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This is what I had to start with.
http://i.imgur.com/qLuanPB.jpg.
Not a bad little guitar, she had served me well for many years, but I had been very hard on her.
You can see the corner of the headstock had cracked off thru one of the tuning pegs holes.
There were fret issues, one or two had lifted and chipped the fretboard. These had been glued back in very poorly by me and had lifted again.
There was some other issues with this neck as well, so I ordered a Pitbull neck and waited.
Meanwhile, while I was waiting for the neck to arrive, I started sanded back the body and started filling holes.
http://i.imgur.com/jc2Bkon.jpg
I got out the 2-part body filler and went to town.
I had never used bog before, but I learned that you need to work FAST.
This stuff goes off really quickly and I spent too long mixing, so the first batch went into the bin and I had to mix a second batch.
The guitar originally had the strap button in the weakest part of the whole guitar.
So of course it had pulled out and taken a chunk of the upper horn with it. I had patched it many years ago with matchsticks and wood glue.
That all came out and got filled in with body filler.
I overfilled so that it could be sanded back flat and not leave any divots.
http://i.imgur.com/78bT3Uf.jpg
So after all that sanding and filling I gave the guitar a good look and feel and found some bits I missed.
I got out the black marker so that I wouldn't forget them.
http://i.imgur.com/zZsARfE.jpg
First we had some bruising on the back. Probably from belt buckles.
http://i.imgur.com/hQzZn7I.jpg
Then we had the bottom strap button that had also pulled out. ( I can't remember doing this. It probably happened while I was drunk 20 years ago :? )
And some edge chips.
http://i.imgur.com/1fU7VZX.jpg
The upper horn after filling. It needed a little more, some of the bog had crumbled out while sanding.
Time for some refilling and resanding.
Looks like you are having a lot of fun with this.
Look forward to seeing her completed.
A serious refurb going on there. You've posted a really clear lot of info on what you've found and what you're doing. This should come up a treat!
Looks sick leetbrown!
Looking forward to some more progress pics
Thanks guys.
Definitely a big refurb. The only thing left of the original will be the body.
Those photos were from a week ago. I left it alone during the work week.
Plenty of new photos coming though :)
I actually drilled the bridge post holes yesterday, and cut the headstock today. So there is no turning back now!
I do have a bit of an issue with the bridge post holes:-
1. After drilling the Bridge post holes, I gave it a test fitting and the bridge posts fit but are just a little loose, I can push them in and pull them out by hand ( just)
2. One side was a little lower than the other (1-1.5mm). I figured I would just pack the hole a little, However, when having another look this morning it looks like that small different in depth was enough to break thru to the trem cavity.
I havent done anything to fix this yet, because I figured that after painting the post holes would have narrowed just enough to fit like a glove. And if they hadnt I would probably glue or epoxy them in place.
http://i.imgur.com/wXe04HT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/U5qpSbq.jpg
I thought I would post some comparisons of the two necks.
The necks side by side.
http://i.imgur.com/yZuyeY9.jpg
A bit of an oily mark on the Pitbull neck. Seems to sand off though.
Dimensions, old neck on the left, the Pitbull neck on the right. I was very surpised at how close they are.
http://i.imgur.com/2aXNThd.jpg
I dont have enough clamps of the right size to clamp things down. So I had to screw things down. And tried modding the clamping tables' bench dogs to be clamps.
http://i.imgur.com/fRGUOq3.jpg
It still moved :x so I end up with an aggressive and slightly wonky looking headstock!
http://i.imgur.com/cwK1sJw.jpg
So I clamped some straight stock to the headstock and sanded it until flat.
http://i.imgur.com/R2X8H3l.jpg
I made a makeshift paint tent out of a clothes rack and clamped some wood on, Then draped and taped plastic drop-cloths over the top.
http://i.imgur.com/bqcYpKg.jpg
I followed Jarrods instructions from a month ago. http://www.pitbullguitars.com/commun...0#postid-22385
And ended up with a fantastic result!.
http://i.imgur.com/nLSzcQp.jpg
I'm going to leave it for a day or two before the clear coat.
P.S. They say to do it in a well ventilated area for a reason! I had a spinning head for an hour or so after
I made a template up for the tuning machines and thought I would see if they looked good in the template.
http://i.imgur.com/jjwBmUx.jpg
There is something not quite right here! 8O
Looks like the tuners I had in the cupboard were for a 3x3 style head not a 6 in line.
I contemplated putting these ones one but realised I would be screwing the top ones in the wrong direction. So new ones are winging their way here from GFS
paintjob looks great
Thanks Stan. I think it looks fantastic as well :)
If it wasnt for that post of Jarrods it would look like a drippy mess.
It is cans of auto paint from the local autoone.
I did a couple of coats of primer ( Holts Duplicolor grey primer) until I couldnt see the previous colour underneath, followed by the 2 colour coats ( Duplicolor Sherbrooke Green).
pretty much what I did, love the tent, might give that a go!
yer looking good Lee, I like the new colour !
Very cool makeshift paint booth as well !
Love the colour Lee. Well done with the spraying! She's gonna look killer hen you are done.
cheers,
Gav.
It has been a while since my last post.
I have been busy with other things and finally got time to get back into it this week. So I masked off the neck and sprayed some poly on it
http://i.imgur.com/nfj9q1V.jpg
I polished up the body as well.
Now for a quick question to those more knowledgable than me.
I was installing the tuners and while I was screwing the tiny screws in I managed to screw the heads right off two of them !?
What do I do with those screws now? do I have to drill them out and plug them? or is there alternatives?
Paint looks great Lee, glad I could help somewhere along the line.
Hey Lee, see Brodie's "The Wasp" thread. He's had the same problem and a bunch of guys have listed solutions there. They probably should get moved to a thread of their own, as it seems to be a common problem.
So I found a thread on TDPRI about this same issue. http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home...ml#post3834828. This seems to be the most accepted solution that I have found.
http://i.imgur.com/j2xaYFT.jpg
So I got my small diameter (3.18mm) brass tubing from the local hobby shop, This was the perfect size. The inside diameter was almost the exact same size as the screw, and the screw actually drew the plug cutter in.
I attacked it with the dremel to get some teeth on it, and used a pin-vise to hold the tubing. This made it usable by hand to start the hole off, then i transferred it to a drill and went to town once it wouldnt wander.
After the screw was out I got some offcuts from shaping the headstock and whittled a dowel a bit larger than the hole, then put it in the drill and used the drill and spun it on some sandpaper to make a dowel the perfect size for the hole.