ST-1: My First Build

Hello everyone!

I just completed my order a few days ago and am now waiting for the kit to ship and arrive.
As of now, I've chosen to upgrade the tuners to Grovers and the nut to bone. I'll upgrade the pick-ups at another time in the future (I'm a student, so I have a tight budget).

I'm also in Canada, so I'm having a lot of trouble trying to find some nice aerosol paint to work with (it seems nitrocellulose lacquer is banned here or something?!). I was able to find nitrocellulose satin and gloss clear coats, but does anyone have any suggestions for what to do with the colour? I'm wanting to imitate the Olympic White colour or White Blonde stain... :D I fear Rust Oleum, or other cheap aerosols, will turn out kind of gross...

I'll keep you updated on the process.
Cheers!

Rust oleum can work okay, you’ve just got to be patient in the application, diligent in your prep and use a cloth covered or non rubberised stand.




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I have just used MTN 94 on a project. Worked great on my test piece of pine. Worked great on my the guitar too, I think. Still waiting for the clear coat to cure.

Art stores sell it. If you have a Blick art supply store up there they have it. You can also get it online, and there website can also tell you where it's sold.

These are low velocity acrylic paints with enough solids in them to do a bit of filling the way some primers do. I just grain filled and painted without primer. First paint I have ever used without ever getting a drip. It has a little tendency to splatter or feel a little rough, which I am guessing is why they tell you to sand between every coat. I did that with 320 and it flattened right out. Dry enough for a new coat after 20 min. Fully cured after 7 days. My brush on acrylic clear coat went over it no problem.

Montana colors (aka MTN) also makes nitro paints marketed as "Montana Black" paints and sold in the same places. I tried it on a test piece and it worked very well, although it's a high-velocity paint and feels very different to use.

I decided to use the acrylic mostly because of its lower toxicity and faster curing time. Both of them go on flatter than Rust-Oleum which I also tested. Although I heard of lots of people I've gotten decent results with that too. I sort of like having the paint coat be flat though which I don't think you can get with Rust-Oleum. I've heard that it's better to have flat paint and let the shine come from the top coat. I don't know if that's true but it seems to have worked out pretty well with my test pieces.

I'm not really a paint expert so please take this FWIW!

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Originally Posted by fender3x

Montana colors (aka MTN) also makes nitro paints marketed as "Montana Black" paints and sold in the same places.

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Belton Molotow is similar and probably available at the same places.
They are grafitti paints and have 3 advantages over standard rattle cans.

1. paint comes out at a lower pressure (less chance of runs)
2. paint has a more 'opaque' application. (I had to use 2 cans of Dulux for the same result)
3. There is generally a much wider range of colours to select from.

cheers, Mark.

Thank you all for your advice! I ended up going with Rustoleum though... because they had the metallic copper that I wanted! I think I'll definitely work with one of the suggested brands the next time I work on a project and want a non-metallic finish. I also decided to get 2K clear coat (high-gloss automotive clear coat) for my top coat so get that super gloss. I'll update again when I get my guitar in the mail.

I would test that clear coat over the rustoleum to ensure it's compatible before you put it on the guitar. I've used rustoleum a bit and you can get a great finish with it, but you have to be very patient and give it lots of time to harden properly.

About how much time should I wait between coats and for the paint to cure? Or do you have any other pieces of general advice for using Rustoleum?

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Originally Posted by solafide

About how much time should I wait between coats and for the paint to cure? Or do you have any other pieces of general advice for using Rustoleum?

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I’ve used it on a couple of builds, for the clear, it was minimum 2 days till touch dry, a couple of weeks to harden.
Colours a little longer. My current took 3 weeks to harden up properly.
Local conditions, humidity etc will vary that.


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Frankie is about right. The best way to tell if its hard is if you put your nose up against it you shouldn't be able to smell any solvent.

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Frankie is about right. The best way to tell if its hard is if you put your nose up against it you shouldn't be able to smell any solvent.

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Also, if you touch your nose to it, and it sticks... it not dry ;)

Sorry, not helping...

I just got my kit and I've started sanding it down, smoothing out the edges and curves of the guitar. I have a question about the nut replacement though... how should I go about replacing the plastic nut on the neck with the bone nut upgrade that I got?
I've also found that the holes drilled to attach the neck to the body are a little bit out of whack... not so much that I can't drill the screws in, but just enough that they don'e line up perfectly. Will this be a problem? Should I fill and re-drill these holes?

Hi Solafide.

with the nut, take a fine bladed saw, like a junior hacksaw, and cut a line across the width of the plastic nut more or less in the Centre. Take that cut down through the nut until you are almost at the base of it, but don’t break through.
get a scalpel or a razor blade and run this around the edges of the nut, jus to break any glue spots.
You then take a pair of flat nosed pliers, and use these to crush the plastic nut sides into the cut you’ve made, this should pul the sides and the base free of the fret board without damaging it.
knocking them or levering them out tends to cause pull out and can chip the board edges very badly.

if you have the ability to plug and re drill the neck screw holes, I would do so. It will piss you off no end to create a beautifully finished guitar only to have a crooked neck plate!