Paint removal?

[SuspiciousMinds]

I have the body off a black squier affinity telecaster, which is pretty heavily damaged, .
So, i'm going to remove the paint and either stain or varnish the wood (haven't decided yet), then build it as a project.
Would paint stripper be sufficient to remove the finish off it?

[WezV]

nah, dont do it

the wood wont be great, if it is actually solid and stripping these guitars is a pain in the ass. paint stripper wont touch it and it will be very thick

but dont be put off refinishing it, flat it off and fill any damage in the existing finish and you can still do a solid colour refin for a lot less effort

[mrerikryman]

+1 on that - Wez is totally right. You can spend more on finish-removal-gubbins than it would cost to buy a new unfinished body that is probably of better quality anyway...

[axisus]

Yup I agree with the others. I bought a squier body a few years back. Paint remover did virtually nothing, and a blow torch made it bubble up but still REFUSE to be removed! Been in the garage ever since ...

[stickyfiddle]

I stripped a strat body with a handheld electric sander. If it hadn't already had an extra finish over the poly (and been part of the £100 challenge!) I wouldn't have bothered-it's a huge amount of work to get it sorted properly for a refin.

[Deadman]

+1 to all of the above. I tried dichloromethane paint stripper (used to strip the paint off aeroplanes) and even a plastic bead blasting cabinet. The poly on these doesn't shift.
Flat it off with a sander as suggested (be careful not to re-profile the body, especially on the edges and in and around the horns, do this by hand only) and do a solid (or even metallic) refin. If you need any pointers, just ask.

[RobDavies]

Funnily enough I did the very same thing this afternoon.

Took about an hour and a half to completely strip an old Squier Strat of it's thick black finish using a heat gun and a scraper.

The wood is a bit shoddy underneath but I'm gonna give it to a fella I know who owns a car paint spraying place and before long, my long planned Bananacaster will be born.

[SuspiciousMinds]

Thanks for the advice guys, sandpaper it is then!

[bochetagrave]

Funnily enough I did the very same thing this afternoon.

Took about an hour and a half to completely strip an old Squier Strat of it's thick black finish using a heat gun and a scraper.

The wood is a bit shoddy underneath but I'm gonna give it to a fella I know who owns a car paint spraying place and before long, my long planned Bananacaster will be born.

You wanna get that on the bay with some story about finding it in a barn, or summat...

[stonevibe]