DrNomis_44's Gold Standard STA-1M Build.

[DrNomis_44]

good effort to sand that off by hand Doc, you must have sore arms. Have a good look at the primer coat pics and you will see on the back below the neck plate the areas where grain is still visible. Try and grain fill all the open grain areas. Don't worry about anything under the pickguard

Hahahaha....yep, my right arm is still slightly sore from all the sanding I did last night, but hey as the saying goes no pain, no gain...lol, incidentally, I found out that those coarse steel-wool scouring-pads, that are used in washing dishes, make quite effective paint-removers, don't worry, using one of those didn't affect the surface of the body much, it just speeded-up the paint-removal, there's a good tip for those who want to finish guitar-bodies with spray cans, make sure you have a couple of coarse steel-wool dishwashing scouring-pads on hand, use them dry, and they will help to speed-up the paint removal process.


Cheers, will make sure I cover that area with the Timbermate, but I think I'll go the whole hog and also cover the rest of the body too, I can then sand it back flat, what grades of sandpaper do you reckon I should sand the Timbermate back to, to get a nice flat surface all over?, I have some 180 Grit, some 240 Grit, some 320 Grit, some 400 Grit, and some 800 Grit.

[wokkaboy]

Hey Doc I would sand the bulk of TM off with 240 grit then as most of it is off go to 320 grit and higher grits.
It's worth pre-sanding the body to 240 grit before the TM goes on otherwise you risk sanding it out.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Doc I would sand the bulk of TM off with 240 grit then as most of it is off go to 320 grit and higher grits.
It's worth pre-sanding the body to 240 grit before the TM goes on otherwise you risk sanding it out.

Cheers mate, I'll do that then, hopefully that'll make the surface nice and smooth so that the grain doesn't show through the paint, this has all been a great learning-experience for me so far, and when get round to doing the finishing work on the HotRod Strat, I'll apply what I've learnt to it, but I'm going to wait till I've finished the Gold Strat off first so I can keep myself focused.


I can easily see this thread going for quite a few more pages, I may even be able to keep it going till I get to a double-ton.

[DrNomis_44]

Here's a pic of the scouring-pad I used on the body last night to speed-up the paint removal, it's same like the 0000-grade Steel Wool, only a lot coarser:

[wokkaboy]

best way to know how well it's sanded Doc is to slowly rub your bare fingers over the surfaces. You should be able to feel most high and low points and scratches. I wouldn't use a scouring pad again I'd say it will leave tiny grooves in the grain and create even more sanding. Once you get your orbital sander that will make life much easier

[wazkelly]

Sad to see such grainy goodness being hidden under a solid colour.

[DrNomis_44]

@ Wazkelly Yeah I know, but I really want to paint it a solid Gold colour, if the grain had been more like a bookmatched flamed-maple then yeah I'd go for a translucent finish, I don't personally think the grain pattern is special enough to justify it but then again other people might have a different opinion, and that's cool.



@ Wokka Yep, I'll consider that a lesson learnt mate.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I did some more sanding of the body last night and managed to remove some more traces of the white undercoat paint from around the neck pocket area, the body is looking pretty bare now, can't wait till next Tuesday when I can buy that Orbital Sander and really get stuck into it, I'm aiming to have the Gold Strat up and running in a playable condition by November this year, cause my mate and I are going to be doing a Surf-medley at a club gig and I really want to use the Gold Strat cause it's the most appropriate for playing Surf-Rock Instrumentals, yes I know you can also use Mosrites too, might consider building a Ventures-style Mosrite next year, cause I've never played a Mosrite before, would love to cause they look cool, but I reckon they'd be a bit out of my budget, so, if I could build one from a kit that would be cool, yep, I am a GAS sufferer....lol.

[DrNomis_44]

Update:


I have been doing some re-assessing of my financial situation, and due to a debit with my PayPal account which I will have to pay-off this coming fortnight, I'm not going to have money to budget for a new Orbital Sander, so, I'll have to continue sanding using the old-fashioned manual-method, i.e. by hand, not to worry, I'll buy an Orbital Sander later on this year when my finances permit.

Anyway, there are still some faint traces of the white undercoat paint left on the body of the guitar which I can't seem to remove by sanding, so later on this afternoon, I'm going to go ahead and apply some Maple Timbermate to the body of the Gold Strat, I'm then going to leave it to dry overnight and I'll sand it back smooth tomorrow.

Will keep you all up to date on the progress, with pics too, so stay tuned.

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Doc looks like you got to use your guns for a bit longer to sand

look forward to seeing it sanded after Timbermate, should be flat after that !