Easiest way to paint a Harley Benton kit.

bobliefeld

I'm putting together a Harley Benton "LP Style" kit for my dad for fathers day, the kits arriving any day now.  The plan is I'll paint the neck, back and sides, and then let my 2 year old paint 2 year old nonsense on the front.

I've never painted a guitar before, and I've got a deadline, so want to keep this as simple as possible.  Oil or Wudtone would be nice but these kits are covered in sanding sealer which I guess would mean they wouldn't take?  Has anyone removed the sanding sealer from one of these before, was it a ball ache ?

Sarge

If it's coated in sealer, half an hour with a palm sander and 320 grit should do it, some sealers will take stain though I've not had one yet that would.
Damp it down to see if all the sealer has gone, it will show up pale where there's some left.

Andyjr1515

What ^ @Sarge said  

I like the idea of the two-year old's two-year old painting on it 

impmann

Andyjr1515;654210" said:

What ^ @Sarge said  

I like the idea of the two-year old's two-year old painting on it :)

Ditto. I'm getting ideas...

Sarge

I bought a folk size Harley Benton acoustic from Thomann a few years ago, and the belly warped in a matter of months from string tension, my 14 y/o daughter wants to paint it with sharpies, so I'm going to use some Halfords white primer I have lying about, then she can go to town on it with all her anime noodlings, then a couple of quick clear coats of acrylic and she can hang it on her wall, it's unplayable....as it was straight from the factory
:-S

paulnb57

I did my GSP Basses Les Paul Junior with rattle cans from Halfords

1 Can of primer

2 Cans of Satin Black

Painted it one sunny day and hung it from the curtain rail at the french windows, nice and warm, assembled the following day, came out very well......you could prime the whole thing after masking the fretboard, then mask the top and top coat the rest, then the littlun could do her design on the primer, then seal with clear lacquer.... job done. Just test that the lacquer doesn't disolve whatever the artwork is done with......

Paul

WezV

I have just stripped a guitar I did 12 years ago with Halfords cans.

It had finally cured!!! still went gummy as soon as I started sanding it.

paulnb57

Wow Wez! Something reacted wierdly there then!.... Paul

WezV

I did a few in Halfords paint back then, all stayed soft for a very long time. The conclusion I came to was that they must be using a lot of additives to give longer shelf life... Its not like they are mixed to order.

Sarge

Yeah halfords is still crappy, I've a strat body I did in clear nearly 6 year ago, unused since and it's still soft, reacts with all rubber / plastic and even paper! Avoid!

Sarge

*acrylic clear

bobliefeld

Ah ok will avoid halfords then. Alternatives?

Good point about lacquer dissolving kids paint.. We were going to use standard kids acrylic stuff, is that not going to work?

usedtobe

Didn't someone get cool results with fence paint, or something?

WezV

nitro cans from Manchester guitar tech or rothko and frost both work well. My usual choice for colours or anything that needs nitro

My favourite clear is chestnut acrylic. its a bit cheaper than nitro, dries quickly, sands well and cans seem to last well. They don't have colours though, although it does work well over stain

Practice on scrap for whatever you choose. They key will be a light coat to seal in the artwork before you build up finish. This is a good reason to avoid nitro as it melts into itself a bit to well to assume the artwork is safe

paulnb57

I dont get the issue with Halfords Paint....

I'm talking car paint, cellulose in a rattle can, NEVER had an issue, not on anything I've painted....

I've done 5 guitars with rattlecan cellulose and being an impatient bastard have painted one day assembled the next, never an issue......sprayed over existing finish, bare wood, even over tru oil.......

Paul

Corvus

Same here, donkeys ago before I had guns & comps I sprayed a chop in Halford cans, rode for 18months, sold, bought back. It appeared in a mag. The paint was OK. Also done quickie repairs on cars with it recently, all good. It's just your common-or-garden 1k acrylic (which is always horrible to sand) - though the counter mixed-to-order is celly according to a guy who worked there. Not used it though. It's mixed to a scheme so you need car colour codes to get it.

