First Sealer Coat

[BillyBoy]

I put a coat of thinned filler on my unfinished Tele body last weekend. Getting ready to put on a couple of coats of sealer before I put on some un-thinned filler. How long would you recommend I wait between each coat? It's only going to get up to about 55F today.


Thanks!  :guitarplayer2:

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I you are using Shellac sanding sealer, it is dissolved in ethanol.  You can smell when that has evaporated, after ten or so minutes.  If it stinks like the can, wait longer.  That way you can add 2-3 coats in a day.
Patrick

 

[BillyBoy]

I'm using ReRanch Sand and Sealer.

For one coat, how many times do you spray across the body? I've never done this before and not sure how much I should be spraying.

 

[Cagey]

Very, very little - like almost none at all. 55°F is too cold to be spraying. The solvents won't boil off fast enough and you're liable to get sags and runs very easily. So, you'll end up basically dusting the thing, which isn't going to make for a good surface. You'll have to sand most of it off to level it. It's a waste of material. Just wait until it warms up a bit. Even lacquer isn't supposed to be sprayed below 65°F, and that stuff's thinned with acetone, which boils off pretty fast.

 

[BillyBoy]

Cagey - I hadn't read your post and already did it. Here's what it looks like with four coats.

 

[Cagey]

I can't tell anything by that picture.

 

[BillyBoy]

This one might be easier to see.

 

[Cagey]

Not really. The light's not harsh enough. It looks perfect. Need sunlight. No forgiveness with that stuff.

Either that, or it is perfect. Can't tell.

 

[Tonar8352]

Bill, so far so good.  It is ok to shoot in a cold environment as long as you immediately move it into a warmer room to let it dry.  BUT you do that at your own risk because you can wind up with blushing, which means that the lacquer flashed off to fast and has trapped moister under the finish. That can be fixed with blush remover, which basically is a heavily retarder finish that keeps the surface open long enough for the moister to escape.  Painters shoot lacquer in cold foggy weather all the time in the California valley they just thin it with a bunch of lacquer retarder and cross their fingers. Sometimes they run into problems and they just do a wash coat to re-melt that surface and let the moisture out. I have seen very few lacquer failures that can’t be fix.

Keep up the good work; you have a beautiful piece of wood!

 

[BillyBoy]

Here's one with more light on it. I left it hanging in the utility room with the door open all day. No heat out there. I would wait and hour or so between coats. Then I brought it in the house overnight where it will stay until next weekend. I'll light sand it and put on a coat of UN-thinned filler next.

Thanks for the tips and comments Greg and Cagey!

 

[Cagey]

That's better. You can see the finish is going on well in that shot. Although you can still see some grain, that'll eventually get smoothed out through successive sand/fill cycles.

 

[BillyBoy]

Do you think that I may need more than one coat of filler on it before I start hitting it with clear coat?

 

[Cagey]

It's a judgment call that depends on how flat you want the surface to be.

 

[Cagey]

The more you thin any kind of filler or sealer, the less it will fill and the more coats you'll need. You're the man on the spot with the naked eye, so you have to decide whether the surface is as smooth as you want it to be.

Be aware that you have to sand between coats to take the high spots off, or successive coats of filler or sealer will simply exaggerate the flaws that already exist. It's a good idea to have a sanding block of some sort - hard rubber is best. Trying to do this by hand will result in wavy finish that screams "amateur" from a mile away.

Ideally, you want to have a body prepped to where it doesn't look like it needs a finish. That's when you start finishing it.

 

[BillyBoy]

Thanks! Good tips. I've moved my post on you again. Sorry  :toothy12: