Poly clear coat for a Strat refinish?

[Lerxt]

I'm currently refinishing my 1979 hardtail Fender Stratocaster back to it's original look: natural clear-coat finish over a nicely-grained ash body, black pickguard, maple neck w/big headstock, maple fretboard. Very 1970s! I'm working with a very good carpenter/painter, but he's never done a guitar refinish so we need help with a couple of questions:

1. What kind of clear coat should we use to match the original Fender finish? I'm guessing some kind of polyurethane clear coat product, but can anyone recommend a specific brand and product name? Would this be something I could get at Home Depot, or would I need to try some kind of specialty paint store?

2. I'm assuming we would want to spray this finish on, rather than use a brush? Approximately how many coats would be needed to match the original Fender finish? Is there any light sanding or buffing required between clear coat applications?

Please let me know if you can help me out with this or point me towards any helpful internet links.

Thanks!

Jim

[Diablo]

Hey Jim

I know that Fender uses McFaddens UV polyester now. In the past, they have used catylized polyester and automotive urethanes. You might check on the Fender forums to see what was used in 1979. It was probably acrylic urethane.

They used to use fullerplast as a filler base coat. Then go over it with nitro in the 50's and they switched to urethanes in the early 60's. Most of those would be an automotive finish. That's where they got their colors from too.

You would probably have the best luck getting it to look right by using an auto urethane such as DuPont Chromaclear. PRS uses that for their guitars. They used to use Polyester base, Chromaclear topcoat. Now it's all Chromaclear. The other big auto finish is PPG. You can get them at auto paint supply stores. Another one is Sherwin Williams auto division. They have auto urethanes and they are much less expensive than DuPont or PPG. You can't get anything at Home Depot. These are solvent based finishes. The home centers don't have anything other than water or oil finishes. Solvent based is the only way to go. It isn't something that the typical home user would use though.

Polyester is the best finish but it's hard to use. Hard to buff. Chromaclear is fairly easy to use. What you could do is to find an auto paint guy. Someone who shoots cars. He could spray it in now time. Usually Chromaclear is shot about 3 coats at a time and sanded after that. You can build coats by shooting 3 letting it dry to sand and then sanding it. If you shoot urethanes within a 24 hour period, they will blend into each other so that you don't get halo rings if you sand through a layer. It depends on the urethane, but some that are made for wood will allow you to build about 10 mils thick so that you have some room to sand. You would want to fill the grain if you have an ash Strat. Otherwise, you don't have to. I would though. You can get some water based fillers that work great. Hope this helps and isn't confusing.

[Lerxt]

Diablo,

Thanks for all the excellent info! Between your information and some tips I found at www.reranch.com (http://www.reranch.com/), I'm starting to get a handle on this project, although it looks like it will be more complicated than I thought!

By the way, Diablo = Joe Driskill, right? If so, I can understand why so many around here like to do business with you, because you are obviously incredibly knowledgeable and very generous about sharing information. I hope that a Driskill will be in my future at some point, although I expect my next guitar will probably be a Warmoth frankenstrat!

Thanks again!
Jim