I refinished my Les Paul

[8d2studios]

After thinking it over and over i decided to do my first Les Paul refinish to my heavily relic Les Paul, all the stain and faded was done by hand with NO SPRAY GUNS, the lacquered finish was done with a spray can and polished by hand too, this was a 4 days work, around 16 hours total.

Hope you like it,The flames really got enhanced and i love it and think i will do nothing more to this baby........after I'm done with the back and sides.



Sanded body, ready for staining:



First stage of staining:



Final polished top:











After i used the stripping juice i was scared because the binding started melting, so i did it quickly, after that i used 150 grit dry sanding paper, then 220 and then 320.

I grabs some old t-shirts cut little pieces of it and use it as brush. The combination of the stains was tricky and i used a piece of pine to try the colors before i got it right and use it on the paul.

i spent about 2 hours total in staining the top, let it dry over the sunday night and on monday noon started spraying the lacquer, 2 good coats every 24 hours and light sanding with 2,400 grit wet sanding paper between every 24 hours, this until thursday morning where i did the final polishing with 3200, 3800, 4000, 8000, 1200 wet sand papers and a polishing paste #4 Swirl Remover from Stewart-Macdonald on a t-shirt. :

Here is a shot of the products i used for the finish.

[Heywood Jablomie]

You did WHAT???!!! Refinished a classic Gibson Les Paul????? Took a guitar worth twenty-seven-thousand-dollars and reduced it to a $14.95 piece of junk???!!! Blasphemy!!!!!

Just kidding. Looks like you did a very nice job. And you now have a LP unlike any others. Unique is good. Kudos to you!

[MichaelE]

Very nicely done. Looks great!

[marnold***]

Under normal circumstances I would have advised against that, but you did a really nice job. I think it looks great.

[Tig***]

OMG, that is a beauty! Very classy and tasteful.

All the prep work and polishing after made the difference. Well done.

[Kazz]

Very nice....do you have any before pictures?

[rylanmartin]

I would be scared to death to re-finish a Les Paul....

However, I feel I have done a very professional and convincing new finish on one of my strats... I could give you a few pointers if you wanted

[Plank_Spanker]

VERY well done!

[8d2studios]

Got some better sun light today, it makes the grain pop up.



Nico.

[Kazz]

Got some better sun light today, it makes the grain pop up.



Nico.

WOW.

[Tone2TheBone]

Were you bored? I'm guessing the original finish shown in the pics (if the pics are your guitar) didn't do it for you. I don't get it.

[Brian Krashpad]

Wow. Great job.

[peachhead***]

I dunno if I would have had the guts to do it, but it does look really nice!

[8d2studios]

New image:

[bigG]

Absolutely gorgeous, 8d! Man, that's a real work of art! :

[8d2studios]

Absolutely gorgeous, 8d! Man, that's a real work of art! :

Thank you BigG

[msteeln]

This is essentially what I'd do to every relic'd guitar out there!

That said, a friend just came back from Japan with a relic'd Edwards Les Paul that look's pretty sweet because it was done smartly (one ding and a disstressed finish) and look's real. Plus it sounds like a very good vintage LP with the light weight and Bareknuckle's in it. But I'd still prefer it as new.

[8d2studios]

Here is one that shows almost the exact color of the back and sides, i try to make it a really fade red mahogany finish.

[deeaa*]

Yep it sure looks much better now, excellent job!