How To Paint A Guitar With Nitrocellulose
Nitrocellulose lacquer oft asked questions
NOTE Lacquer should only be used in a well ventilated expanse. You should wear a properly fitted vapour respirator during the application and drying of nitrocellulose lacquer. Machine Mart sell an ideal respirator for under £xx including organic solvent cartridges.
All my lacquer is supplied in 400ml aerosols, which generally have adjustable elliptical nozzles assuasive a vertical or horizontal fan. An alternative circular nozzle which is amend for sunbursts is available on asking.
It is illegal in the UK for anyone nether the age of 16 to attempt to buy aerosol paints. By ordering lacquer aerosols, you confirm that y'all are over xvi years of age.
I'm sorry but I can not ship lacquer outside the UK at this fourth dimension.
If you lot are looking for full general data on how to spray a guitar, in that location is a series of posts in the blog on guitar finishing. More to follow shortly!
Earlier y'all purchase
- Why practice the colour swatches show two different colours?
- Can you send lacquer to me in (French republic, Sweden, The states etc.)?
- Tin I just apply Halfords car paint?
- Is this stuff I take uniform with your lacquer?
- How many tins do I demand?
- How practise I get a blond or butterscotch finish?
- How exercise I get a 3-color sunburst finish?
- Do you stock Candy Apple Ruby-red lacquer?
- What should I use to give my guitar neck a vintage colour?
Preparation
- How do I strip the existing finish?
- What about grain filler and sanding sealer?
- What should I use to give my guitar neck a vintage colour?
Recipes for accurate-looking finishes
- How practice I become a butterscotch finish?
- How do I go a 3-colour sunburst finish?
- Do you lot stock Candy Apple tree Cherry lacquer?
Spraying technique
- How practice I refit the nozzle to the can?
- How many coats should I apply?
- Why am I getting drips of lacquer on my guitar?
- Should I capsize the tin to clean the nozzle?
- Any special tips for metallics?
- Any special tips for satin and matt finishes?
- How long do I leave the guitar before buffing?
- Why do this buffing affair?
- Why has my lacquer gone cloudy?
- Why does my finish expect crude and powdery?
- Should I warm the droplets cans is a water bath?
Other stuff
- How can I age (relic) the lacquer?
- Do I demand to mask the frets on a maple neck before spraying?
- Why is delivery so expensive?
Q. Why practise the color swatches show ii different colours?
A.
Where the lacquer colour shows a darker shade on the right mitt side, it represents the colour of the lacquer when sprayed over with my Light Tint Gloss clearcoat.
The left hand side shows a close representation of the actual colour.
Q. Can yous send lacquer to me in (France, Sweden, United states etc.)?
A.
Since the end of the Brexit transition phase, I'm unfortunately unable to export lacquer to any land.
If you are in The states you lot tin buy like lacquer from ReRanch
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Q. What about grain filler and sanding sealer?
A.
It's essential for a professional looking cease to ready your wood and then that you have a perfect surface for the lacquer.
Sand to 320 grit to remove whatsoever pits or scratches.
Open pored wood such equally ash and mahogany volition require grain-filling. Yous don't demand to grain-fill maple and can mostly become away without it on alder. I similar the Rustins grain filler bachelor from my shop just some people now are starting to utilise epoxies. I've recently tried Stewart Macdonald's water based grain filler but with mixed results in line with the reviews on the site.
See my stride-past-step grain-filling post in the blog.
The next stride after grain filling is sealing, which is designed to give a smooth surface for the lacquer. You tin but apply lacquer if you wish only as it doesn't fill up
imperfections very well it tin can take a lot to become a shine finish.
You tin can use a nitrocellulose-based sanding sealer nether my lacquer and I sell a loftier build sanding sealer in aerosol class. If you are spraying a solid color and so my white primer will do the job well, plus it gives an even base for lighter colours, increasing their effulgence.
Whether using sanding sealer or primer, always sand apartment and if imperfections remain, spray another few coats, permit to dry and sand again.
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Q. Is this stuff I have compatible with your lacquer?
A.
I haven't a bang-up deal of experience mixing finishes and only apply nitrocellulose so you would need to test whatever combination yourself before utilize.
