I guess I could explain to you what i did.
First i stripped it down with a heat gun and putty knife, but that's irrelevant to you if you want to use a new body.
I level sanded it, and prepped it, like any other body. i had to do some repairs, the guitar has a long history, which includes a basement flood, so it had some damage.
I used an autobody sandable primer (rattle can,) with no other sealer. i suppose you could use a sanding sealer, but i don't see the point. the body was basswood, so it didn't need filling.
I spent a lot of time wet sanding the primer level, i used two coats.
then I used the alsa 'Jet Black Base Coat' This had to be thinned to spray. they have a reducer agent as part of their system, use theor product. if you go rattle can, you won't need it. I have a compressor and spray guns, but they offer rattle cans too. this stuff was really really easy to spray. i laid down 2 thin coats.
Now the crazer comes ready to spray, don't reduce it at all! I tried a test spray on some scrap without the base coat, and the paint was really pale, and unattractive, but over the base coat it really pops. So what I did was spray the back and sides first. i put on a really thin coat, and then laid plastic wrap (normal food wrap,) over it. i sort of let it fall onto the surface. then you massage, or rub it. The more you move it around the tighter the pattern. I did a medium massage to get that effect on the back.
For the front I wanted a more dramatic or bold effect, so i let the wrap fall on the body, but i barely manipulated it at all. Where the plastic comes in contact with the body, paint sticks to the wrap, so it is blacker, and where there are bubbles or ridges in the wrap it leaves all or more of the paint behind, for the more striking green. really this is harder to explain than to do.
For the clear coats (after these shots,) i actually used their Killer Can spray can option. The clear coat is a 2 part (2K) urethane. They don't offer small quantities for spraying through your own gun, like they do with the basecoat and colors. So it was much cheaper to buy the spray can. Its a 2 compartment can, with a plunger that lets the 2 parts mix. After you activate it, you only have about 12 hours before the contents catalyse and are unsprayable. but this stuff is strong, and you only need a few thin coats, you aren't going to have to worry as much about sand throughs like with lacquer. You still have to be careful wetsanding, but not nearly as much. They say some people use 10 - 12 clear coats, and I might do that on a car fender or a mtorcycle tank. i got 3 decent coats from the one spray can, and it worked fine. One thing that can't be stressed enough, if you use the rattle can, follow the instructions closely. you need to shake the heck out of it, for at leat 10 or 15 minutes. You really need to make sure the 2 parts of the urethane mix together well. A friend used one of their cans on his motorcycle helmet, he didn't mix it well enough, some of the unmixed stuff came out, and it dried cloudy as heck, and unlike lacquer couldn't be fixed, it had to be stripped and redone.
the paint isn't cheap, it cost me way more than the value of the guitar. But it is fun, pretty easy and pretty unique.
