Urethane / Poly Removal

[andrewsrea]

Like others, I've struggled in the past to remove thick, chemically cured finishes like urethane and polyester.

I am going to refinish my Squire Jazz Bass which I believe to be a poly finish. My idea is to:

1.) Heat gun, immediately followed by blasts of compressed air (which is very cold) to begin cracking the finish.
2.) Exploit what I can with a putty knife and a luthier's joint knife, without adding additional gouges.
3.) Mask the neck pocket and then, paint stripper, which says it is for urethanes.
4.) Sanding.
5.) Swelling. 1st: using a water dropper, a wet sponge and a very hot soldering iron in the divots. causes the wood to swell. 2nd: spritz the entire body with water & then gently heat with a heat gun. This swells all the wood and opens the pores.
6.) Scuff sand and nitro-vinyl seal.

Has anyone tried this?

What has been your most effective way to strip a guitar?

[toomanycats]

Like others, I've struggled in the past to remove thick, chemically cured finishes like urethane and polyester.

I am going to refinish my Squire Jazz Bass which I believe to be a poly finish. My idea is to:

1.) Heat gun, immediately followed by blasts of compressed air (which is very cold) to begin cracking the finish.
2.) Exploit what I can with a putty knife and a luthier's joint knife, without adding additional gouges.
3.) Mask the neck pocket and then, paint stripper, which says it is for urethanes.
4.) Sanding.
5.) Swelling. 1st: using a water dropper, a wet sponge and a very hot soldering iron in the divots. causes the wood to swell. 2nd: spritz the entire body with water & then gently heat with a heat gun. This swells all the wood and opens the pores.
6.) Scuff sand and nitro-vinyl seal.

Has anyone tried this?

What has been your most effective way to strip a guitar?

image.png

I know that one of the points of doing this is to get to the bare wood, apply nitro, and let it breathe like a vintage instrument does. But getting that polyurethane off is a major PITA. That's why I've always used method 6) listed above. Scuff sand and paint. With the new color it's almost like having a new guitar.

[nomadh]

I sanded 1 guitar body after chemical stripper both completely failed and somehow took a chunk of wood with it. I'm still not done. And if I were it would still have a chunk of wood missing.
Heat gun sounds good to me. Only if you want a wood grain finish. Otherwise [mention]toomanycats[/mention] scuff and repaint.

[Gergo]

Hate being a party pooper, but my general rule of thumb is that if it has a thick poly coating on it, then don't even think about it and enjoy the finish it already has

[honyock]

heat gun was not my favorite method of the two SX strats I stripped. I don't think the compressed air will be cold enough to do anything that the heat gun won't do on it's own unless you are talking canned air duster turned upside down so the liquid comes out. I didn't quite know what I was doing so mine got a little scorched.

Aircraft stripper worked better for me, but in hind site, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze. The original amber finish should have been left as is. Green tint was from 1st attempt to paint and I didn't like the color. Ended up going to the Sonic Blue from the Terminator Cobras.

[andrewsrea]

I am doing a solid color, so am not worried about a little scorching. Poly is a PITA for sure!

[RockYoWorld]

I only tried refinishing 1 guitar. It had a thick poly. I ended up sanding it off. The guitar had sharp angles on the edges and I ended up rounding it off nicely. The refinish itself went well with a bunch of layers of Tung Oil, but I messed up the wood around the nut trying to get it out and then messed up drilling new post holes for the bridge when I tried to convert it to a Floyd trem since I could put a locking nut on it. It's just an art piece with a story now.

Before

After 1

After 2

After 3

[mozz]

For $129 plus shipping i would go this route, it's alder too. You could then sell or keep the other body.
https://reverb.com/item/29715917-jazz-b ... der-hbd-41

[Mossman]

Save yourself some trouble... I've tried all manner of finish removal, and I'm with [mention]toomanycats[/mention] with this one. If it's going to be a solid color, just scuff the finish with 220 grit sandpaper and paint right over it.

[Rollin Hand]

I am on board with the scuff and paint crowd as well. I realise that part of it is the experience of doing it, but still, it's a Squier, so it probably isn't the sexiest wood in the world under that poly.