You have an easy job of it really.
Strip the body down of all its hardware. Naked body, no metal, no plastic.
Now get a sanding block at Home Depot - 3M makes a nice one. Get some premium type no-clog sand paper in 320 grit and 400 grit, and some wet sanding paper in 600 grit. Get some Formby's Lemon oil. Get a can of Naphtha. Go to Wal-Mart and get four cans of DEFT semi-gloss, (NOT full gloss) lacquer. Go to an auto store and get some Mothers or Turtle white compounding. I like Turtle, but Mothers seems to do a great job too. Get some Zinsser bullseye shellac (clear or white, not amber)
1. Clean the body with Naphtha and a clean rag.
2. Use the 320 paper on the sanding block and sand it down till you start to just get to the wood, OR, until the finish is level, depending on how thick the satin Deft is.
3. Clean the body again - and between each step where you might have touched it with your hands or sandpaper or such.... CLEAN is important with lacquer, and apply two coats of Zinsser shellac. You can get that in aerosol, or use brush on. The shellac will be a barrier between the under coats of Deft, and the new ones you're going to apply. Give a very light 400 sanding to the shellac if you brushed it on, just to level it. I suggest using the spray for a better smoothness.
4. Shoot it with one coat, and only one coat of DEFT semi gloss (NOT full gloss). Do not shoot too thick. The idea is to get it "just wet" and thats it. That is, just a little heavier than dusting it. Dont attempt to build any thickness whatever. Just leave it as it is. Thickness comes with numerous coats, not with a huge coat, which will never dry right.
5. Let it dry a week. Give it a very very light sanding with the block and 400 grit paper. Just take the shine off it.
6. Repeat 4 and 5 until you have spent about two months doing this, with a week to dry each time.
7. Let it dry a good three weeks, or four, or five. You want this to be the mother of all drying.....
8. Level sand with the 400 paper on the block. Very light sanding... just to get the roughness off, dont try to do more than take the roughness off....because you'll....
9. Switch to the 600 paper, on the block too, to final level it. Use a LOT of that lemon oil... it is the cats pajamas for wet sanding. Once you have it all evenly dulled out and level you can...
10. Take a clean rag and begin to polish it out by hand with compounding. Get the shine you like, then go over it with some good car wax thats lacquer safe (Turtlewax 2000 is). There is very fine abrasive in car wax, so that will take the shine to near mirror.
And thats it.
What you've done is given it a Deft Satin finish grain fill. Now that that is nice and shrunken in, you can use it for a base, and just finish the job you already started.
Lacquer is an easy finish to apply, but for the average joe without a drying booth, heat lamps, etc, you need to give it lots of time to dry, in order to avoid the "shrink ins". Even so, it will shirink in eventually. They all do. Old Gibsons do this lots. Tele's do, Strats do... from the 50's and early 60's that is. Its a given with lacquer. In fact Warmoths poly finish shrinks in. I've got the bodies to prove it. You can clearly see the grain pattern in the sunkin in finish. So let it dry and you'll have a minimal amount of shrink in, and when it does shrink, it'll be a nice old mellow shrink, not a "done too fast" shrink.
