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.