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Since about 25 Years am i dreaming about a mustang. And since then i bought and sold a lot of guitars - tele, jaguar, jazzmaster, cyclone, duosonic, strat,... but i don’t know why - there was no mustang.
Now i’ve found a mustang body oh ebay-kleinanzeigen (similar craiglist) here in germany for a good price, what is really really seldom.
I thought i have to buy this and build a mustang. It came with original electronics besides a seymour duncan humbucker in the bridge position. The shielding under the pickups and the pots perplexed me - it looks really old. So i did some research here and it is an 1974 competition red mustang body.
I try to make a new mustang out of this - it's not so easy to buy parts for mustangs in germany. But i found an allparts neck and picked some other parts... My first thought was a refinish in daphneblue because i really dig this colour on mustangs. But then... (some sleep) i’ve decided to strip down the red coat and look, whatever happened to the original competition red.
Since i haven’t done any restorations at all, i’m very curious, if i can manage to save the original finish...

First some photos how it came to me:














I've tried starting wet sanding and i think it works! But what the hell is that scratches on the back?!?




Hope frontside looks better. (to be continued...)

Daphne or comp red will be awesomes. Keep us in on this, pls. =]

Hope i can keep comp red. I will let you know...

Okay I’m sanding very smooth. Everything is ok until i reach the back of the bottom horn - shit i sanded through!!! Then very gently going on the back contour and i’m through also. But i see - it’s not me, there is no CAR under the poor finish. It was sanded down to the wood before refinishing!!! 😮
OK, nevermind. Just try the frontside. If it’s ok, who cares the backside? Smooooooooth sanding, the stripe gets clear...




… but WTF?????



There was sanded very hard and later was refinished in the ugly red… There is nothing below the red at the bodyends. HOLY SHIT!!!




Someone raped this little mustang. 😔

At the moment i think i let it as it is as a monument for »don’t refinish oldfashioned guitars« as it was done to this one i think in the 80ies…

Pretty cool

Scratches on the back look like they're from an orbital power sander. It's strangely cool as is, but if you refinish it, I say go back to CAR with stripe.

...the paint on the brass plates makes me wince...

NickS wrote:...the paint on the brass plates makes me wince...

agreed.


and agreed that if you end up going down to the wood, just do the CAR w/ stripe. i bet you'll be happiest with those results.

Yes, i give this fucked finish a try...

I really like S-HB equipped guitars. So i do this:

Ooo those are a few of my favorite things.

HOLY SHIT THAT LOOKS COOL AS FUCK. I'd clear that shit and profit.

EMERGENT STRIPE is the new hotness. That looks awesome

Just done the first try. Put it together and love it. Plays and sounds really awesome. Love it. More photos will follow...



just a wild bastard...

That really does look so much better than the red paint job. Congrats.

Nice work!

That looks really REALLY cool.

thanks @ all.

playing it about two weeks i'm thinking about selling all my other gear. reaaalllllyyyy love this guitar!!!

rules