Grain Filling - Part II

The body is back in reasonable shape by sanding with 100 and up to 220 grit sandpaper. At one point during the process I wiped it down with naphtha and found more scratch marks so I continued sanding. The rear of the body has quite a bit of filler in the pores from my previous attempt. It looks good but the sanding has opened new pores and it needs to be filled again.

For the washcoat I followed Dan Erlewine's advice from my copy of "The Guitar Player Repair Guide" and used one part lacquer to three parts thinner for the washcoat, which I brushed on -- twice. The Deft gloss brushing lacquer and Klean-Strip lacquer thinner don't mix well -- I had to shake the solution every couple of minutes while applying it since it separated out pretty fast.

Thats the thinner on the top. Most of the solids in the lacquer settle to the bottom and form the yellow layer.



I mixed up more filler. Shown below is the Minwax ebony stain, the Bartley's natural paste wood filler (grain filler). The cup in the foreground contains a spoonful of the filler mixed with about 20 drops of the stain.



Here's the body before grain filling...




Shown below is the progress after two coats of the grain filler. The horizontal streaks are from scraping the grain filler off of the surface after it glazes over. Some filler is left on the surface and will get sanded off later.




This is the body after sanding...




And some pics of the body after getting a coat of lacquer to lock in the grain filler...








I'll be applying a translucent blue color coat later in the process...

Ken