesome.

You just confirmed my problem. They all look good. Obviously here you're trying to approximate the headstock but for me any colour will do and I love all of those.

i think the problem with tinted clears is the way they affect the stripe. sometimes it looks like a snotty yellow... but untinted would probably look way too clean.