Miscellaneous Advice request- Refinishing a guitar

[brent]

I know there are quite a few members on here with experience building and refinishing guitars. I have an old Epiphone Les Paul Special II in a flat black, satin finish that I bought on an Easter sale for $89 a quite a few years ago. I have been thinking for quite sometime that I would like to refinish it.

Here's what I would like to do. My daughter is an artist of sorts, I would like very much to sand the guitar down to the wood, have her draw or paint something on the guitar for me, then clear coat over the top. I thought about having her use permanent markers (they come in multiple colors), acrylic paint, or possibly even using silver paint markers and drawing directly onto the current black satin finish, then clear coating over that.

Has anyone here done anything like this? Anyone have any ideas on the best way to go about this? Obviously, I'm concerned that once I start adding clear coat, I might blur or otherwise damage the art my daughter added.

 

[PapaBear]

I've used the Sharpie paint pens on dark pedal enclosures before, I think they would hold up to the clear coat

 

[brent]

That's what I was thinking. Just need to make sure I give it enough time to dry fully before applying anything. I figure the guitar actually plays pretty well and I like the neck okay. So, this is an opportunity to make the guitar special by having my daughter's art on it and installing new electronics and pickups and updating some of the other hardware, while I'm at it. Who knows? It might become my #1.

 

[Jay Dee]

Just make some samples and test to make sure of compatibility between the finishes.

 

[Slofinger]

If you sand it to bare wood, there is no telling what the wood looks like. Might be several pieces glued together. I would probably scuff it up and paint it a base color your daughter would like to draw on. As long as everything is good and dry, clear coating will not effect it.

 

[Slofinger]

If you really want to dress it up, add some binding on the top. Lol

 

[DesmoDog]

^^Yeah, what Slofinger said. I wouldn't put the time in to take it down to bare wood. For one thing it's probably a lot more work than you are imagining. For another, if you strip all the previous prep work, you just have to do it all over again anyway. If there isn't an issue with the prep now, leave it.

I have a different perspective on clear coats though. You have to be sure the clear you use is compatible with the base coat, and also with whatever art you are covering. The wrong clear can ruin everything. Too "hot" and it can bleed the art. Wrong material and it can wrinkle the finish. It's probably more of an issue if you're spraying stuff you've mixed yourself with guns than when using spray cans, but I'd still be paranoid about it. Would you really need to cover the art? FWIW pinstriping is often done on top of a clear coat, I prefer that look on old bikes (which didn't use clears originally anyway but I digress...) If it were me, I wouldn't clear over the art unless the art was very fragile.

And at the risk of being voted off the island, IMHO steer clear of anything involving a "nitro" finish. Leave that for the purists who enjoy letting finishes set up for weeks and then have to be treated with kid gloves for the rest of time so they aren't left sitting on the wrong type of plastic or foam or fabric etc...

 

[brent]

If you sand it to bare wood, there is no telling what the wood looks like. Might be several pieces glued together. I would probably scuff it up and paint it a base color your daughter would like to draw on. As long as everything is good and dry, clear coating will not effect it.

I had thought of this. I mentioned it above. It's flat black right now. I thought about having my daughter draw on it with silver paint markers. That would look pretty sharp when done.

 

[brent]

^^Yeah, what Slofinger said. I wouldn't put the time in to take it down to bare wood. For one thing it's probably a lot more work than you are imagining. For another, if you strip all the previous prep work, you just have to do it all over again anyway. If there isn't an issue with the prep now, leave it.

I have a different perspective on clear coats though. You have to be sure the clear you use is compatible with the base coat, and also with whatever art you are covering. The wrong clear can ruin everything. Too "hot" and it can bleed the art. Wrong material and it can wrinkle the finish. It's probably more of an issue if you're spraying stuff you've mixed yourself with guns than when using spray cans, but I'd still be paranoid about it. Would you really need to cover the art? FWIW pinstriping is often done on top of a clear coat, I prefer that look on old bikes (which didn't use clears originally anyway but I digress...) If it were me, I wouldn't clear over the art unless the art was very fragile.

