Taking the finish off an ES style guitar

[FairFrank]

The top for sure needs a solid color. There are a bunch of patched holes in the top and a botched stain job under the botched paint on the rest. I suspect it will need to get it to bare wood. The paint doesn't stick to the primer that well, nor the primer to the wood, so I think both will need to go. When I've done a bit of test sanding it doesn't come off nice and sandy. It's not quite clumpy, just feels kind of soft.

I don't have spray equipment but have had pretty good luck luck finishing using MTN94 spray paints. They are great for drip control, very forgiving, and sand beautifully flat. They go on sort of like a filling primer, and don't need an undercoat of primer.

I may try the ROS on the top and back and headstock...maybe on the neck too? I don't want to change the shape, and the ROS is pretty aggressive. Probably more inclined to use the palm sander(it's really helpful) on the sides. Not as quick but more controllable. These ES's were not designed with refinishing in mind. They seem to have concave surfaces everywhere. The only truly flat surfaces seem to be on the headstock.

Seems a shame to take the guitar apart when I finally get it playing and sounding to my liking, but sanding seems the next order of business.... so así es la vida as they say in my wife{s culture.

Thanks! I was hoping there'd be an easier way, but at least I can go at it knowing that elbow grease is the only viable option!

Hi, can you recommend a palm sander, if you please? Sorry for reviving. Was it effective finally?

[fender3x]

Hi, can you recommend a palm sander, if you please? Sorry for reviving. Was it effective finally?

I wish I could. I have a cheap Chinese random orbital (Chicago Electric/Harbor Freight) and a Ryobi 4" palm sander. Neither worked well. I have gotten this far after about 5 hours of elbow grease using a diablo sanding mesh, and conventional 150 grit sand paper (US grits)

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[fender3x]

For better or worse what I have found to work best is this in the pic. I cut a small block of relatively hard EPS foam, and used it as a sanding block. Works much better with the mesh than the big foam block it came with. The nice thing about the mesh is that it is more clump/clog resistant then the sandpaper. I have been using 120 grit, but it does not seem equivalent to 120 conventional sandpaper, it's more like 150 or 180. I have also had decent results with Dura Gold 150 grit. It clogged quickly with the ROS sander, but works reasonably well and doesn't clog or ball-up nearly as fast with the foam sanding block.

I will most likely go over the whole thing with 220 grit when I finish to prep for new paint. I could probably have saved an hour or two if I had started with the combination of sanding mesh and sandpaper I am using now.

BTW most of the remaining red on the pic in the post above is stain rather than paint. I tried staining and failed at that, before I put on primer and paint which never got really hard. I'm not worrying too much if there's some leftover stain. I'll use a coat of shellac over that to make sure it doesn't react with whatever comes next ;-)

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