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My friend offered to pay me to refinish his squire strat in fiesta red with matching headstock. He also asked me not to clear coat it. Anyways, I've never finished before. Can I get some tips?

Also, I'll upload some pics of the guitar as soon as I get home and progress pic when I start.

I'm probably gonna start on it tomorrow, if anyone even cares at all.

Good luck - you're a braver man than I.

Are you using a poly or a nitro paint? When I got my squier strat painted we sanded off the original clear coat & sanded the paint smooth. There was some talk about it being okay to paint over poly with nitro, so you should double check all that, you could use the original paint as a "primer" after some sanding & smoothing. As for a lack of clear over it, sounds fine but it'll be way more susceptible to chips, scuffs and scrapes. If you ended up using the old paint as a primer it'll end up coming through after some natural or unnatural damage.

I'm sure there are better ways about going about this, but that's just some of my experience with it, and might be quicker than sanding or chemically dissolving the paint down to the wood. If you do that, make sure to seal so the paint doesn't bleed into the wood if you or yr friend ever want to redo it.

Also, check out reranch's basic refinishing if you haven't already.

Goots. wrote:Are you using a poly or a nitro paint? When I got my squier strat painted we sanded off the original clear coat & sanded the paint smooth. There was some talk about it being okay to paint over poly with nitro, so you should double check all that, you could use the original paint as a "primer" after some sanding & smoothing. As for a lack of clear over it, sounds fine but it'll be way more susceptible to chips, scuffs and scrapes. If you ended up using the old paint as a primer it'll end up coming through after some natural or unnatural damage.

I'm sure there are better ways about going about this, but that's just some of my experience with it, and might be quicker than sanding or chemically dissolving the paint down to the wood. If you do that, make sure to seal so the paint doesn't bleed into the wood if you or yr friend ever want to redo it.

I'm using nitro paint. I've already removed the paint but the sealer and primer are still on it. Aslo,thanks for the tips.

If you keep the original finish, scuff it with 220 grit, so the new paint adheres. No issues painting over poly with anything

If you decide to remove it. Use a heat gun. Chemicals don't work on poly.

ReRanch.com has a great write up on refinishing. Read it, then read it again... again and again and again.

Joey wrote:If you decide to remove it. Use a heat gun. Chemicals don't work on poly.

I actually couldn't find a headtgun,so I found a chip in the paint and ran a razor under it and kept chipping paint off till it was all gone.

I've done that with a razor. It works pretty well. From there you can follow the Reranch method.

Is he going for an aged look? You could polish it without clears, but you're liable to sand through the red. I know they used to do that with Oly. It may make the guitar look old more quickly, but it may be hard to control. Just let him know that it may not work the way he wants. So long as he is open to experimentation, you should be fine.

DGNR8 wrote:I've done that with a razor. It works pretty well. From there you can follow the Reranch method.

Is he going for an aged look? You could polish it without clears, but you're liable to sand through the red. I know they used to do that with Oly. It may make the guitar look old more quickly, but it may be hard to control. Just let him know that it may not work the way he wants. So long as he is open to experimentation, you should be fine.

Yeah, he wants it to age really fast.
I have a question. How do I apply a Fender headstock decal without clear coat?

Lacquer thinner should dissolve it and allow it to adhere. Are you applying it to bare wood, existing poly or lacquer finish?

Fender used to put decals on without clear coats. Eventually they scrape off.