< Work Day 30-31 Work Day 35>
Work Day # 32-34 - February 24, 28, and March 1, 2009 (9 hrs)
Before brushing on the last 3 coats on work day #32, we sanded quickly with 220 just to rough up the lacquer a bit. Again, we waited about 45mins between coats.
When the coats were drying, we copied more of the templates that dad has. We did the side, neck, back brace curve, and neck thickness templates.
One note with lacquer...if you are storing it for an extended period, store it with the can upside down.
Work day #33 - Now that all 8 coats are on the guitar and dry, we start wet sanding. Dad started with 280 and I continued sanding moving to 320, then 400, 600, 800, and 1000.
We're sanding to even out the lacquer and get rid of all shiny spots with out sanding through all the lacquer down to the wood. I used a sanding block on the top and back and just a piece of sand paper in my hand for the sides, head and neck. We change the bowl of water every two grits of paper. Also, we put in the water just a couple of drops of Joy liquid dishsoap.
On the head, we don't sand the cut outs for the tuners, the top of the head, or the ramps...we just leave the lacquer as is.
In a couple of spots on the guitar, either the lacquer was a bit thin or I was too agressive with the sand paper and we went through all 8 coats of lacquer down to the wood. So we hit those few spots with lacquer again and will sand them out after they dry.
Work day #34 - We finished the sanding today. We started by smoothing out the touch up spots we had starting with 800 then 1000. Then we did the entire guitar with 1500 then 2000.
Next work day we'll buff/polish the whole guitar and glue on the bridge!
