Would it be too much to ask for a breakdown of steps? That end result is just absurdly awesome.
Sure thing, I'll try to remember certain details.
Very first thing was to find a guitar that checked all the boxes. For me it needed to be a CU22 (or CU24), with bird inlays, a tremolo bridge, was relatively cheap, and would ideally be in a color that I didn't care for so I wouldn't feel bad about what I was about to do to it. I found this one for $1,200. I've never been the biggest fan of cherry sunburst, though I have to admit it was much prettier in person.
1) Break the guitar down, removing all hardware and un-soldering electronics connections. To keep track of screws and nuts and such I took a lot of photos and placed components into individual ziploc bags.
2) Tape off the fretboard. I used blue painters masking tape, it wasn't too tacky as to cause damage to the inlays. I also covered up the bottom of the pickup cavities to keep the original barcode.
3) Sand all the surfaces. I don't recall what grits I used but I think I started off pretty conservatively but eventually moved up to a 180 or 220 to get some of the clearcoat off before I finished with (I think) 320. Obviously there was a lot of vacuuming to keep the area clean of particulates.
4) Around 1:43 in the video I show where I filled in a couple little chips with some wood filter which I sanded flush. I don't recall why those chips developed but this fix worked.
5) Tape off the exposed natural binding. I watched a great video from someone at the PRS factory on how to do this, though I didn't have that thin 1/4" tape they did so I just sliced it with a new razorblade. I also taped off the truss rod adjustment nut.
6) Spray with black primer. I used matte black automotive primer and did two very thin layers.
7) Sand primer. The nature of the colorshift paint is that it needs a black undercoat, so I had to be careful not to sand it away on the edges where the paint lays on thinly, otherwise I would have been left with areas that appear pink in the end instead of blue/purple.
8) Apply color shift paint. I used Rust-Oleums Galaxy color shifting spray paint, and I believe I put on 4 coats. I allowed it to dry for about 2 hours between coats. I kept the guitar indoors where it was warm and so the dust outside wouldn't get into the finish. I had plastic covering all of the walls and furniture and a fan stuck in the window blowing the fumes out. Sort of worked.
* Note - prior to spraying I would put the paint cans into a pot of warm water to heat them up a little which helped it to spray on more finely.
9) I allowed the color shift paint to dry for about a week, it was a test of patience to avoid touching it.
10) Remove binding tape. I did this very carefully so the paint edge wouldn't rip and cleaned up any ragged edges with a razor.
11) Apply clear coat. I don't recall the exact product I used, but it wasn't nitro, I had read that this was tricky to apply over this paint for some reason. I applied 4-5 thin coats. The factory tour videos were helpful to gauge the speed and angles of application.
12) I let the clearcoat dry for a couple weeks. I didn't see a need to later do a topcoat and treat this as a base coat.
13) Remove the tape protecting the fretboard. I oiled the fretboard because it looked as though the tape may have drawn some out and it was looking a little dry.
13) Wet sanding. I started with 1000, then sanded with 1500 and finished with 2000 grit paper.
14) Final buffing. I used Turtle Wax automotive rubbing compound first and followed that with a fine polish compound. I used separate foam pads that attached to my drill for each step. I used a microfiber towel by hand to get into narrow places.
15) Re-apply signature decal. This might be blasphemous, but I had to order a metal decal off eBay from Russia (which strangely arrived in just 2 days). I wasn't able to procure a "sanctioned" signature decal from the factory unless I sent it back to them and the finish was original or being redone by them. I hadn't factored this in originally and close watchers will see me sanding the old one off in the video. In the end though it worked out just fine, only thing missing is the tiny ®.
16) Re-assembly. This was pretty straightforward, and I got to swap out the older saddles for new gold ones, change the knobs to the clear lampshades, and install drop-in electronics from PRS that gave me a push/pull coil split option. The pickups are the Seymour Duncan Mark Holcomb Alpha/Omega set.
17) Set-up time. The videos that PRS put on YouTube regarding the trussrod, action, intonation, pickup height, etc. were super helpful.
I think that's everything I did. If I were to change anything I would like to have added a gloss black coat underneath the color shift and probably reduce my color shift coats to 2 or 3.
I'd also like to figure out what the ideal clear coat formula would be to use over this paint, which I think was an epoxy base??? So if anyone has thoughts on this let me know please. I feel the one I applied could have cured harder.
