OK, so here’s our lovely little Baja Telecaster after about five days of start & stop finishing via my “poor man’s paint room”–– otherwise known as a cardboard box.
One of the beauties of building a Relic, I suppose, is that the finish doesn’t need to be absolutely perfect, so we were able to get away with painting this thing in less-than-desirable conditions. There were high winds all week, and the weather was all over the place, but my little cardboard box pretty much did the trick.
Nitrocellulose lacquer finish was purchased from Guitar ReRanch (we went with Olympic White,) and came in easy to apply aerosol cans. It took a few coats to get the hang of just how much to apply, but we managed to get the whole thing painted quite nicely with a single can.
The basic process was A.) lay the guitar on one side, B.) give it a solid but not too thick coat of paint, C.) come back in an hour and lay down a second coat, D.) wait another hour and lay down a third coat, E.) let the whole thing sit for 24 hours before flipping the guitar onto its other side and repeating steps A through D again.
That’s pretty much it… when the front and back were done we just stood the guitar on one side at a time and repeated the process along the edges. Because of the wind and dust that was flying around we made sure to always cover the top of the box while the finish was drying.
In five day’s time we had a really beautifully finished guitar, and then last night I rather hesitantly went to work sanding a lot of that lovely nitro finish back off again––ouch.
Up Next: a look at all of our Telecaster’s Relic’ed hardware after a few hours of heavy tumbling. It came out really sweet!
 Fender Custom Shop 1952 Telecaster Heavy Relic Electric Guitar |
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: And So The Work Begins…
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Beatin’ The Hell Out Of That Pickguard
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Misadventures Of A Neck Surgeon!
- EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment: Our Guinea Pig Arrives
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: The Nitty Gritty On The Neck & Fingerboard
- Chop Shop: And So Begins EGR’s Great “Tele Relic” Experiment Of 2008
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Heavenly Body
- EGR’s Great Tele Relic Experiment: Aging The Body, Adding Some Grime
May 16th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Sounds like ReRanch delivers good products. Maybe they’d be interested in linking to your project series. Keep ‘em posted about it!
We’re on the edge of our seats out here!
cheers!
jp
May 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Once again….awesome Cary! Let me ask….when the nitro is dry, can you see through it to the ash wood?
We’re did you find that Custom Shop designed Tele? I need to order one so I can be right behind you!
May 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Hi Rick,
No, the nitro is opaque, which is why it will need to be sanded––to get some of the grain showing through.
I started on that part last night, and it’s a bit of work, but I’ve got the grain starting to come through fairly nicely after about an hour of sanding.
It’s a fairly delicate process though, because if you sand for a just a minute too long you can cause the finish to look fairly uneven in places… of course, it all depends on what you want it to look like, so it’s pretty damned fun!
I plan to get some of the finish off, and then finish the whole thing with a clear coat.
The guitar is a Baja Player’s Telecaster. Designed by the Custom Shop but built in Mexico… I freakin’ LOVE the S1 switching on this.
Nice thing about the Baja is it’s got vintage-style hardware, including brass saddles, vintage tuners, etc. The S1-switch in the top of one of the knobs is about the only thing different (hardware wise) than a ’52 or similar Tele.
I bought mine on eBay, used, so got it for about $600. A helluva’ steal. All together I think I will be out about $750 when all is said and done, and the thing is looking great so far!
:)
May 16th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Cary,
Lookin sweet.
I’ve just bought myself a MIM tele in Midnight Wine, because being a leftie, there’s an ultra limited range of colors, and being a new parent, we’re ultra tight on funds.
I’d love to refinish the guitar one day, but that will probably mean entirely stripping the polyester finish, and refinishing in nirtocellulose. I doubt that I’ll ‘relic’ it, just refinish it and let it relic itself over time. Do you know of any trustworthy how to guides on doing what I’m thinking of?
cheers,
Matt from Australia. (mattyj on your forum, tubefreaks.net)
May 17th, 2008 at 6:20 am
Nice work with the nitro. Really captures the look of the traditional oly white Fenders.
May 19th, 2008 at 1:49 am
it’s great fun keeping track of this. post more pics!!!
m.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Great blog.
5 Bands you must listen to before you die:
The cure
The Smiths
The mission UK
The fields of the nephilim
The automatic
Keep up the good work.
May 20th, 2008 at 2:01 am
I want to see it finished, I am curious how it is going to look!!! Faster,man!! ;-)
July 9th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
You are ingenious to come up with the idea of painting your guitar inside a paper box! I always have the problem of refinishing my guitars in the open because of wind and pollution; but especially from concerning neighbors (bear in mind i live in Hong Kong so we have no gardens in our houses and the pollution is always sh!t). Your neat + cheap solution of refinishing the body inside a box would solve all my issues at once!! thx a billion!!!
July 12th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Hahaha, thanks! Sometimes you just have to make do with what you’ve got!