Mustang restore (continued, with pictures)

[-CB-]

Too long ago, I told bro Vic that I'd redo his Mustang.

As some may recall, it was really in sad shape - needed total refret, needed major body work.

The neck is done!~ 

And here's some pictures of the body - rapidly nearing completion.  The color is shell pink, from Re-Ranch.  The clearcoats are good ol' Cabot rattle can lacquer.  For gloss, Cabot is a tad better than Deft.  It sands easier, but both give great results.  Deft is the clear winner on satin finish.  Defts satin is "to die for", and will buff to almost mirror bright, leaving a soft patina that says "aged" very well.

So, its coming along -

The back needs one more wet coat.  The front needs a quick level, then two wet coats.  After that - it sits for two weeks, followed by final sand with 600 or 800 grit, and buff to "not quite mirror".  The body has defects that are not going to be fixed, so I'm not going for 100 percent mirror bright.

The neck will need to be "dumbed down" a bit, lose its brilliance, get some ciggy burns and character, then be mated to the body.

 

[vic108]

Yeah man!! Lookin' good!!

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Did somebody attach the neck without a plate at one point?  Wow those are some, "broken in," neck attachment holes.  Lookin' good, I am having fun watching the progress.
Patrick

 

[vic108]

this one had already been stripped of it's original paint, all gouged up, and then had a weak layer of house paint on it when we found it. One of the worse examples of abused guitars I have ever seen.

 

[Tempest]

this one had already been stripped of it's original paint, all gouged up, and then had a weak layer of house paint on it when we found it. One of the worse examples of abused guitars I have ever seen.

That poor guitar! Looks like it's going to turn out pretty good though, reminds me of Jalane's shoreline gold koa tele

 

[vic108]

neck date looks like NOV '70 to me..........

pots date from 1966 - it looks like

 

[vic108]

got CB to send a few pixs of how nice the neck cleaned up:

 

[Johnny]

Wow, that neck looks awesome.  Hate the thought of sticking a lit cigarette against that thing.

 

[vic108]

Yes, now that i see the neck pixs, it would be a shame to "dumbed down" that neck!
maybe when CB has body and neck together, he'll have second thoughts?

 

[-CB-]

Examined the back of the body today... I'm happy with the finish - as it can exist on the body.

The front needs a wet sand and two wet coats, and some shrink time.

Unsure on the neck.  I think its gonna need some deglossing at least.  I really want that ciggy burn in there.

Vic has sourced a nice repro decal - which will somehow be gotten into my smarmy fist and applied - then clear coated over.

We're getting close. 

Tonar will appreciate that point where the lacquer gets that "candy coated" feel, that plastic sort of depth to the finish.  The back is there, the front will be soon - weather willing (all praise to Fris, God of the Frisbee).

We'll see... two coats Friday afternnon, and shrink in time of a week or so... in 90 degree low humidity... we might  just be assembling in two weeks.

 

[vic108]

OK, decals ordered and will be shipped to your address CB:

 

[DangerousR6]

OK, decals ordered and will be shipped to your address CB:

 

[Tonar8352]

Is that Birdseye Maple the original neck the original? 
Looking good.

 

[vic108]

Yes! It is. CB must have really put some work into that neck as I didn't know that the neck was so beautiful! Really surprised how that turned out!

these are the only BEFORE shots I got of anything close to the neck... headstock pixs

as you can see, it was VERY dull...

 

[vic108]

from what was seen in the neck pocket, it was a blue color originally, but since I have many blue guitars and it was in frightful shape as it was, I thought we'd go with shell pink for something a little different. The purest in me (and other folks) kept screaming "BLUE!", but shell pink is what I really wanted.

Now, I need to find optional wiring diagrams for the switches to get the best tone out of it. If you know of any, I'd be very interested in hearing about it! Thanks.

here's a few that I found:

but the way I used to have my maple stang wired up was the back switch controlled the pickups, so it was: b/b+n/n and then the front switch was: volume & tone bypass/just tone bypass/no bypass. so you could have a few different setting and use them with a flick of the switch.

and

One slider acts as a three-way pickup selector and the other selects in phase/out of phase/off.

Seems they are saying about the same thing?

 

[Tonar8352]

That is a great piece of maple, not the usual Fender fare. Great job CB and good for you Vic that it is turning out so nice.

 

[vic108]

Thank you, Tonar.
Yes, incredible this humble guitar has such nice neck wood! I'm floored by how nice it really is.

 

[-CB-]

Frankly, I'm wondering why nobody asked me why the house across the street has a portable shitter in the front yard.  Answer is - the place nearly burnt down to the ground.  Brick outer walls, but needed EVERYTHING else replaced.  Total new truss and roof, total interior gut and redo.  They've been at it for six months.  It takes longer to rebuild than to build, and frankly, I cant see why they didn't just tear it down and start fresh - would have maybe saved money on trying to save certain things, and/or finding additional hidden problems.

 

[DangerousR6]

I think I'd have just tore it all down and started over anew... :dontknow:

 

[bagman67]

In some jurisdictions, the permitting procedure is different for new construction than for a remodel.  If any part of the structure is left standing, it might be a lot cheaper to go through the permit process for  a renovation than to build a new house from the ground up.