Thanks for all the positive comments. I’ll go through the steps that accomplished what you see below. There might be better or more efficient ways to do a refinish, but like Frank Sinatra said, “I did it my way”.
I started with an old Sho-Bud Professional. It was tobacco brown and in horrible condition. In my opinion the only way to go was to strip the body down to bare wood and start all over. I first made sure I had a white Sho-Bud Decal. I didn’t put a “The Professional" decal on it because it will no longer bad a “Professional” when I finished. I threw all that rack and barrel system away. It will have triple raise/ double lower changers with aluminum tops. The pulling train will have 14 hole pulling fingers, machined from aluminum. I have a Sho-Bud Pro-III with this system and it’s so sweet,I sold my recently aquired ZUM. The ZUM is a super guitar but I'm an old Sho-Bud man. Anyway, let’s get back on subject.
1. After all the hardware was removed, I stripped the cabinet with a paint and varnish remover called “strip eze” It took about 3 times to get the old lacquer off. After the last time with the strip eze, I wiped the cabinet down with “mineral sprits” and a clean rag. I changed rags and continued this until I was sure all the old finish was removed. The toughest part of this was the white splatter paint on the bottom of the cabinet. I removed all this and will have a natural maple finish on the bottom.
2. After the cabinet was dry, about three days, I started sanding. The wood on top was rather smooth and didn’t require a lot of heavy sanding, but the bottom of the cabinet required more work. I did the finish sanding with various grits of sand paper. I mostly sanded the top with the sponge sanding blocks that one can purchase at Home Depot or Lowe’s. On the bottom I used a palm sander and the sponge sanding blocks to finish up. VERY IMPORTANT WARNING, BE VERY CAREFUL WITH THE INLAY WHEN SANDING. The inlay is very thin.
3. I started the finish process by taping off everything on the cabinets and the necks, except the inlay. Use a very good quality masking tape for this process because you wouldn’t want the stain to penetrate down to the inlay when the stain is sprayed on. Spray at least 2 good coats of sanding sealer on the inlay. This is a necessary step to insure the stain will not screw up the unique Sho-Bud inlay.
4. Remove all the masking tape and protective covering from the cabinet. Next, mask off the inlay on the cabinet and both sides of the necks. This is best accomplished with ¼ masking tape purchased from an auto parts store. This is the stuff the guys do the flame paint jobs on cars and motorcycles. After the masking tape is on, press the edges firmly to make sure the stain goes where we want.
5. Now for the most important and nerve wrecking step of the entire process, STAINIG. If you’re going for a natural maple finish, ignore the previous step. We used a blue concentrated stain from Stewart McDonald. The directions on the bottle didn’t exactly apply to our needs with the exception of needing to be diluted. We used denatured alcohol for dilution. We used a small Devilbiss Paint sprayer and Albert would put about ¾ of the can with alcohol and I would put the stain in until it looked good. Spraying is good because it allows you to gradually get the shade of color that suits your taste. Some guys like to wipe it on but that’s a little drastic for my talents. I might add that when you apply the lacquer finish, the color will be a little darker. I don’t know the reason for this, but it’s been my experience. When the desired color is reached, spray at least two coats of sanding sealer on the cabinet. Some light sanding can be done after the sealer is dry. Remove all the masking tape from the inlay.
6. The lacquer application. I used a brand of lacquer called “DEFT”. That might be spelled wrong but I got it from a paint store. I had previously used the same brand purchased from Loews’s. We have a special Sho-Bud jig that allows us to rotate a cabinet at any angle for spraying. We would spray a heavy coat and let it dry. Then the decal was applied. Spray a couple of light coats on the decal to seal it. Spray another heavy coat and let it dry. This process was repeated until we felt we had enough lacquer on the cabinet. I didn’t sand between coats because of the steps following. Let the lacquer dry for at least one week. Note: Make sure the humidity is low when spraying your lacquer.
7. Start the finish with 600 grit sand paper with a block of wood. Don’t do any freehand sanding because we are trying to get the lacquer finish completely level like glass. Don’t sand the corners because you might sand all the way to the maple. I’m pretty sure that would ruin what’s left of your day. You will notice some scratches in our pretty lacquer. Don’t push the panic button. The following steps will gradually decrease this until we acquire the finish we desire.
8. Next, use 800 grit sandpaper and the same sanding block. Change sand paper if it starts loading up. You will notice that the scratches are getting smaller.
9. Next, go to 1500 grit sandpaper and the same sanding block. For this step, you can use a little water to keep the sandpaper from loading up. Continue to stay away from the corners. The only freehand sanding I did was on the edges of the necks.
10. Next. the art of hand rubbing. Using an old worn towel, start rubbing the lacquer finish with Mcguiar’s #4 or Turtle Wax rubbing compound in the red or orange can. Rub like hell and then rub some more. You will notice that our scratches are getting even smaller.
11. Next, go to Mcguiar’s #7 and rub even harder than before. You will notice that the scratches are almost gone.
12. go to Mcguiar’s Scratch and swirl remover and rub like before. The scratches should have disappeared and the finish should look like the one below.
While describing the spraying proceedure, you will notice that I used "We". My good friend Albert Johnson did the spraying for me and gave advice when asked. His touch with a spray gun is far superior to mine.
Albert is the kind of person that makes me a better person just being around him.
The hand rubbing process was aided by the guidance of Dana Flood. I was going to post a picture of his lacquer Emmons but he didn't have it with him. Dana's Emmons is a natural finish that will stun you. Dana owns All Steel Guitar and him and Albert has established J&F products manufacturing speaker cabinets and racks. They also manufacture steel guitar cases and has introduced a split(two piece)case that allows you to put the guitar in one case and the legs, pedal bar and rods in the other. It's amazing how light your guitar is when you can distribute the weight equaly. That's about all for now. I'll post some photos of the undercarriage when I get done. Thaks for all the neat comments and support.
Leon<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Leon Roberts on 17 February 2005 at 08:04 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Leon Roberts on 17 February 2005 at 08:12 PM.]</p></FONT><FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Leon Roberts on 18 February 2005 at 06:43 AM.]</p></FONT>
) and added Stew-Mac's waterbase lacquer, turned out mirror glossy. That little sucker has a piercing sound, but is difficult to play with big fingers (the scale is just 13,75"). By the way, the decorations around the edges are inlaid string ball ends, which I save every time I change strings ever since the late seventies. Someday I'll cover a whole guitar body with them!