By and large anything that is cellulose or shellac based should exist okay only again, you demand to test it to be sure.
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Q. Tin I just apply Halfords car paint?
A.
Although car sprays come up in a wide variety of colours, many people have constitute that it doesn't harden very well on wood and can stay soft for many months.
If y'all desire a special colour making upward, please ask as I can have most colours put into aerosol cans. It takes a couple weeks to get manufactured and is subject to a minimum gild of 1 litre of lacquer (effectually £l) plus £16 per droplets.
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Q. How exercise I refit the nozzle to the can?
A.
If your lacquer arrives with the nozzle discrete, the best style to refit it is with a twisting action. Trying to printing it in will probably result in you getting lacquerall over your fingers.
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Q. How many coats should I utilise?
A.
It'due south hard to talk about coats as information technology depends how thick you apply it. Generally I'd expect 3 coats each of virtually 3 passes, and depending on ambient temperature, with between v minutes and ane/ii hr between coats. The transparent colours go darker the more coats you spray then y'all'll demand to spray enough to get your desired shade.
You only need to sand between coats if y'all need to remove an imperfection such every bit dust or a run. You should spray thinly plenty so that runs don't happen of form.
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A.
Yep! The technique that I utilise when I spray metallics is to grit the final coat of color on from a distance, allowing the flakes to stand up at all angles instead of flat on the torso. And so I dust on the first few clear coats (and so as non to disturb the metallic) before building up thickness. This technique give the strongest dissimilarity.
Meet an example.
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Q. Any special tips for satin and matt finishes?
A.
What I do is to spray enough of coats of Articulate Satin lacquer (or Clear Matt) leave to harden overnight and apartment sand with 800 grit. Equally ever when flat sanding, take intendance on the corners as it is all to easy to sand through.
Then I spray a final glaze of Clear Satin (or matt) lacquer all over and leave information technology. No buffing! That way you'll get a nice even sheen all over.
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Q. How many tins practice I demand?
A.
As a dominion of thumb, refinishing a guitar torso will take a can each of primer, colour and clear. It depends however on how well y'all prepare the wood, how economic you are and how much paint really ends up on the guitar and this does depend on your skill level. Inexperienced refinishers may demand more!
Preparation is also a key factor. Sand out those scratches outset. Trying to make full them with lacquer tin be a long and expensive procedure!
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Q. How long do I leave the guitar earlier buffing?
A.
The longer the meliorate! I'd say a minimum of a week. I tend to leave at least 3 weeks.
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Q. Why do this buffing thing?
A.
Information technology's impossible to become a apartment finish with lacquer so it is e'er apartment sanded and buffed to a loftier gloss. See the Reranch site for details.
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Q. Why am I getting drips of lacquer on my guitar?
A.
If you printing too hard on the nozzle, you tin sometimes go a buildup of lacquer on the rim of the tin can (where it'due south crimped closed) and this tin sometimes drib off or be blown onto your work. It'due south a practiced thought to wipe the rim every few passes.
Y'all can mimimise the chances of this by hanging the trunk rather than laying it apartment for spraying.
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Q. Should I invert the can to clean the nozzle?
A.
Some people advise that after utilise you invert the can and spray to make clean the nozzle.I Do NOT recommend you do this.
The nozzles practise not tend to clog and cleaning them this way is a sure way to waste propellant, depressurise the can and finish upward with one-half a can of lacquer that won't spray, or worse splutter lacquer onto your guitar due to low can pressure.
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Q. How practise I get a blond or butterscotch finish?
A.
If the body is ash (and it actually should be as the wait depends on ash's stiff grain design) then you'll demand to grain fill up offset. I similar and use Rustins grain filler.
There are instructions for finishing blond at bottom of this page on the Vintage Guitar site.
Following this, to get an authentic-looking blonde finish with my aerosols:
- Sand the wood to 320 grit to remove whatever scratches.
- grain fill thoroughly and sand smooth to 320 grit.
- Spray several sparse coats of sanding sealer to lock it all in and flatten. The aim is to get a very polish surface for the lacquer. Echo this step if necessary until you have a very smooth guitar body. In that location is sanding sealer demo hither.
