TLA-1Q Tuff-Dog Finish Strategy (Feedback requested)

[brandanop]

Thanks it is torture! I am a little worried I may have sanded through a little bit on the sides and the back. I may live with it if so.

In other news, I ordered some sweet genuine fender pearloid tuners to hold myself over. I found that they have 2 "nubs" (my technical term) on each, so I went onto Thingverse and found a jig that someone designed for drilling "nub holes" (also my technical term). I had it 3d printed by someone else and am waiting for it to arrive. Unfortunately in the mean time my neck got lots of blush on the bottom because I let it sit on its back like an idiot. I bought blush remover and it is coming soon (it was back ordered of course). I may have to buy another kit just to use up all of this extra product (if anyone is interested in the gold ones that came with the kit, let me know).

[Andy40]

Mate its looking good so far.

[brandanop]

So, I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to do some more wet sanding. I did 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 alternating directions. I still have some slight orange peel and some sanding marks. Should I start over at 800 to get the orange peel out? I assume the sanding marks will buff out with compound and cutting waxes right? Here is a video showing the imperfections. https://imgur.com/gallery/kqp69ql

[Andy40]

Looks a little ripply to me. Look its personal choice. Personally I don't like it when it looks like a perfect poly finish. but if you want a mirror finish, i'd put some more clear coats on and cut it back to level. you don't want to wet sand through the clear coats.

I usually wet sand 600 to level, then go up the grades using micro mesh pas, then cut then polish.

[brandanop]

So it is definately rippled but the scratches are gone after compound, medium and light polish, and scratch remover. It could use a sand down and more lacquer, but I am going to live with it and play it for a while. If I get ambitious, I will fix it down the road. I love her as-is. Now to build her after one more week of curing. Here is a new video with mocked up hardware post polish:
https://imgur.com/gallery/uYKPKqF

[brandanop]

I finished!! Here are some pics. I originally dyed the headstock yellow and had custom tuff dog decals. The color was not great and the decals were rippled, so I repainted with encore brown lacquer and then more clear. I wet sanded, and polished the enter neck then put everything together and strung it up. I love the way it looks and sounds. Thank you all for your tremendous help.

Not bad for a first build! See pics below

[Sonic Mountain]

Hah, I just saw this on Reddit and wondered if it was a Pitbull kit. The top ‘horn’ of these teles is a giveaway. Nice work!

[brandanop]

Thanks my fellow Redditor!

[RocknRolf]

Well done! Love the burst! Nice little detail on the headstock too, where the colour 'breaks'!

[brandanop]

That was an accident. I was too lazy to sand down, so I just went back over the clear with tinted lacquer and then more clear. When I sanded down, I went through to the original clear in a couple of spots and loved the look