Help me refinish an RG (hopefully)

[jbandy10]

Hello all!

I'm new to jemsite forums but definitely not the guitars themselves. Long story short, I'm a pretty competent guitarist when it comes to setting them up and wiring pickups, ect... But I really have no clue where to start when it comes to painting a guitar.

What I want to do - Paint or possibly swirl an Ibanez Prestige 1570 body. I will most likely end up painting it hot pink or desert yellow like the jem777 models.

I've read a handful of tutorials at project guitar and weaved through a load of topics at jemsite on how to go about doing this. But honestly, I'm a bit overwhelmed! I have no real background in this field at all.

Primer...grain coat...spray cans... What does it all mean? There's so many different ways and opinions I just don't have a clue where to start.

So let's say I was going to strip the paint and give it a full hot pink jem777 finish?

What would be the easiest and cheapest way to do that?

Keep in mind, I have almost no materials to start with. I'll be making a trip to the hardware store and I'd like it if I could keep this under $50.

[Silver Sable]

If you've read everything and still feel a bit lost (I was in that boat too for a bit) I can recommend http://www.paintyourownguitar.com/ to help out. It is only $25.00 or so but he really does tell you great tips, have videos you can watch of how he's doing what he's doing, and he really will email you to answer any questions you have. I've asked him about putting up videos and making a how to book on swirling. He said he has done it in the past and was thinking about putting something up as either a separate book or a freebie for former customers.

I'm into clear coating now and the guitar looks awesome! (imo)

If you just want to jump in, then figure out what sort of finish the guitar already has to make sure you get the right combination of paint that won't react badly with the finish. You can scuff and paint over if you want to work it that way. I went for stripping the wood down to just bare wood and then resealing, priming and painting.

Is there anything in particular you are confused about?

[jbandy10]

Well I'm particularly confused about the whole resealing/priming part...

But let me get this straight...

I would strip the paint with a chemical stripper or some other method...

Then do the whole resealing primer part. (which I have no clue about)

And then eventually I give it the coat? What comes after the paint if anything?

What materials do I need? It seems like there are so many different ways and no one way to do it.

[6stringer]

Two weeks ago I stripped a Strat and an RG- one for full re-paint and one for a BSB look- and I've got 3 words: hot. air. gun. No muss, no fuss, a couple of hours per guitar, super easy clean-up (what is too small to pick up w/ hands can be vacuumed) and the missus doesn't know I stripped the paint while sitting on the living room floor's white carpet while watching movies .

Just be sure to wear one of those pesky masks and keep as much fresh air moving as possible.

Disclaimer: I am by NO means an expert! Other folks may be partial to the chemical methods, and to be fair I haven't tried them on a guitar finish, but the heat gun and a sharpened putty knife went through that 80's Ibanez paint job like a hot knife through butter (well, like a hot knife through paint, which is essentially what it was...).

Good luck!

[IbanezFreak777]

Hey I was also in your position, the first time I did a repaint- but i choose to do it on a honda h-1, so I didn't care so much if I buggered it up.

Below is a link of my progress on project guitar. Its a great place for asking questions. I suggest starting a thread on that forum, and ask your questions.. They were very helpfull

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/in...29307&hl=hondo

[Silver Sable]

I used a combination of chemicals and sanding to get the finish off of mine. It wasn't easy, but I like getting messy.

HOWEVER! Loads of people will tell you that you don't have to strip the finish and paint off at all. Some people just scuff the finish so the new paint will have something to stick to and then go straight to the painting phase.

If you want to strip it down, then you take it down by any of the three methods (sanding, chemicals, or heat gun). Get it down to the wood itself.

Then you seal the wood to protect it. You prime the wood to keep the grain from showing through. You paint the guitar how you want it. Then you put a clear coat finish on it to protect the paint.

Those are the basics no matter how you look at it. If you want transparent finishes or stains then you don't prime.

But seriously, I would recommend that book. It goes through the stages of sanding and prepwork and how to tape off areas you want to protect. It shows what you need to be looking for in sanding and sealing. It shows tips for figuring out if your primer is even and how many coats to do of what.

I jumped into my project with both feet and ended up screwing it up when I got to the painting process. It was just aweful looking and I was really upset. I ended up having to strip it back down and start over. That's when I got this book... it filled in all of the little gaps for me and answered questions I didn't even know to ask.

[jbandy10]

Okay I think I understand now.

I want to do a swirl like this one.

[img]
http://www.jemsite.com/jem/photos/custom/r_ab01.jpg [/img]

Would I put on a coat of black base paint and THEN dip it in only pink?

Or would I put some sort of base coat on first and then dip it in pink and black?

[Silver Sable]

That's a bit of the deep end of the skill pool for me. I'm working on simpler solids before I try my hand at swirling. There are a ton of excellent threads around here on how to swirl, and a nice bit on projectguitar.com as well. But I'm not quite that brave yet.

Good luck to you with your project!