And bringing it up to date...

Notice I'm switching to a new photo album for the refinishing process.

So last tuesday after work (we had band practice monday) I finished sanding on the inlay, and hand sanding to 220 grit in prep for grain filler. I got my little tin can of oil based grain filler out and stirred it thoroughly to get all the solids back in suspension. I made a couple inch wide scraper from a piece of 40 thou sheet plastic, donned a rubber glove and proceeded to fill the grain. I started with the neck and moved my way to the front of the body, then did the rear last. I'd run it in well with my fingers, applying it generously, let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then start scraping off the excess.

From Astro Jet Work 2

After it sat overnight, I sanded the entire surface with some 320 grit dry paper to knock the excess off and get it smooth enough for sand-sealer. I kind of expected to need two applications of grain filler, but really did not. The first seemed to do the job quite well. I used a brush, my lungs and a tack rag to get as much of the sanding ditrious off, then fashioned a hanger from a bit of heavy duty coat hanger and took it outside.

A generous wipe down with my DuPont paint prep solution degreased and cleaned it up pretty good, so I tack ragged it again and started applying sand-sealer. I'm using this stuff:

From Astro Jet Work 2

Although the can does not look like that anymore. Pick it up at Rockler here in Indy, usually using one of the weekly coupons they send out via e-mail every friday.

The first coat went OK, couple runs here and there, but a good base to work from. I let it sit overnight and all day, then sanded a bit and shot another coat on it wednesday night. Thursday after work I sat outside and used my 320 grit aluminum oxide paper to sand the whole thing down. It went well and I was happy enough with it, as well as got done early enough, I was able to clean it up well and shoot the color coats on everything before I lost sunlight. I used Stew Mac's ColorTone clear cherry for the color coats. It's got a nice Gibson heritage cherry sort of red and darkens up well with multiple coats. I applied three over the course of about a hour and a half. Only got one not too major sag on the back...certianly not bad enough to halt the refinishing.

From Astro Jet Work 2

Next step is get the Gretsch inlay masked off and shoot black on the headstock. Then remask the fret board so the binding edges are exposed and start applying clear gloss nitro. I have band practice tonight (monday) so I anticipate starting that process tuesday sometime. Only problem is it's gotten chili here again, so I don't know if it will be warm enough to paint outside....we shall see...