Any rattle can will be solvent-based and the solvent can melt other paint - warm up a can of clear in a bath of hot water (not boiling, but hand-hot). Mist on the first couple of coats - light dusted coats. Avoids flooding on solvent. Let each one dry for say 10 mins. Once covered it's safer to go for a wet coat because you have a barrier now, but don't hoss loads on, the solvent will melt into the mist coats and could still eat your doodles/underlying whatever. Hobby acrylics should be safe and you can clear over permie marker doodles going careful like this.

bobliefeld

Ok Rothko and Frost looks good.  I figure I'll get some Red Wine tinted nitro from them for the neck, sides, back.  Then a can of chestnut acrylic lacquer for the top and do as Corvus suggests with that (cheers pal).

Is it worth getting a cheap hvlp gun vs buying cans?  I'm doing this LP, a harley benton Tele and if they turn out well I might do something a bit nicer.  The gun Rothko & Frost have is more than I've paid for the 2 guitar kits, would anything cheaper be a waste of time?

Cheers guys

Corvus

Guns do give you the ultimate control and no need to spend loads on guns but there's other cost - compressor, pressure regulator/water trap, hoses & connectors for starters. Paint by the litre or half litre plus thinners for paint and gunwash. I use cheap Bergen mini-guns that cost less than £20 each, they do fine but don't last forever. At that price I keep one for clear, one for pearls/metallic and a spare. Done lots of jobs with those, but it's the other kit that adds up in cost. You're almost bound to end up with masks & suits and wanting an extractor and clean sealed & sheeted-out place to paint etc, both to make the spend worth it and to make the best jobs you can.
On the flipside I have bought cheap guns before and chucked 'em after one test. Some are just sh*te, bit luck-of-the-draw at the cheapie end.

WezV

I am happy for anyone who finds a method that works for them, even if its a method that didn't work for me     but its still worth discussing the pro's and cons of each

My other issue with the halfords cans was the spray pattern.   the nitro suppliers give you a nice fan nozzle which is much better than the halfords cone - I find this makes controlling the coverage much easier, and less runs occur

 

I still use the halfords stuff occasionally because its right next to work and too convienient to ignore.  A couple of weeks ago i did a repair on a headstock of a guitar and added a little halfords clear as part of the final process. Its relative softness is less of an issue on a headstock as they tend to be a low wear area.  Its still sprayed like the stuff I was using years ago, so I am fairly confident we are still talking about the same forumulas.  

The worst example was when i sprayed some swamp ash black.   Months after being built the paint would still pick up impressions , when it was a few weeks old it got put on a table with a tablecloth for 10 minutes and got a really clear impression of the fabric patterns permenantly imprinted on it.   I think this was partly due to the unfilled swamp ash, it was an ultra light, extremely porous example and I think its porosity stopped it curing.... very different to spraying a non-porous metal surface

 

 

 

paulnb57

Thats really weird Wez, and I'm certainly not having a dig or rubbishing your comments.I sprayed a Swamp Ash Strat with Halfords Satin Black and it sank into the grain just as I hoped it would and is hard and hard wearing, most odd, I'd use it again, but each to their own………

If buying 1K from the Auto paint supplier they have colour charts to choose from, so you need not be armed with a paint code, my experience is that from these places the paint to solvent ratio is higher (more paint) so although a rattle can will be dearer it will cover better, with fewer coats, than from the cheaper suppliers where there is more solvent……..

Paul

bobliefeld

Corvus said:

Guns do give you the ultimate control and no need to spend loads on guns but there's other cost - compressor, pressure regulator/water trap, hoses & connectors for starters. Paint by the litre or half litre plus thinners for paint and gunwash. I use cheap Bergen mini-guns that cost less than £20 each, they do fine but don't last forever. At that price I keep one for clear, one for pearls/metallic and a spare. Done lots of jobs with those, but it's the other kit that adds up in cost. You're almost bound to end up with masks & suits and wanting an extractor and clean sealed & sheeted-out place to paint etc, both to make the spend worth it and to make the best jobs you can.
On the flipside I have bought cheap guns before and chucked 'em after one test. Some are just sh*te, bit luck-of-the-draw at the cheapie end.

Do you think the Earlex HV1900 that Rothko & Frost have would be a good option vs their cans?  I think it's an all-in-one thing, I don't want to go crazy with suits and extractors.  Just hang the thing up in the garden and spray it.