anorakDan Vee

[Tonar8352]

Here is a Vee I'm doing for Dan.
Prep sanded to 320.

Wash coat of gloss lacquer.

Here is is with the wash coat of black. I think I'd like to leave it just like this.

 

[pabloman]

This looks great. Leave it as is, tortoise pickguard, zebra pups, amber top hats.......yeah baby!

 

[anorakDan]

Hey, that's MY body!

As great as I think it looks as is, I'm sticking with the original plan, smooth, glossy black lacquer. Ultimately, there will be red "tribal" pinstriped graphics. I've got the Mean 90 pickups, the white pearloid pickguard, the skull themed hardware and there is a GFS Wilky trem bridge the original illustration didn't account for.

I appreciate the suggestion and it does look pretty dang cool that way, but no thanks. I'll stick with beautiful smooth glossy black.

Thanks for the update pics!

 

[Tonar8352]

In the words of the Great Richard Prior, "Mojo can handle it". 

Next up; paste filler.

 

[fdesalvo]

Gotta love a flyin' v!

 

[Tonar8352]

This baby should be ready for a wet sand and rub out in about a week.

 

[anorakDan]

:cool01:

It's gonna be beautiful, Tonar! With your fine work on the finish, and Cagey's mojo on the neck, this will be the perfect first Warmoth project for me. Having been here in the Unofficial community for a few years now, once I'm finished with this guitar, I will finally feel like I truly belong.

Thanks for all the help in making this dream possible!

 

[fdesalvo]

What up, Dan!  Nice job Tonar!

 

[anorakDan]

Doin' pretty well, Frank. How are you?

This body is gonna be so-o-o-o pretty. Take your time, Greg. I know we both want it about as perfect as possible.

 

[Great Ape]

Now THAT is HOT STUFF!! Whooo-weee...

 

[Tonar8352]

Dan is aware of this but some times one of these things kicks back at me and I have to deal with it. This one came up with the pin-hole from hell and it did not show up until I was wet sanding and rubbing it out. My first attempt to fix it was to drop fill the pin-hole with some lacquer and shoot one more melt coat of clear. After that cured I wet sanded it again and the stinking crater came back. From there I sanded it back very aggressively and shot one more color coat and a few more coats of clear. Here I am a month past what I thought would be a finished guitar still waiting to call it complete. As it sits right now the spraying is finished and once it cures I think it will behave for me this time.

Here are some pictures of the zit in the middle of the beauty queens nose right before the prom. You can see it was so deep it filled up with rubbing compound.

 
Unfortunately it was outside of where the pickup rings would cover it.

The worst part is to be that close to perfect (look at the reflection of the camera coming off that deep black gloss) and have to go backwards.

 

[Cagey]

I'm sure you have a regulator/filter setup, but do you have a dryer on your compressor's output? They're surprisingly expensive so many try to go without, but they keep the water/oil that causes that sort of thing out of the air stream.

 

[Tonar8352]

Yes I have an oil/water extractor and I use a ball filter at the gun. I think that was a really deep pour that never got filled completely. This baby had some huge open grain.

 

[dmraco]

Question.  Why the black BEFORE the grain fill?  Second...what brand paint do you use?

 

[Cagey]

You're supposed to seal the wood before you grain fill. Keeps the filler from shrinking due to aggressive absorption by raw wood. As long as I've been following Tonar's work, he's always used a "wash coat" rather than a specific sealer, as there's usually little difference. A wash coat is just a thinner version of the color coat, and may or may not be colored. If the color coat is to be opaque, the wash coat can be the same or similar color - it doesn't need to be clear. If you make it the same color, then later on in life minor scratches, dings, dents and chips won't show something contrasty around the injury.

 

[Tonar8352]

Question.  Why the black BEFORE the grain fill?  Second...what brand paint do you use?

I always do a wash coat to get the bottom of the pours sealed in order to keep the wood from sucking the vehicle out of the filler so the filler drys properly. I generally use regular clear finish thinned with equal parts of thinner and finish but on this one I used black because someone had asked how to get that open gain look in another thread. 

As far as finish I use Dunn-Edwards 680VOC black lacquer which I am at the end of and I have no idea where I will go to when this runs out. I have enough left to do the neck on a 335 that is here for repair and some for touch up on Dan's guitar if some thing happens during rub out and then I'm out. It is no longer made and the new stuff is horrid. I may have to go out of state to get some good ol school lacquer. For clear I'm using Seagraves from LMI which is really good but the is hard on my heart since it cost like $115.00 a gallon.  :tard: I sold paint for 32 years and I know what goes into making that stuff so it almost kills me to pay that but I have found nothing that works as well as it does.

 

[anorakDan]

Last Warmoth V body, last of Tonar's black magic lacquer.

I'm gonna have to take real good care of this guitar.

Hopefully it's not the last one I make...

 

[dmraco]

Thanks Tonar.  It did look good with the open grain.