And at the risk of being voted off the island, IMHO steer clear of anything involving a "nitro" finish. Leave that for the purists who enjoy letting finishes set up for weeks and then have to be treated with kid gloves for the rest of time so they aren't left sitting on the wrong type of plastic or foam or fabric etc...

I definitely wouldn't be using guns. I don't have that kind of experience or equipment. I was thinking spray cans or even brush on. My wife redid our bathroom this past summer. She painted the counter top a light blue, put stickers of sea shells on it, and brushed several layers of clear poly over it. Turned out pretty cool.

As far as my daughter's artwork, I don't really know how fragile it would be. I just want to make sure it lasts as long as possible. I want to preserve it don't want to rub it off in a year with my forearm.

 

[brent]

If you really want to dress it up, add some binding on the top. Lol

I'm not really looking to "dress it up" per say. More like personalize it. I'm going for more of any artsy looking guitar, than a super dressed up one. It only started out as an $89 guitar after all. My daughter's art is more along the lines of Japanese anime or manga. Not sure that binding would look good with that. Sort of like wearing a bow tie with a t-shirt.

 

[TwoNotesSolo]

It's definitely possible and is on my to-do list. There are two potential pitfalls: will the clear dissolve the markers used for drawing and will the clear dissolve the base paint (the original finish), or at least not bind to it.

Answering the first one is easy, draw with the markers, the spray heavily the next day, to make sure that it it would run, then you will catch it on the trial run. Maybe use a price of black plastic as a base, if it doesn't run off plastic, you should be OK.

Whether you clear coat poly(?) will work over the existing finish is a harder question. Ploy over lacquer may look good at first but will start pealing off. For best results you want mechanical adhesion (scuff the original polish with 000 steel wool or similar) and chemical adhesion between the old layer and the new one.
The problem is that it's not easy to try in a "non destructive" way. You could spray a spot of the neck or back and see how it goes, but if it doesn't work you would have to strip it.

I have stripped two guitars with a heatgun and paint knife and I didn't think it was too hard or too long, but your mileage may vary and you may have to fill in any gouges if you slip. For such a cheap guitar I would not expect the wood to look good. Likely a multipiece body and and unlikely to have nice or matching grain, so you would have to paint a base color before having your daughter draw on it. More work, less risky. Plan B if plan A doesn't pan out?


Marker will rub off rather quickly if you don't clear coat it. Paints, as used in pinstriping, will survive without a clearcoat.

 

[brent]

Thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your input.

 

[Elio]

I have done clear coat over various dyes without problems but it probably depends on the types of sharpies and clear coat. I would experiment on a piece of scrap wood before trying.

 

[straightblues]

A low end Epiphone likely has about 5 pieces of wood. In order to finish them quickly the paint them with a thick sealer. The sealer fills in all the pores in the wood and hides the lines where the wood is joined together. You can use a heat gun and pull all that sealer coat off but then you will be left with a ugly multi piece of wood that you will have to reseal and repaint. It will not look good natural.

So what I would recommend if you want to change colors is just sanding down the finish with 400 grit sand paper then repaint is to the color you want. Then have your daughter do the artwork then seal it with a clear coat. Krylon or Rustoleum should adhere to your guitar without problems. But I would check it on a small spot first. It it doesn't bubble up or act weird, then I would paint the whole guitar.

If you are going to stick with the black, shoot a little clear coat on the back to make sure it won't bubble up or act weird. Then rough up the finish a little with some 400 or 600 grit sand paper. Then have your daughter do the artwork and then clear coat it. The sanding first will allow the clear coat to stick better.

 

[Slofinger]

When applying a clear coat, one way to avoid a interaction is to start with very light coats, almost a mist.

 

[blackcoffeeblues]

sanding down the finish with 400 grit sand paper then repaint is to the

That is probably the way I would do it. Krylon makes clear coats that you can use on anything even plastic--(Rustoleum makes it to but Krylon works better in my opinion) it dries quicker. It might not look to bad if she just does it on the black. Then you could use clear coat of your liking. It comes in flat-matte-satin-high gloss-so you got 4 options there. Just use the black as a primer coat, save yourself a lot of time.

 

[TwoNotesSolo]

+1 for Krylon. that's what I finished my Britto-strat (avatar) with