how the project came together

NECK, NUT & FRETS

I sanded all the old finish off. It took an hour or so, including reshaping behind the nut for more vintage-like look. I reprofiled the frets, fitted a bone nut and rolled the fingerboard edges. The neck took a can of tinted nitro lacquer, which I then flatted with 2000-grade ultra-fine wet-or-dry and buffed to a light sheen with a cloth before fitting a replacement decal.

STRIPPING THE BODY

Polyester is a nightmare to remove at home. Having been quoted silly money to do it professionally, I bought a £10 heat gun and, taking the necessary safety precautions, had the lot off and was cleared up in 15 minutes. Result!

SANDING & PRIMING

Using 80 grit, I reshaped the body’s forearm contour and rounded all edges to be more vintage accurate, going down the grades to 240. I then sealed it using nitro sanding sealer, flatted that with 600-grade and applied white primer.

FINAL COATS & BUFF

As I was not going to clear-lacquer over the Arctic White, I sanded mega flat using 600 w-o-d between sprays. The final coat simply needed a light sand with 2000-grade. I let it harden for a few days then buffed it to a light sheen with Farecla G3 rubbing compound and a dry cloth.

PAINTS & STUFF

1x can vintage amber: £12.99 1x can sanding sealer: £12.99 1x can white primer: £12.99 2x cans Arctic White: £24.98 Mixed wet-or-dry: £5.99 Halfords: Farecla G3 compound: £8.99 Homebase: XUI 2000W heat gun, 240 grit sanding sheets: £14.00

TOTAL: £92.93 PARTS PRICES...

Bare Knuckle ’63 set with zinc-coated underplate (bridge): £238 Aged, pre-wired pickguard: £125 BKP vintage vibrato: £160 Charles Guitars aged parts: £47 Gotoh aged tuners: £55.95

TOTAL: £625.95