Madmorrie's TL-1 build

[Madmorrie]

Hi again,

I tired to post here a week ago but the site crashed and it wouldn't work. Is the hosting for this site a touch intermittent?

Anyway, painting went OK, but not quite perfect. Looks mostly alright now i've sanded out the imperfections and polished it up.



My little infill panel bubbled up and went very weird with the clear I used.


But overall its not too bad.





Mocked up with components.

[Trevor Davies]

Looks great. That will camouflage well with your car!

And Yes, the site has been very temperamental of late. It will be going through a big change soon. Hopefully it will be much better then.

[fender3x]

Glad the system is back running. I have gotten in OK the last couple of days. My workplace blocks all kinds of things, but with the VPN on I now seem to get into the forum pretty well. Unfortunately, it doesn't like site where your pics are located so I can't see them. At least not with the VPN...maybe at home where I don't need it ;-)

...My little infill panel bubbled up and went very weird with the clear I used...

This is, unfortunately, a common problem when using one product over another. I have even had it happen when I put a color over a primer where both were from the same company. I imagine it's the same when you put a clear over a plastic.

The most common solutions are to try a different clear or to put a coat of de-waxed shellac (or some other sealer) between the products. Shellac sticks to almost everything, and is compatible with almost everything, so it makes a good sealer. Not 100% true, but to paraphrase Ronald Reagan "if you are right 98% of the time who cares about the other 6%?"

Since your infill is a box, you might to paint one of the sides that wont be visible with shellac or some other sealer, then try the clear again.

FWIW I tend to observe the rule, "when in doubt, add a couple of coats of de-waxed platina shellac." Platina (sometimes called ultra-blonde) is the lightest grade and adds very little color of it's own.

I have a couple of necks that I finished with General Finishes High Performance clear, which over time seems to have reacted to the metal in the frets, and softened and even peeled a bit. The mfg, says that it may be reacting to oils in my hands.* I'll be sanding off the finish and re-finishing with Brite Tone instrument finish. Even though I am sanding off the GF finish, and the maple neck generally would not need sealing, there will be a cap of shellac between the "bare wood" and and the brite tone just in case there is any residual of the old finish. I already have a body that I finished with GF product, then capped with Shellac, then capped with Brite Tone...and it's doing fine.




*It would have been nice of GF to warn me about "hand oils" when I asked them about using it on a guitar neck. Instead they pointed me to a page on their website with a gallery of guitars finished with their product. They don't tell you it's not good for guitar necks until you complain. At least that is my experience with them.

[fender3x]

I agree with TD. The color looks great, now that I can see it ;-) Not sure why I can't see the graphics at counterfeit dot net dot au, they work fine at home. This website allows graphics to be uploaded as long as they are no larger than 1500x1500 pixels. The nice thing about where you post your graphics is the images are considerably bigger, so I could enlarge this one...

...My little infill panel bubbled up and went very weird with the clear I used.

It certainly looks like you are getting a reaction, probably to the spray paint since it made first contact with the plastic. It is probably related to solvents in the paint that are reacting with the plastic.

Unfortunately, according to what I read on the internet, shellac may not work. I don't think it will bubble up since the solvent is just alcohol, but from what I read it won't bond well and may eventually just flake off.

A better recommendation might by to sand back the box to bare plastic and leave it scuff sanded at around 600 grit, and then prime with an adhesion promotor or primer that is designed for plastic.

If you want to skip the priming step in the future, I think some acrylic paints bond reasonably well to plastic. I looked up what the mfg of my favorite rattle can paint (MTN 94) says, and they think it will bond to most plastics without priming.

In your case, the yellow and black look so good on the rest of the guitar, I'd just look for a decent primer ;-)