Grand Angus Project, Part 5: Progress, progress, progress

Well, quite a bit has been happening since my last post! After posting it, I did a recheck of my lacquer levels and realised I had overestimated my stock. Bugger. It meant I had to reassess me next steps, because I didn't have enough to do a full coat; only enough to do some touch ups.

I did what I could, and if I'm honest I think it was a mistake to add any more colour. It was looking pretty good, and the extra coat darkened it (obviously) and I think I overdid a few spots that I think will show up at the end as overcooked.

Still, it was done! The last thing I needed to do before doing the clear lacquer was to paint the front of the headstock black. I taped up the edges of the headstock with masking tape. Made a bit of a boo-boo here, when I didn't tape up the back of the peg holes. I didn't think ahead that paint might run through the peg head to the back of the headstock! I know, idiot... I realised soon enough and taped over the back of the peg holes.

I initially planned to use my old hobby spray gun to paint the face, but it was still playing up. I felt the big gun was overkill, and would end up wasting a bit too much of my limited black paint, so I decided to go old school and went with a brush.

It came out reasonably well. I tried to do it thick enough that I could get away with only applying the 1 coat. Once it was dry I set about sanding it back to smooth.

By the time it was close to smooth I'd opened up a few spots where I had sanded right through the coat. Whoops! Still, not surprising after only 1 coat. Again, I went the shortcut route of trying to patch the spots rather than apply a whole new coat. That ended up being a waste of time, because when I went to sand the touch ups back I opened up some new spots! So I added a whole new coat, then.

That did the trick. I made a bit more of a conscious effort to make that coat as smooth as I could, to simplify the sanding process after and minimise runs or bulges. I also wet sanded this time, rather than dry sand like the last couple of coats. It came out fairly smooth. Smooth enough!

That was it! That was the last piece of colour to go on this guitar! That was a pretty exciting moment. First thing I had to do after that was remove the masking tape from around the headstock.

Faarrrrk... The tape hadn't entirely done it's job. A bit of paint had seeped under the edges of the tape almost the whole way around, and at 1 point the tape had actually removed a tiny bit of the red finish. In hindsight, and if I had the patience, I probably should have let the red coats cure before taping over them. But that would mean adding 3 week to the schedule. Wasn't very keen on that idea!

I used a fingernail to scrape off the paint that had run under the masking tape. Worked alright, but I scratched a bit in to the red in some points. Unfortunate, but the imperfections are tiny... in this are, anyway!

Still, I had to move on. I'd taken delivery of a huge tub of lacquer. The same as the stuff I used for the coloured coats, but about 5 times as much! Although it was the same product, it seemed quite a bit thicker, and I didn't think it would spray very well as it was. So I used an empty jar to mix a 2-to-1 ratio of lacquer and water, respectively, to thin it.

I needed to spend some time with my spray gun to get the jet right. Until this point, the jet was too strong and the coats were spotting. This is evident in the colour coats, unfortunately, but for the clear that wasn't an option. I opened the jet right up, and sprayed a bit on some scrap wood. It was looking much better.

After that, I was able to spray from about 8-12 inches away, which is how you should be able to spray! I did the front of the guitar and the face/sides of the headstock while holding the guitar in my hand, then hung it up on the rig to do the back.

The photos make it look better than it does, if I'm honest, but I still think it's looking alright! Above you can see where the colour is a bit thin - namely, the middle of the neck - and where it's a bit thick - around the horns. The photos above and to the right show the guitar after the first coat of clear lacquer. Until it dries I won't have a fair idea of how the coat has settled. When it first went on it looked a bit orange peel-ish, but my test piece had that as well and came up - if anything - a bit thin.

Come tomorrow morning I should have a reasonable idea of how it's coming along! Then I'll get another coat of clear on it before running away for the weekend. I'll be back on Monday to do 1 more coat, and then hopefully that will be it!

Once the clear lacquer coats are finished, I'll have to leave it for 3 weeks to cure. That means there won't be many (if any) blog posts for a while. I'll be back when it's cured for final sanding and polishing. Til then, though, thanks for stopping by!