[:project guitar:]

After about 8-9 coats total the lacquer is finally done (not least because I’ve now finished up the can and that is a pretty substantial amount!). It does have a nice sheen to the surface, I haven’t sanded/buffed it to an ultra-shiny finish as it looks better slightly matt due to the design.
I left it [...]

Finally we’ve had some decent weather again and I’ve been able to finish the spray paint job on the body! After painting the darkest squares (previous post) and masking the horizontal stripes only to do half of the “medium” coloured squares – I removed the horizontal stripes, put the vertical ones back on, and did [...]

Some of the searches bringing people to this site seem to be about how to do a sunburst, or any other “burst” (cherry burst etc) effect on a guitar – probably due to my initial ramblings on this subject. I decided not to go with this idea but in case it helps you, please see [...]

After masking stripes the other way as well (making squares) I have applied the first paint in the charcoal colour – 2 coats total (quite thin ones). The squares being painted here are the ones that are going to be the darkest colour in the final thing. The parts that have both a vertical and [...]

After 2 coats of paint (3 in parts) the silver colour on the body is finished and sanded smooth etc. Next step is to mask it off ready to do the design using the darker colour!

At the moment it looks like it will just be stripes, don’t worry though as it won’t end up as [...]

Now the primer is done and all the slightly thin bits properly covered I have sanded it with some fine ‘wet and dry’ paper and got the first 2 coats of paint on. Having learnt from the primer I did a couple of very light coats rather than a thicker one and it seems to [...]

The primer is now complete – there were a couple of bits I wasn’t happy with before which were sanded and re-done, also filled in the few remaining bits where the primer wasn’t as thick as it should be. Doesn’t really look significantly different (from a distance) so no further photos, but this means the [...]

(note: if using spray paint/primer etc ensure it is done in a ventilated area and wearing a mask!) 
I’ve now got all the preparation materials to hand (primer, sandpaper in various grades, masking tape, lots of newspaper!) so have been able to prime the body and will be able to start on the paint pretty soon [...]

Having come up with the silver/grey/graphite/black/whatever design, we have tried this out on a piece of ‘junk’ wood taken from something else. The results are quite good and quite poor – quite good because I definitely can see how the colours fit together and that the spray paint method will work and that it is [...]

As mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’ve been using the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program – similar functionality to Photoshop, but free for GNU/Linux) and Inkscape to come up with some designs. Of course in the “olden days” before we had computers all this would have been done with sketches etc, for any sort [...]