Restaining a Maple Top

t1mman · #1 12-03-2012, 03:55 PM

I just won this item on evilBay:

it has some dents and such so I'll be fixing it but, I'm woundering if it would be doable to "restain" it? It looks Lavender-ish, so I'd most likely just remove the finish and stain it over the current layer (with minimum sanding).

Is it doable?
Can I damage the Veneer easely or i'd need to realy sand the ** out of it to traverse?

I'm also thinking of removing the pickup ring, so I'll hide the screw holes while I'm at it.
What should I take? Plastic wood?

Thanks!

djohns74 · #2 12-03-2012, 04:11 PM

Most veneers are really too thin to try to sand a stain off of them, you'll more than likely end up sanding through it.

Some kind of wood filler would work fine for filling the ring screw holes, but then it won't take a stain, so the filler would be visible unless you use a solid color finish. Now, if that veneer wasn't there in the first place, then both of your problems would be easily solved by adding a new veneer, but as it is, there may not be much you can cleanly do with it.

t1mman · #3 12-03-2012, 04:18 PM

Actally, I don't want to sand the current stain, but rather restain "over" it, since it's in the same "area" of color, and make it more blue. So, basically, just sand the finish. Do you think the veneer is too thin and I would sand it too easely?

for the screw holes, do you think it would be doable to take a blend of wood dust and glue to fill it, then stain it like the rest (and use some black marker to camo it down)

djohns74 · #4 12-03-2012, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t1mman

Actally, I don't want to sand the current stain, but rather restain "over" it, since it's in the same "area" of color, and make it more blue. So, basically, just sand the finish. Do you think the veneer is too thin and I would sand it too easely?

for the screw holes, do you think it would be doable to take a blend of wood dust and glue to fill it, then stain it like the rest (and use some black marker to camo it down)

You'd have to be pretty careful sanding it, but it's possible that you could just remove the finish if you used fine enough sandpaper. I'd say no lower than 220 or so, at a guess, I've never actually tried what you're suggesting myself.

The issue is that to add stain, you'll need to uniformly remove ONLY the finish since the new stain won't work over small areas of finish that remain, all the while making sure not to sand through the veneer, or even remove too much of the existing stain since getting it a uniform color again will be a trick otherwise. And then even if the sanding job comes out perfect, which I think sounds pretty difficult, any stain you add could make the color quite a bit darker, which may or may not be what you're after.

The wood dust idea has merit, but I still wouldn't expect it to be hidden by a stain unless said stain is pretty darn dark. Which after everything else, it might just be, so maybe it would be fine.

t1mman · #5 12-03-2012, 04:43 PM

Good point! I guess I'll just repare the dents and refinish it!

Thanks!

moonlight · #6 12-03-2012, 06:30 PM

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/iBANEZrG.jpg

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l2...e/PICT0058.jpg

Is that a RG320QM? Anyway, I had this RG520 re-stained from blue to green by a guy that used to have an add on this site, don't remember his name. The pictures are the same body just different necks ect. Turned out well ,so it can be done.

t1mman · #7 12-03-2012, 06:44 PM

ok! now I'm realy torn!

RGTFanatic · #8 12-03-2012, 08:43 PM

What happened to this thread??

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f18/in...ce-124460.html

Anyway, more than likely the color on your body is in the paint itself and not stained into the wood. It seems that Ibanez doesn't pre-stain the bodies before clearing. Rather, they add tint to the clear so both are sprayed at the same time.

Have you received the body yet?? more pics??

t1mman · #9 12-03-2012, 08:53 PM

The other thread is about the "non prestige ibanez", this one is about the mods! I didn't wanted the thing in the wrong place!

Anyway, haven't received it yet, I bought it last weekend and it's shipped today. It's in canada to canada, so I might have it this week!

I might just sand the back first to get an idea on how hard is the finish, do it with 220 grit with an hand sander and I'll have a good idea on how hard it is to get trough it. I'm just kinda shy about breaking the laminate on this thing, don't want to screw things up!

Fastmerc · #10 12-05-2012, 09:43 AM

IF? it is like the 520's then what is said above is correct. The wood isn't stained it is just shot with a tinted clear. My 520 had the tint clear, then under it the sanding sealer. I used a heat gun and a razor blade and carefully got the tinted clear to peel off. There were some areas where the razor got into the sanding sealer, but no biggie for me because I wanted to get down to the real wood. I then used sandpaper to get the sanding sealer off. I was super careful but still did rub thru the veneer in 1 small place. Luckily for me the pickup ring covered 90% of that little boo boo. I choose to tung oil mine, but could've stained it, although sapelle is pretty dark so Im not sure how it would come out.

Yours looks like it might be a maple veneer so staining would be much easier. If you do it be sure to go VERY slow when you get the veneer part. Another thought for you would be to add some more tinted clear to darken it up. Just sand the current clear with 220 till the gloss is gone and shoot the new tinted clear over the top. It would be hard to know what the color would be before hand though.

Here is a link to the one I did: http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f18/ng...ow-122839.html

t1mman · #11 12-05-2012, 10:49 AM

You used a heat gun to remove the finish?

The finish will bubble up and I'll be able to scripe it up?
Btw, do you have to scripe as soon as it bubbles or you can do like a leight and scripe it after?

Fastmerc · #12 12-05-2012, 09:06 PM

Its hard to describe, but you have to be very careful with the heat gun cuz you can burn the wood. No it won't bubble up, but for the me the top layer seemed to get a little soft and separated from the sanding sealer, I could only do a few inches at a time. You need to start around one of the chips so you can get the blade inbetween the two layers. If your worried at all I would just sand, but it takes forever even with a power sander to get through that top layer.

t1mman · #13 12-07-2012, 10:21 PM

Got her today, here's a couple of pics:

I think the color is pretty nice, I'll most likely keep it like this and add a black sunburst, it'll help me hide out this pretty dent:

Also, I have multiple cracks on the finish, like thoses:

how can I repare them? Do I have to "remove" the finish and "apply" a new one?

I mesured about 1/32 thickness of the finish, pretty thick! More than a "solid color" I would think! What does Ibanez uses for the "see trough" colors? Poly?

t1mman · #14 12-10-2012, 09:10 AM

Well, I have removed the finish on the backside using a heatgun

So far, so good!

I'll post pictures, but it has about 1/16th of varnish, so going with a sander is out of the question... It's realy too much and the finish is too hard for this!

I've also corrected a crack in the back, I'll show "how to" if I have another one on the front (which seems like it, looking on the crack

)

Anyway, pics comming on tonight!

andrewgosline · #15 12-10-2012, 11:57 AM

wow that is THICK. dang. I didn't think they'd put that much clear on. Certainly when we re-finish solid color RGs, there is that much of that semi opaque sealer, but look at the thickness of that clear. wow.