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Post by hotblooze on Jul 3, 2020 8:19:39 GMT -5
An old Warmoth body has been passed to me for refinishing as the original paint has been flaking off. I could sand it but it was routed with forearm and belly contour. Brushing the remnant with paint remover may be possible but are there other less aggressive ways to strip the finish ?
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 3, 2020 8:58:21 GMT -5
If some of it is flaking, can you flake more of it? I'd be inclined to experiment and see. Sometimes that happens in a couple places as a freak occurrence, other times it is an adhesion issue and will affect the whole piece. You might be able to just peel it all off. A little heat might help, too.
Any solvent would be mighty heavy duty, so I'd be inclined to make that a last resort.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jul 3, 2020 14:19:24 GMT -5
Heat may help, but scrape carefully so you don't gouge the wood.
If there's plastic binding, be extremely careful. Heat on the binding can loosen it (bad) or soften and melt it (really bad). Also, most chemical strippers as well as solvents that soften finishes also dissolve plastic binding.
You said "paint," so I'll assume it's not clearcoated with visible wood grain. If that were my project, I'd approach it as follows:
It's not a refin of a vintage guitar, so 'correctness' is not a player. I'd simply scrape/scuff sand the entire thing to remove all flaking finish, followed by a coat or two of shellac to seal the wood and lock everything down. Follow that with a sandable primer, level sanding between coats, and then a few compatible color coats.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 4, 2020 9:26:38 GMT -5
What kind of wood is it? Also, you said "original paint" which made me think it was a Warmoth job, but "original" may not mean "factory" when you're talking about a factory that will sell things unfinished. If it isn't "factory", then there might still be other options.
If you do any significant amount of sanding, just be mindful of creating dips and slants. It seems like you're already aware of this since you mentioned the arm and tummy cuts, but it is worth visiting here. Weird sanding is by far the most obvious sign of a home refin. I even had one in the shop recently where a pickguard wouldn't even go on, there were so many dips! Peegoo has some good tricks for doing that sans drum sander.
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Post by hotblooze on Jul 8, 2020 20:04:33 GMT -5
It is a Warmoth Tele without binding from the 90's era I think. The body is Swamp Ash and perfectly grain filled. The finishing flaking off is vintage transparent Blonde/Butterscotch which makes sanding not a good option. I will try heat and see what happens.
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Jul 8, 2020 20:09:09 GMT -5
Yeah. As long as you have a decent tool to try to lift it back and you don't hack at it like an animal, it is worth a shot. Obviously there are ways to screw it up, but that is going to be true of any method. Usually when you get in trouble with scraping it is when you forget that the wood is actually softer than the finish.
I don't see a lot of '90s Warmoth stuff. That was a funny time when they were transitioning out of the OEM game (they've actually been around since late 70s/early 80s, they just had other brand names) and moving into direct internet sales. Lots of makers in the '90s had issues with poly adhesion, so if you're lucky it might just all peel off for you.
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