Rushburner ST-1A Build Thread

[Rushburner]

Unfortunately I have not been updating you all on my progress like I had hoped!

Currently have finished all prep work, have finished the beck finish and waiting for that to crueller for a week or two or three hhha, however I have now come into my issue
I am from Canada, Ontario to be exact, and winter is coming. This means cold weather right now around or below freezing and currently everyday as 50% humidity maybe a bit less. I don't have a garage all I have is a backyard. I have no idea where I'm gonna spray this guitar hahaha. So a couple questions for you all,
Is it possible to spray outside in around 0^celcius
What other options do I have here
I contacted the one music store in my town and they don't have a spray booth, the only other thing I can think of is ask a auto body shop to let me use their facility or maybe get them to do the paint but I wouldn't like that.
I really screwed the pooch on this one since my only other option would be wait months to spray

Any input greatly appreciated!

[Simon Barden]

I'm in a similar position to you, although a bit further on. I've had to stop thinking about any further spraying until the weather warms up. If you are planning to spray from cans, then you've normally got the choice of acrylic or nitrocellulose based paint. I'm doing nitrocellulose at the moment and that should really be sprayed when it's at least 20°C. Below that and it tends to run a lot more, so you need to spray very light coats (not always easy with cans as I've found the paint viscosity varies quite a lot and there's no way to adjust the amount sprayed apart from moving the can nearer or further away from the body). Below around 10°C (though varying with humidity levels), the spray finish goes all cloudy. So spraying at 0°C isn't feasible with cellulose paints. Acrylic spray can paints are fairly similar in behaviour, and you aren't going to get a good finish at cold temperatures. High humidities also affect spraying, especially drying times.

You could get it sprayed at an auto body shop, especially if they had any down time, but if they sprayed using their own guns, then a lot of time would be taken in simply cleaning the guns - and time is money. You'd also want to spread the spraying out over several days, maybe spraying 3 coats a day maximum, to help each coat dry before the next coat is added.

You'll either need to start with an undercoat or else several coats of a very thinned clear coat, wait a day or two, then sand them flat. If you get to the wood with the undercoat, you'd probably want to spray again to get an even coverage. But I find it's a lot easier to tell if a body is nice and flat with a colour coat on it. Sanding bare wood, even with grain filler applied, doesn't show small level differences that clearly.

You'd then want to spray the body colour, again in several thin coats, let that dry for a day or two and if there are any visible runs, then you'll need to sand those flat. You'd probably want to do a light sand with fine grit all over to give a key for the clear lacquer to bond to, and then apply several coats of clear over a couple of days, as it's this that you need to first sand flat again, then work up through the grits until it's ready for final buffing and polishing.

Today's body shops are used to spraying '2-pack' or '2k' catalysed acrylics, which dry and harden quickly because of the added catalyst. This needs to be sprayed at over 55°F/12.5°C or the catalytic reaction fails and the paint stays wet. But they aren't really the best paint to use for guitars (and you do need specialised protective equipment because the compounds used are very nasty stuff until it's all dry). They aren't used to taking a long time spraying and waiting between coats. You'd probably need to ask for extra clear coats (they normally use two) to give enough depth to allow for rubbing down.

So if you really want to do it all yourself, then like me, you're just going to have to wait for warmer weather.

Or you could always buy another kit with a nice figured top, stain it and then finish with tru-oil whilst you're waiting.

[Andy40]

Just a suggestion, but its up to you, you could always just stain it instead of painting, a peripheral benefit is that you wont cover up the ash grain. the stain can be applied in-doors especially if its water based and you could finish it with Tru-oil. You could do a fiesta red on a basswood bodied one in summer.

[Rushburner]

That's what's looking like I'll have to do, it's just the grain really I dint that great on the front of the body, on the top it looks more like it's a digital it's real strange.
Is there a way to make a stain which is like a semi opaque stain, as in you won't see as much grain

[Simon Barden]

Well, the more stain you apply, the darker the lighter wood will get compared to the darker grain, and so reduce the contrast. You'll never get a semi-opaque stain; you'll only really get that sort of finish by spraying.

[Rushburner]

I see, well I guess thats why ive read so much on not getting attached to the plan you firsts started with because it will always change hahaha! Now is the decision on what direction to go as I dont see myself waiting 4 months for the weather to get better or spending a ton of money to get it painted.

Maybe a nice black to brown burst stain I think I could see that looking pretty nice!

[wazkelly]

Geez, it gets cold in your part of the world and definitely not good for spray painting. As Andy said staining may be the only way to go but you want to have an opaque Fiesta Red look?

A suggestion would be to go to an Art & Crafts store and buy some acrylic paint in the colour you want and apply that with a dry rag which you can make by cutting 2" squares from an old T-shirt. Get a few coats on so that it has about the right shade and looks smooth and flat. Maybe a light wet sand with ultra fine grit, say 1500 or 2000 to knock down any uneven bits and then 'Brush' on the 1st & 2nd coats of Tru Oil. The reason why I emphasised Brushing is that using a rag initially may want to grab a hold of the acrylic and end up a right proper mess and once you have a couple of TO coats done you can revert to doing the rag method for a few more and then maybe on to 2000 in the wet TO to really smooth things out.

As always, best to test on a scrap bit of timber first just to make sure the theory works.

[Andy40]

Given that Rush's in Canada, he should be able to get his hands on Colourtone dyes easier than us. I'd grain fill with black sand back and do a deep deep red.

The good thing about staining Rush is that if you don't like it, you can paint it in summer.

[wazkelly]

Good point Andy.

[Simon Barden]

As long as you don't then use any tru-oil. If you don't like the stained look, leave it there and wait for warmer weather. Giving the stain a wipe-over with a rag damped with turpentine or white spirit should give you a rough idea of what the colour will be be like with tru-oil on (whilst the body is still wet). But this will dry off and still be fine for spraying.