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Just snagged the world's ugliest 1964 Jaguar @ a local Pawn Shop.

VERY excited about everything except the crazy faux terrazzo finish!

I've done a ReRanch nitro refinish on my Duo Sonic (which had to be sold to snag this one, sniff-sniff. . .), and I'm plenty familiar with chemically stripping/removing old finishes, BUT I'd really like to know, from anyone with personal experience: does Aircraft stripper remove nitro as well as poly? If so, are there any aerosol strippers that will ONLY remove the poly!?

The real point here is: there obviously isn't a full 3TS finish to be saved here, but I would love to preserve whats there IF POSSIBLE/REASONABLE.

Pix:

Wow! I saw the title of this thread and thought,oh no some one is going to re-fin a beautiful old beat up guitar. But words can not describe how awful that thing is. Please please help this guitar!

It almost looks like gold sparkle. Strip it and paint it gold sparkle.

Nice... always wanted a jag that looked like a kitchen worktop. Is it heat resistant though?

That paint looks thick, wonder what would happen if you used a heat gun and a scraper to try and peel it off. Maybe you could save what is underneath? Peobably not, but hhmmmmmm?

I almost like the gravelly look, except it's a '64... so I don't.

I'd wait to see what the more experienced strippers (whoa-hoho!) say about preserving the nitro but I was under the impression you couldn't take poly off the top of nitro because it's so much more intensive to remove and nitro is so fragile (it might already be done for under there anyway). The underlying coat on the refin looks cracked here and there so it might be fragile enough to carefully remove in places and see what you're dealing with/if it's worth it.

I just posted on Reranch about this. I took the spray paint off of a Gretsch, a Wildwood Coronado, and a Telecaster Thinline, using a binding scraper. It's like a tougher version of a fingernail, with a slight sharp edge, but not too sharp. I almost look forward to this stuff. Brush on poly is another because I sand it smooth and treat it like Fullerplast.

Scraping might not work with enamel or whatever kind of weird shit is in that gravel paint. But part of what holds it on is that it is stuck to itself as a layer, like ice on a windshield. The ice doesn't adhere to the glass. Separate the pieces and it slides off. That's an oversimplification. But finger oils and haste can be your friend. The guy obviously didn't work too hard at it, since he didn't even remove the guard.

Try a small spot using your fingernail or a credit card. If you have any luck, it could be your best chance at separating the crafts paint from the nitro. Sanding might be another option because it can be done in layers. Stripper is too hard to control, and the top coat will invariably be tougher than the nitro. Once the stripper penetrates the top layer, it will probably take everything.

Stripper is the nuclear option. At least try others first, or a combination. All you are concerned with is a few hairs width.

I'd wet sand it with like 220. As you dig deeper start switching over to 320... 400... and lots of buffing. It's gonna be hell, but saving a fucked up orginal finish will easily jump the vaule up several hundred dollars. Take it to a professional if you don't feel comfortable.

Remember mkt had the same problem.

Punk as FUCK

Joey, did you take a close up look at the finish? It is actually rocks or something embedded on some sort of goop.

Hopefully it was just a hippie with a bottle of white glue and a bag of crush rock.

Heat gun lightly, poking, scrapping, picking, prying, sanding, buffing. Might get lucky with that goop... hot water, xylene, naphtha, goo gone.

When I pulled up a couple old layers of flooring of my kitchen hardwood flooring, I was left with a nasty tar adhesive on the pine flooring. I tried a heat gun, sanding, acetone lacquer thinner, stripper, adesive remover, power scracping, hand scraping... only thing that softened it was covering the floor with a towel and pouring boiling water on it.

Ah well. Lots of great suggestions, but in the end I don't think there was much/anything to save. I seems that whoever applied the good removed as much 3TS as the could get to w/o removing the control plates & guard. You can actually kind of see this in the pix - all the yellow areas are where the 3TS is already long gone.

SO - progress!!! Took the back down to bare wood last night. Going to mask the neck pocket & all the surviving 3TS, then do the same on the face & sides ASAP. Can't wait to get a refin going on this monster & PLAY IT SOME MORE!!!

SO, I probably should've waited for the body to dry all the way before snapping more pix, BUT I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Down to the wood on all the parts that was ugly, managed to preserve all the 3TS that I set out to, etc. Pretty massive PITA.

Used 2 cans of Airspray remover + plastic scrapers, razor blades & a ~200grit sanding block to get the ugly off. . .

Great stuff, you made short work of that! What colour are you going to go for?

Call me boring, but the ONE color I know I'll never regret is a fresh 3TS. Can't go wrong putting it right, right!?

Oh hell, that looks great. I would totally do sunburst. Have to.

Chris Fleming wrote:Nice... always wanted a jag that looked like a kitchen worktop. Is it heat resistant though?

Exactly what I thought. Let's make a fantastic guitar look like granite countertops.

What did they paint it with? Puke?

Punkacc9 wrote:What did they paint it with? Puke?

Don't talk crazy... they obviously ingested large amounts of paint and laxatives and shat it on. People just don't realize the versatility of the ass

drasp wrote:Call me boring, but the ONE color I know I'll never regret is a fresh 3TS. Can't go wrong putting it right, right!?

All that work for a sunburst?

There's a whole range of awesome out there just waiting to be picked.