More Progress on my Black Daion Rockson MDL Rebuild

I'll probably have to stop referring to it as my "Black Daion Rockson" from here on in, as there isn't much in the way of black left on it anymore. Here's a link the previous post on this guitar:

http://daionguitarsdownunder.blogspot.com.au/rebuilding-my-black-daion

After a few weeks of abysmal weather, we've finally had a dose of beautiful winter sunshine, which is really nice to sit ouside in, in front of the bird aviary and do some sanding of the body.

After getting rid of most of the balck, I left some of it some in certain places so that when the new colour was sprayed and then lightly sanded back, it would show through in some spots. When Fender used to do custom colours in the early days like Surf Green and Shell Pink it was often over an existing over Sunburst body. When the solid coulour began to chipp and wear you could then see the black and amber through the solid colour. I realise Daion's would not have been done like this but I'm trying to replicate a bit of a worn relic look with this guitar, as it was indeed worn and relic'd when I bought it, just in the wrong colour.

So, after sanding the body to a basically smooth finish, but paying careful attention not to smooth out any of the existing dents, dings, grazes and chips, it was ready for a few coats of colour. A local paint shop that supplied panel beaters and the like with automotive style paints was able to match a batch of Sheel Pink for a previous guitar refinish I did, and at the same time I got a colour that was very close to the Surf Green that Fender used back in the early days. This place puts the colour into pressure pack spray cans so it's very easy to apply and quite reasonable in cost considering they will make up the colour to match anything you want.

This colour was available on locally made Holden's (which were a GM product in the same way Opel is a GM branded product in Europe) back in the 1960's and is called Huon Green. It has a slightly more blue'ish tinge than pure surf green, however after doing a lot of research and collecting a lot of pics of Surf Geeen Strat's, the really old ones that had seen some use appear to have gone a bit of a blue'ish green over time, and as I am trying to replicate a thirty odd year old finish, I wanted something close to that look, not as it was when new.

The first thing I did was to spray some of the colour in the tremolo spring cavity on the rear of the body, just to make sure it was what I was looking for. When that dried and looked acceptable, I then put on a couple of light dust coats over the whole body, and then later during the day put on another couple of heavier coats to fully cover the body in colour. When dry it looked fairly good, although straight from the pressure pack can it is a fairly dull finish.

The next step was to do some wet sanding with 1200 grade wet and dry. This cuts back the paint and really brings a bit of a shine into it, even without any clear coat. In a couple of strategic places I rubbed a little harder, which showed up some of the black and some of the raw wood through the new solid colour. It was only in a few spots, and only very minimal amounts of rub through were done at this stage. The more full on chipping, grazing and scratched need to be done through the clear coat and all.

In the late afternoon I was happy enough with the finish to apply some clear coats to the body. After about three light to medium passes with a gloss clear coat, the guitar was left hung up under the car port down the back yard to dry. The clear really did bring a bit of shine into the body, especially when the late afternoon sunshine shone on it.

This morning, after it had been hanging up all night I was hoping to be able to do a little wet sanding, but the finish whilst not tacky is still soft to the touch. I kind of knew it would probably need a week or so to harden, but was hoping it may have been good enough to touch. In any case it's another lovely warm sunny winters day, so I've got the body hanging from the clothes line which will see sun all day until about 4:30pm this afternoon. Hopefully this will get the clear coat drying faster, and although i probably won't do much thought the week it should be good to go next weekend.

When you look at the pics you will see some of the existing damage to the body that I have purposely preserved, and with photo's of the original chips in the paint, I will be doing my best to replicate pretty much the same thing but with the new colour, so none of the actual damage is faked, but simply restored, if that is the right term for maintaining what I guess in the furniture industry is referred to a patina.

Also take into account this is only my first real attempt at doing a full colour and relic job on a guitar, so I am by no means an expert in the technique, nor do I claim that the way I'm doing it is the "correct" way to do it. However, I am enjoying it, and touch wood when done I will have a nice aged looking guitar in a colour much more to my liking.

I couldn't help doing a little bit of "photoshopping" with the second last pic, getting rid of the wire it was hanging from the clothes line by, giving it that floating in the sky look.

The last pic I took tonight after seeing how it might look with a tortoise shell pickguard as opposed to white.