- Spray White Blonde gloss evenly so as to opaque the grain just not too much. Spray more white on the edges if you like as they were generally opaqued to hibernate any joins in the body.
- If you lot want a "butterscotch blonde" spray (lightly) tinted gloss to give an amber shade to your taste. For a creamy colour use Light Tint
lacquer, for a full-on butterscotch use Tinted Gloss or for a more yellow color, Clear Amber. - Follow with more coats of clear gloss, and leave for 2-3 weeks to harden
- Finally flat sand and vitrify.
Don't sand the blonde before the clear glaze as it's likely you'll rub through and expose wood.
To sand at the end you lot should apply progressively finer "wet and dry" papers (from B&Q etc.) used with h2o that has a petty washing-upwards-liquid added. Don't get your guitar too wet as if h2o gets in screw holes it will swell the wood and fissure your finish.
Finish with P1200 paper and then utilise T-Cut to bring upwardly the gloss.
The reason for the sanding and buffing is that it's impossible to get a completely smoothen finish when spraying.
If you wish you can substitute my Butterscotch lacquer for the White Blond and omit the tinting steps unless you desire to farther darken the colour.
More skilful stuff on finishing on the Reranch site.
These guitars were finished using my lacquer aerosols.
You lot'll need:
- one tin Rustins Grain Filler (natural)
- i can Sanding Sealer
- i tin can White Blonde
- 1 tin can (Lightly) Tinted Gloss
- one or 2 cans Clear Gloss
You'll also need grain filler (Craft Supplies) and some abrasives (B&Q, Homebase, Halfords) and some T-Cut (B&Q, Homebase, Halfords).
You might be surprised how like shooting fish in a barrel it is to get skillful results. As you probably know, the fundamental success factors are training and patience. Accept your time and yous'll have a far ameliorate chance of getting information technology right. Always practice your spraying technique on scrap wood. It'southward easier than stripping and repainting your guitar body! In that location's a post showing the process of spraying a butterscotch body here.
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Q. How do I get a iii-colour sunburst finish?
A.
Hither's how to exercise it (briefly)
- Seal the torso with sanding sealer.
- Spray front end, back and sides in bister.
- Spray blood-red transition band including the sides.
- Spray Tobacco Dark-brown band on edges. Keep nice and tight in with this and then the band isn't too wide. You'll need several coats to build up opacity, be careful to permit each 1 dry earlier the next to avoid runs – don't rush this step!
- Follow with plenty of coats of clear gloss.
- After a few weeks hardening, flat, vitrify and polish.
You'll demand:
- one can Sanding Sealer
- 1 can Articulate Amber
- 1 tin Clear Red
- 1 tin can Tobacco Brown
- 1 or 2 cans Clear Gloss
Run into Reranch 101
It'south a skillful idea to practise first on some flake forest. Patience is essential. If you rush things, you'll finish upwardly with a less than perfect job.
I apply sunbursts freehand merely you can use a masking template held in a higher place the body so every bit not to go a hard edge.
My aersols are unremarkably supplied with an elliptical nozzle, which is corking for large areas but a round spray pattern is meliorate for sunbursts. Please permit me know if you'd adopt a circular nozzle when you buy.
Run across my sunbursting demo.
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Q. Do you stock Processed Apple Red lacquer?
A.
Candy Apple Red (Motorcar) is not ane color but a sequence of layers. See how Fender did it here: http://www.guitarhq.com/fenderc.html.
My colours work well to reach a realistic Processed Apple tree Blood-red.
The "recipe" is:
- White primer
- Inca Silver (or golden) metallic
- Clear Ruby-red
- Clear Gloss
Fender used a silver basecoat up to 1965 and a gold basecoat thereafter.
Dust the last coat of silvery or gold on from a distance, allowing the flakes to stand at all angles instead of flat on the trunk. So dust on the showtime few coats of clear red (and so equally not to disturb the metallic) before building up thickness and color.
I've demo'd the whole process here: Creating a Candy Apple Reddish finish
You lot need the Clear Gloss at the stop for when you flat sand and buff yous don't desire to rub through your cerise. See http://world wide web.reranch.com/101a.htm#final%20polishing.
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Q. How practice I strip the existing finish?
A.
