and that is exactly why luthiers charge more. 3 to 4 coats won't hold up and it won't look that nice. An automotive painter won't get rid of all the orange peel for you or even lay it on that smooth. What looks good on something the size of a car looks like ass on a guitar.
$225 is what I charge for a solid color and trust me, after materials, I make about $7 per hour on that body. Putting a guitar back together is easy when you're not changing any of the set up issues. If you mess with
truss rods, neck angles, intonation etc it becomes more of a challenge, but really it's a walk in the park. I charge $65 for dissassembly and reassembly, but that includes a full set up, 90% of the guitars I get don't even have the intonation set correctly.
Oh, and if you strip the paint to the wood, almost everyone will charge you more. That is a HORRIBLE idea. The BEST prepped surface you can get is the factory paint. Stripping to wood lets moisture, oils, grease, dirt, etc get into the wood. Then you have to seal all the wood again, it's a major PITA. I'm at the point now where if somebody strips their own guitar I won't even look at it because 9 times out of 10 they've screwed up the body, stuff isn't flat anymore and that shows bad in the clear reflections when it's done.
If you're willing to deal with a half assed finish, you can get lots of places to do it, if you want it 100%, send it to a GOOD luthier, not some hack who says Nitro finishes are best, send it somewhere that does either Poly Urethane 2 part finishes, or Polyester 2 part finishes. If there is someone local to you who does guitars great, take it to them, if you don't want to send to Canada it's cool with me, I just am getting tired of so many people out there who are painters saying they can do a guitar perfect, and then I get stuck with repairing their mistakes. Painting wood is worlds different than painting metals or fiberglass, it's a skill unto it's own. Simple as that
Jeremy
