Finishing

bluecat

On average, how many coats of clear lacquer on top of base coat. And how long between coats.
I am looking for a finish like glass.

WezV

Many many variables.

Most importantly:
what wood are you covering
what lacquer are you using
What filler/sealer/base coat are you using
What are you applying the finish with
What finish are you trying to achieve (natural, solid colour etc)

bluecat

I will be dying the body with water based dyes, starting with red then red and blue ( purple ) then blue , blue black and black from the edges and the whole back of the body  black.
I don't know what the wood is yet, I am looking for a wrecker Tele shape probably a squire. I have this idea going round and round in my head all the time and it is something I must do.
It will hopefully turn out to be probably a purple burst , we will see.

WezV

Okay.  Wood choice is very important for that style of finish.

A hand rubbed purple burst will work best on a very pale wood like some high grade maple can be.  

Most woods you will find in a squier won't work so well for a direct stain. Firstly you have the challenge of getting back to raw wood.   Then it can easily become quite muddy with the underlying wood colour, and some take stains better than others.  It can look patchy.

Jez6345789

Hi
that covers most of the key points but a couple of other thoughts on the subject.
Getting a good hand-rubbed dye burst as said needs a light wood such as Maple you could look if working with a wrecker of a squire tele to strip and use a plain maple veneer or quilted depending on your taste. This will give you a better base than a multi-part alder or non-descript basswood body and is fairly straightforward to do as no real curves.

As for a super glossy finish. If you have never sprayed before then it's going to take some research and practice to get a perfect dipped-in-glass look. It's not something I have achieved with Nitro and get good enough results that take a gloss finish, but dipped in glass is a thing unto itself.. I have not bothered with some of the more modern 2 pak urethanes I see others using that give that extra glossy look. I would certainly want to practice and get a feel for spraying a new type of lacquer. Again if you are using cans some practice pieces are well worth the cost and effort and getting the feel for the flow and coverage from the cans.

bluecat

Thank you guys for all the info. Gives me quite a lot to think about.