Best way to buff out orange peel finish on Hamer

[ZR]

This is a 96 model so it has the later finish not the regular real laquer as before.

[serial]

Get some Micro Mesh sandpaper (grits are #400-#12.000). Great stuff. You can start with lower grit numbers if the #400 isn't doing the job, just sand LIGHTLY. By the time you hit the #12,000, the gloss will be higher than with liquid polish if done right.

[silentman]

Does anyone have a pic of this phenomenon? I think i know what it is, but would like a visual.... Can you snap a pic ZR?

[BCR Greg]

Expect a Bench Report on this after my vacation in July. I have 10 or 15 repairs that have been shot for reports, of varying degrees of insanity. They will all be put on the structural page or vintage restoration page or the modifications page.

I have not had time to assemble the reports, but have used up two full media cards of pics.

Serial, being a regular visitor, has seen some of this stuff. I am nuts.

[ZR]

I'll try later when the tech guru of the house gets back home (my 12 year old daughter!!). It's hard to take pics of it sometimes but I'll give it a shot. Basically looks kind of like the texture of an orange peel but not really that severe (at least not in this case) or like the texture of a rolled latex wall in your house. In our family business (high-end residential paint contracting) we have HVLP (high volume low pressure) spray systems to achieve an ultra smooth finish. We also have high pressure airless sprayers that can pump out larger quantities of paint much faster but without as much precision. The airless is like a pressure washer but with paint (well not that extreme!) and the HVLP is a larger hose under low pressure that just kinda fogs the finish on with ultra fine particles of finish. Kinda like opening your mouth and breathing out as if you were going to fog a window w/ your breath and write crude things about bands you hate! Anyway, the finish on my Daytona looks more like an airless finish than HVLP. So sorry to ramble like that. It was a stream of consciousness thing. Imagine that, a republican like me with a conscious (!!). ; )

Anyway, my '89 laquer finished Chap Custom does not have any peel and I just buffed it out with polish and really made it shine. I love real laquer as I think it has a cool tendency to be real thin, lay down flat and kinds sink into the guitar wood so that some of the grain can be seen. That may not be a clear description but I'm sure some of you know what I mean. When I look at an angle at the Chap I can see the waviness of the grain showing through the finish. Not like a freshly planed piece of wood but more like a natural piece of wood. Kind of like the wood has settled into it's new life as a guitar (takes a few year to do this from what I've seen).

The Daytona finish looks more like a Fender to me. I must say though that the later style finish on my Sunburst Archtop Tremelo I sold to Rocket Syntist (no word on him yet anyone??) was spectacular!!

[ZR]

Looked at my Daytona again and you can see the waviness of the grain thing on the back of the guitar like I described above so apparently it's not as thick as I thought it was (good). The funny thing is the back of the guitar looks smoother (less orange peel) and has more of that thin finish look to it while the front of the guitar looks thicker with more orange peel (bad). I wonder if the back was buffed more at the factory thereby removing a slight bit more finish than the front. That might explain the slightly thicker,

and rougher look on the front.

[Stike]

To get rid of the orange peel you'll need to do some sanding, buffing alone won't get it. I've never used the Micro Mesh papers, they seem to be more for repair work and I pretty much do production stuff. If you can find it locally micron graded sanding discs from 3M are the absolute shit. Wet sand with a stiff rubber blockgoing from 20u to 15u. Follow up with some 3M or Meguires(2 then7 usualy does it) compounds. If you cant find the micron discs a trip to your local auot body supply will get you some good wet sanding paper, I'd start with around 800-1000 and go up thru maybe 1500.

Now the big warning, that finish was applied with a shedule of 3 coats, level sand, and repeat that twice, or is it 4 coats 3 times? Anyway since it is a catylized finish each round of finish is mechaniclly bonded to the sanded surface below, not "burned" in like a lacquer so if you sand through that final round of clears into the previous layer there will be a very distinct spot called a witness line. It's uglier than orange peel and a requires MAD skillz to fix. I'd rather buzz the whole thing with 280 grit and reclear than try to fix one.

[ZR]

Now, I'm scared, seriously!