Filling Imperfections After Primer?

powerhand

I'm refinishing an old Squier body and have stripped it back to bare wood and am in the process of painting in solid colour.  I filled all the big imperfections with Rustins Wood Filler, but after priming, all the tiny flaws really stand out and I'm worried that they'll ruin the colour coat too.  What's the best way of filling these little 'nicks', and can it be done over the primer before I sand back for the colour coat?

I should say; this is my first time painting a guitar...

Thanks.

SteveRobinson

Use Ronseal high performance wood filler over the primer you've put on. It's very fine and fills small dings well. It sands very smooth too. Once you've sanded it, apply another coat of primer and sand that level.

powerhand

Thanks @SteveRobinson - I'll give that a go!

SteveRobinson

If you want to get it 100% smooth (as you should of course) I recommend spraying a light guide coat so that you can see where any dips are.

rexter

I've found that ] car body knifing putty is excellent for filling over primer. If you need it quickly even the Holts stuff at Halfords for works really well - at least for me on cellulose primer. It dries in about 30 minutes.

I've tried wood filler before (probably just the cheaper Ronseal stuff I think, not high performance) and it wouldn't adhere to a smooth cellulose painted surface. Just refinished a really battered strat body for someone and practically rebuilt the curves of the horns that were damaged when he stripped it with Holts putty.

SteveRobinson

Yes, the knifing putty is good. It's nitrocellulose-based and what I used to use on car bodywork in the olden days. It does shrink back though whereas the HP filler is catalysed and hard in 5 minutes with no shrinkage.