Restoration plan, kryloned t100

[in a little rowboat]

Well, I’m sure you’ve seen it pop up from time to time. I bought it cheap, my 3rd t100.

the yellow looks far worse than the pics and has to go. I’d considered refinishing her before I received her, but no question now.

how do I get this paint off without compromising the binding or glued joints? It looks to be enamel paint. Heat gun? No. Paint stripper? Maybe. Straight sand? Ewww.

recommendations appreciated. I need to get down to bare wood.

 

[in a little rowboat]

Oh, I lost part of the post. It’s a 1962 t100, 21k serial. It doesn’t have B on the label but I think it was blonde originally.

 

[fronobulax]

@gilded had a '66 (maybe '65) Starfire bass that had been "refinished" with white Krylon. He got it all off and recovered the original sunburst. Hopefully he will chime in with his experience before you you have to do something.

 

[ruedi]

Looks like a fun project! I have never done anything like this, so no help from my side. But I'm sure your question will eventually reach the right people here and you will get your answers.

I'm curious: How's the general condition, are there other things that need to be done? How does it sound and play? How would you compare it to that nice T-50 you presented in your entrance thread?

 

[Default]

Fixit (Tom Jacobs ) did a remarkable job with a bad refin. I think he used magic, myself.

 

[in a little rowboat]

Well, I did a fair amount of internet research and decided to start. I’ve come to the conclusion that the paint is some kind of auto coat (there is a grey primer undercoat everywhere except on the top). I’ll have to use acetone I think.

So I started by scraping around the binding. The stuff came off with effort.

next, I used a plane to clear the sides.

the maple looks nice underneath.

block sanded the sides after planting the paint off. It’s mildly discoloured but some mineral spirits helped.

 

[in a little rowboat]

Here is the Franz, btw

I’ll post more once I’ve made some progress on the top. I’m leaning toward a tru oil finish.

 

[in a little rowboat]

Responding to Ruedi. it’s brighter than the T50 and heavier with the fake bigsby. Both have about the same output and the Franz pickups look identical to one another (both round bobbins from 1962ish). That said, it’ll be a really good player once the refinish is done.

 

[shihan]

I used paint stripper on a tele body. Worked fine, then sandpaper for any remaining paint, then more sanding with increasingly fine grades of paper. No binding on a tele, though.

 

[in a little rowboat]

I followed shihan’s method exactly. Found a product from Klean Strip (recommended on reranch website).

had to be mindful of the binding and drips. It scraped right off of the top but left a weird yellow glow in places.

after some time the top cleared up. I used toothbrush for the detail work after putting paper towels in the f holes. You can the yellow glow here.

I followed up with dry sanding, starting at 220 and finishing with 600, then 0000 steel wool. It was in decent shape for a 1962 Model. I expected to find gauges or repairs under all that paint but did not

top done, the back went much faster.

I did the cut away last because I knew it would be a pain.

here’s a sample with some hardware, because I was impatient and needed to decide on the next step

I’d hoped for a bit more figuring, but the maple top is pretty, the back has some Birdseye. Finally, I wiped with a naphtha bath and applied a single light coat of tru oil.

The imperfection by the pickup route is actually the wood grain. Probably how it became a sunburst originally. I’ll likely finish it the way my dad taught me to do gun stocks. Next post will be finished goods.

 

[shihan]

Yeah, I used Truoil on my tele; it came out great. You're doing a good job, much more complicated task compared to a tele body. Looking forward to seeing the finished guitar.

 

[in a little rowboat]

This is the final result. 12 coats of tru oil. Fake Bigsby replaces with real thing. I decided against going too dark with the amber (was also afraid it would get sticky):

definitely some scary moments but it all worked out. A testament to how well this guitar was built in the first place.

 

[secndshft]

Stunning!! Absolutely stunning.

 

[shihan]

That came out great! I’ll bet it’s a real player. Congratulations on a job well done!

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

That's a shiny fretboard!