To strip a guitar y'all have iii options:
- Chemicals. In the past I have had success with Nitromors simply recently learned that due to new regulations decision-making the utilise of methylene chloride, its formulation has changed and it now won't accept any upshot on the majority of guitar finishes. It will strip nitrocellulose finishes, equally will cellulose thinners, acetone or ethyl acetate (ethyl ethanoate).
- Heat. Using a heat gun can piece of work well for synthetic finishes simply exist careful not to scorch the forest. As well much heat can elevator veneers too so practise circumspection.
- Annoying. Sanding works when all else fails but information technology is a fourth dimension-consuming task. A mouse blazon sander is adept for curved surfaces such as a guitar meridian. Starting time with a coarse class to remove nigh of the finish then switch to effectively at the finish. Exist conscientious not to sand through whatsoever veneers.
You must go a polish, faultless surface before doing anything else.
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Q. How can I historic period (relic) the lacquer?
A.
I'g no expert in weather checking but have had proficient results by putting Tele bodies into the freezer overnight. A couple of cycles of freeze/thaw works well. Add together a few dings showtime and these act a centres for the checking. Hither'southward a Telecaster that I finished so distressed.
The ReRanch site has some information on crumbling finishes and hardware , and see the excellent article in Guitar and Bass Magazine "How To Relic A Guitar Body With A Nitro Finish " which uses my lacquer.
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Q. What should I use to give my guitar neck a vintage colour?
A.
You can spray my Tinted lacquer over blank wood or existing poly finishes. If the latter, scuff sand very lightly first to provide a key.
If you lot desire to use a tinted lacquer you need to understand that the color depth increases with pic thickness – the more you spray, the darker information technology gets. If yous want to tint the cervix I'd recommend sealing commencement with articulate lacquer, spraying the tinted to become the colour you desire (matching the dorsum and headstock). Then more than clear to build upwards concluding finish thickness. That way when you lot buff you lot won't exist rubbing through the colour, making it paler in patches.
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Q. Do I need to mask the frets on a maple cervix earlier spraying?
A.
In that location is no need to mask and you should spray right over the frets.
You can remove the lacquer using a scraper fabricated from a small blast as pictured. The notch is filed in the smash caput using a rat-tail file. Wear eye protection though as $.25 fly everywhere!
You will besides find that the lacquer will easily chip off when you wearing apparel the frets.
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Q. Why has my lacquer gone cloudy?
A.
The milkiness (chosen bloom or blush) is down to spraying in humid weather and information technology's caused by wet getting trapped in the lacquer. You lot tin can mimimise this by spraying thinner coats so that the moisture can escape before the lacquer dries. Often this milkiness will go away equally the slice warms upward or information technology can be removed by spraying more lacquer in less boiling conditions.
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Q. Why does my finish look crude and powdery?
A.
It's probably a combination of spraying too far away and the weather existence besides warm. Warming the can can also crusade this so don't.
What is happening is that the solvents in the lacquer are drying before it hits the body so that information technology can't flow to create a smooth surface.
Spray closer to your guitar so that the lacquer goes on wet, but not so wet that you become runs.
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Q. Should I warm the aerosol cans is a water bath?
A.
Generally, no. The propellant in the aerosols is butane which boils at just under 0°C so unless you are spraying in sub-zippo atmospheric condition (which I don't advise) then y'all should have plenty of pressure without warming the cans.
Warming the can also causes the volatile solvents to flash off which can crusade a dry powdery terminate equally the lacquer cannot flow, and the rapid evaporation of solvent as the lacquer leaves the nozzle causes buildup of lacquer which tin effect in blockage.
The just time when I would recommend warming is if spraying a sunburst, where the actress force per unit area does aid create a find spray which gives a good feathering to the edge. Here you lot are generally spraying very shut to the work which minimises the issue above.
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Q. Why is delivery so expensive?
A.
Lacquer aerosols are classed as hazardous and very few couriers will handle them. Those that do are trained appropriately.
I use a flat delivery toll, dependent on location as this is how I am charged by the courier.
Deliveries to areas outside of UK mainland are past sea and consequently take a piddling longer, typically 2-3 days.
Commitment on every parcel costs me more than I charge.
Source: https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/nitrocellulose-lacquer/lacquer-faqs/
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