Here’s a conundrum for you wood refinishers out there. I’m refinishing an electric bass guitar that I bought new in 1984. I put paint stripper on the finish and waited twenty minutes. The stripper had no effect at all. It didn’t even begin to soften the finish. I used a good brand and agitated the bottle before beginning.
I ended up sanding the guitar by hand to remove the finish which came up as a white powdery material. What kind of finish is this that can even resist paint stripper? I might mention that the white plastic binding did yellow with age under the finish. This may help identify it for someone out there more knowledgeable than I.
William
Replies
Sounds like resin to me. It was popular back then. My son used to run into it on boat hulls all the time. I tried to do a large table top with the stuff. It was a lot of problems, & my son said that he didn't know of any thing that would break it down. He used the same kind of sanding disk that body repair shops use.
Good luck
William,
If the guitar was metal, it was probably an electrostatically applied powder coat - it "welds" itself to the metal. Tough finish. We specify it for its durability and scratch resistance. If it is not metal, then forget what I said. I don't think a finish like that can be applied on wood because it will crack due to wood movement.
As far as the yellowing, it is epoxy. It tends to yellow with exposure to UV light. It is used in paints to achieve a water/moisture resistance property.
Marcello
Dupont Imron polyurethane enamel.It almost resists sand blasting.There is a specefic stripper for these types.All major paint componies have there own brand names. Primary uses jet planes,trains and trailor trucks. I can't imagine this being used as a standard production finish, perhaps your guitar was a test case.
To Marcello: No, my guitar is made of wood. It's not the first one I've refinished but certainly the first one where I've run into such a problem.
To Ron: Dupont Imron polyurethane enamel, hmm. I must say I've never heard of that. Is this stuff commercially available? I don't think my bass was a test piece of any sort, just a standard production run. It was made in Germany by the Höfner company. Maybe their finishing techniques are different from ours.
I'd be interested in hearing a few more opinions. Thanks for the input so far.
William
Wielleicht do kannst ein Deutche Spracher finden, dann der Hofner geschaft im Deutchland kontakten. Es gibt ein einfach antwort bei ihnen problem.
sorry. maybe you can find a german speaker, and contact the hofner factory for the proper solution.
maybe you need metric solvent? haha
see http://www.hofnerheaven.com for alot of info on hofner.
viel gluck!
Ricky,
Danke für die Nachricht. Ja, ich habe schon nach Höfner geschrieben aber ohne antwort. Deshalb habe ich bei Knots probiert. Ich habe eine gute Ahnung dass der Firnis auf meine Bass katalysiert war. Sehr typisch für Guitaren. Tchüss!
William
gut! frohen neue jahr ! heute abend mein frau und mich sind eine grob partie haben,
zwanzig oder dreizig leute, ich muss gehen. tchuss
William,
My vote goes for an epoxy based product. The clue is the white powder you obtained by sanding off the finish. I'm no expert but know that epoxy finishes will not even soften when using "regular" paint strippers. A clear epoxy is what fiberglass and car buffs call a 'gel coat' I think.
If I may, l'll add on to this conundrum thread you started with a similar dilemma. I stripped a small footstool last week and found that the stripper didn't even touch the reddish stain underneath the topcoat. The stool is some species of mahogany I think and does not seem to have a filler applied. Any ideas out there for this problem?
sawick
Aniline dye.
Splintie,
Good answer- short and sweet: "aniline dye". I think I realized that and the question I meant to pose was how to remove same? I hate to mess with bleaching this piece. To me it really isn't worth it but might be just for the learning.
Get much snow out west? Long overdue here and finally got some so I plan to take a day off for skiing this week.
sawick
I googled "remove aniline dye":
http://hoodfinishing.com/wood_toners.htm
http://www.minutemanrestoration.com/product/aniline_dye.htm
The products above stress that they work on nothing but aniline dye, so maybe they've got something.
My sole experience with trying to bleach it was years ago and totally unsatisfactory, but i tried conventional oxalic acid. I ended up dying the piece again to even it out, with some yellow added to tone it more toward a brown i could live with.
Snow: we have a lovely collection of slush-on-the-rocks right now...too sloppy to ski, too slick to drive. We've been thinking of heading over to Chico Hot Springs for "therapy", once all the holiday revelers are back at their desks.
It could be any one of a number of two part finishes that cure by catalytic action. Epoxy, polyester, catalyzed lacquer and catalyzed varnish all fit into this category. They are very hard and almost impervious to being dissolved. Which, it why they are used.
Hi,
If it's epoxy I've used a product called "Attack" which is available from jewlers supply dealers. http://www.riogrande.com/ ususally has this sort of thing. I've only used it to remove stones and such but it works great. It's a water thin liquid and care should be used of course. I think I paid $8 for a pint a few years back.
Imron is great industial paint. My Ibis mountain bike has this finish on it and it's about 10 years old and got 20,000 miles on it. The paint still looks great. Sorry I have no idea of the working charecteristics and can only vouch for it's durability.
HTH
N
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