A while back, I stated my lack of love for nitrocellulose lacquer as a finish for electric guitars. Not only are the fumes toxic and explosive, but the resulting finish can take forever to cure. After well over a month, the nitro I sprayed on the Nosferatu guitar just didn't want to harden up. Every time I picked up the body, I'd leave fingerprints imbedded in the clear coat! For that reason, I decided to strip the finish all the way back to bare wood so I could start over with water-based lacquer, a finish I'm far more enthusiastic about. Here's how the process has gone so far:
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| After sanding the body to 220 grit, I brushed on some black acrylic. |
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| Next, I applied red acrylic with drips and splatters. |
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Finally, I sprayed on about 6 heavy coats of Hydrocoat Resisthane Plus
water-based lacquer. I'll wait a week or so to let the lacquer cure
before I proceed with wet sanding and the final polish. |
The nice thing about the water-based lacquer I'm using is it dries rock hard in only a couple of hours. In my experience, this stuff will cure out many times harder than nitro. Hurray for modern chemistry!
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