Quick question...

[Pyrodan]

Just a quick one,

I own a mexican strat which has already been pretty heavily modified but I've now decided that I've gone off the colour and would like a change.
I was thinking of sanding off the current colour and having a natural finish but my dad seems to think that I'd have to sand so much off that it would alter the shape of the body. (I hope that makes sense!  :laughing7

So...is it possible for me to sand off the current paintjob and then have a natural finish or will the paint have seeped too far into the body to get right down to the wood?

Advice will be greatly appreciated but please don't abuse me if I've said something stupid  :icon_tongue:

 

[m4rk0]

It's a lot of work, and yes, in some spots, the paint may be very deep in the wood!
I did it once and used multiple coats of chemical stripper and a couple of hours with a mouse sander... drove me crazy,... especially inside the horns

 

[line6man]

I'm not all that knowledgeable on finish work, but it seems like it would be a MUCH better idea to strip the paint first, rather than sanding it all off.

 

[Pyrodan]

Hmm maybe plan B instead....my dads friend owns a spray booth (very useful indeed!) and he's told me about this special type of paint...

Basically you do a base coat of silver and then spray a special black over the top which then shrinks to create a cracked effect...sound cool? whatever I finally decide on I'll be sure to post pictures

 

[JaySwear]

Hmm maybe plan B instead....my dads friend owns a spray booth (very useful indeed!) and he's told me about this special type of paint...

Basically you do a base coat of silver and then spray a special black over the top which then shrinks to create a cracked effect...sound cool? whatever I finally decide on I'll be sure to post pictures

that definitely sounds cool! i'd like to see that. if you've got the money it might be worth it to get a replacement body from warmoth. it's not too expensive for an unfinished body, and you could practice on the old body, strip it, sand it, and/or get it a new neck and have a whole new guitar  :icon_biggrin:  every spare body needs a neck to match you know

 

[AndyG]

I have a basswood Ibanez Roadstar that I stripped using a chemical stripper first.  There's no way a clear finish would have looked good on it simply because some of the old paint went pretty deep into the grain.  I simply painted it a solid black, and it ended up pretty nice .... not SUPER pro, but with the Warmoth neck and a new Floyd trem, it's a great guitar to toy around with.

 

[-CB-]

consider this -

Fender used to take screw ups and sunbursts, and use them for "custom color" bodies, effectively finishing them twice.  They'd take sunburst strats and do a candy red on them or whatever.  They'd take blonde tele's and do the same thing.

So... if your MIM Strat is not too beat up, just smooth it down, fill in any defects with super glue... smooth those down. and put the new finish right over the old.

 

[NLD09]

consider this -

Fender used to take screw ups and sunbursts, and use them for "custom color" bodies, effectively finishing them twice.  They'd take sunburst strats and do a candy red on them or whatever.  They'd take blonde tele's and do the same thing.

So... if your MIM Strat is not too beat up, just smooth it down, fill in any defects with super glue... smooth those down. and put the new finish right over the old.

I've been thinking of doing the same over my sunburst strat. I love the way the refinished relics look when the sunburst is underneath.