How to Remove a Guitar's Paint Job
Removing the paint from a guitar is a slow, painstaking process. Plan on taking an entire day to strip the paint away from a guitar's body, and do not rush any step of the process. If you rush the job, you can end up with a guitar with unintentional ridges and indentations, which will ruin the look.
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Things You'll Need
- Screwdriver
- Particle mask
- Palm sander
- 50- or 60-grit sandpaper
- 120-grit sandpaper
- 180-grit sandpaper
- Air compressor
- Dowel
- Wood sealer
Instructions
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1
Unscrew and remove the bridge, pickups, saddle, switches and knobs and other hardware. Remove the neck from the guitar. You should have only the guitar's body to work on.
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2
Put on a particle mask to avoid breathing in paint dust. Alternately, sand your guitar outside where the dust can blow away.
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3
Lightly sand the guitar body with a palm sander with a 50- or 60-grit paper until the wood starts to come through. Tilt the guitar down to let paint dust fall off and use an air compressor or hair dryer to blow dust off the palm sander when it builds up.
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4
Wrap 50- or 60-grit sandpaper around a piece of dowel to sand down the horn and any other curved areas you can't access with the palm sander. Blow accumulated dust off the sand paper as in Step 3.
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5
Repeat Steps 3 and 4 with 120-grit sandpaper. Continue gently sanding the guitar until all the paint is gone.
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6
Sand the guitar with 180-grit sandpaper as in Step 3 and 4 until it is perfectly smooth and glossy. If you find an area that will not get smooth, leave it and move on.
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7
Apply a thin layer of wood sealer to any area that would not get completely smooth and leave it to dry according to the directions. Sand the wood sealer down with 180-grit sand paper until it is smooth.
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Tips & Warnings
Do not sand inside the body cavity. The cavity will have a special shielding paint for the electronics inside, and should be left alone.
References
- Photo Credit Guitar player #1 image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com
