Olympic white. . .

Got sick of the invisible blonde so Ive invested in a more manly paint. This stuff goes on like a dream and actually changes the colour of the guitar, so Im over the moon with it. I should have got this colour at the effing start and saved me self time and money and more importantly my confidence would still be intact.

First coat



Second coat



Third coat



Look at that bad boy, pretty white in my book!!!

Getting close. . .

Eighth Coat . . .



Nineth Coat. . .



Right, finished the second can and its starting to look a slightly lighter shade than it was about a month ago. One can is supposed to make it look like this, clearly mine doesn't but I dont fancy forking out another 15 pund plus 5 pund delivery for another can of invisible blonde or what ever the colour isn't.

Im waiting on delivery of a scratch plate, when it arrives I'll check the colour against the guitar and then make a decision on what to do next. Ive got a few avenues I can go down:

1. Bite the bullet and buy another can of white blonde and try and get a whiter blonde, if such a thing is possible.
2. Spray the tinted lacquer over the white blonde and go for the butterscotch blonde I was originally going to go for.
3. Be happy with the white blonde as it is and start the clear lacquer coats.

The truth is that Im starting to get impatient and I want to get on with actually making a guitar. Colour wise, Im going right off the butterscotch blonde colour, I think Ive seen enough butterscotch Telecasters in the last couple of months to see me right up untill Im the age of Keith Richards and whilst we're being honest Im starting to get sick of looking at Telecasters all together. My eyes are going tele shaped!!

More coats. . .

Sixth coat. . .



Seventh coat. . .

Pair of cans. . .

New cans have arrived, another can of white blonde and some clear gloss lacquer. I emailed the chap I got them off about the crap finish the first can of white blonde was giving. He checked the batch and apparently theres nowt wrong with the batch, its down to my bad technique Im afraid!!!
The plan at the moment is to put another half a dozen coats of the white blonde on and see what it looks like then clear coat it if it looks ok.



Ive been reading the tele forum and the fellas on there reckon I should be warming the cans before using them. This is supposed to increase the spraying pressure, make the paint and solvent mix better and make the coat dry quicker. I asked the paint chap if this was a good idea and if this was the reason I was getting a crappy finish - He said it wasnt and there was no need to warm the cans first - so I had a go anyway.



I had some paint left in the first can so I had a go with that, I put the can in hot water from the tap - didnt make an ounce of difference, still cack!!!!!

Fossilcaster. . .

Check this out!!!!! I was checking the finish before I started coat number five and saw this!! Its a pre-historic beast trapped in one of the coats. I'm going to keep it there, its on one of the sides. I wonder if I could do a Jurrasic Park - extract its DNA and create a drummer????

Wheres Wally (spraying booth). . .

Came home the other night to find the booth missing from the drive.

It had been blown up the drive and across the garden and landed on me wifes bedding plants. Andy Mac was in the garden when I got in from work and I thought he'd moved it, which is weird since it takes two to carry it.

The hereo that he is, Andy helped me return it to its home and secure it with a wheely bin.

Canny chuffed that it hasnt been damaged, its solid as a rock. The problem is it is properly sealed, all the edges have been doubley covered and pinned so as soon as a little gust blows it takes off, like a kite. That wheely bin should hold it!

Biggest mistake since Hitler decided to invade Poland. . .

Ive not seen this amount of runs since the last time I was in Greece and drank the tap water.

Its all gone wrong. Not only have the gods of the paint world blessed me with three invisible coats so far, they are now laughing their chuddies off at the fourth coat, it is consistently non existent in some places and horrible pools of chod in others.

If the fourth coat was a person it would be Harold Shipman, if the fourth coat was an animal it would be that sting ray that killed Steve Irwin, if the fourth coat was a number it would be 666, if the fourth coat was a tele program it would be Crazy in love with that fat hound off of Atomic Kitten, you get the point = PURE EVIL.

Here are some photos to highlight my point.






Also Ive got these little bubbles in the award winning fourth coat and they have burst and because its paint it has gone hard and left these nasty tiny little craters on the body. (Ive circled them, they are not actually that big) (if they were that big I would have put the whole thing in a giant envelope with this address on it:
TOP OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO
SOME COUNTRY
THE EDGE OF A TECTONIC PLATE
with instruction for the postman to drop it in.)

More invisible coats. . .

Third Coat



Fourth Coat

Run for the hills. . .

First problem, I got a nasty looking run on the cut away. Probably from the coat being sprayed too wet, its canny hard to see how much paint is going on when you're spraying. (I might try and get a light in the booth for the rest of the coats to make it easier to see how much paint is going on the body) Im going to have to wait for it to dry for a few days and wet sand it out then re-spray. That part is a nightmare to spray because you cant get a good angle because its curved.

White blonde goes on. . .

Spraying the white blonde coats first, so I can see what it looks like before I decide what colour I will do it in the end.

First coat



Second coat



. . . after two coats I cant see any difference in the colour, Im wondering if the can is faulty. Its not spraying the paint uniformly it seems to give spurts of colour, so I get areas with pools of white and the rest if the body looks the same colour as it was before just shiny. I'll try a few more coats and then email the guy I got it from.