squier affinity p-bass: how to remove paint?

[lanark]

When I bought it, the bass had a pretty bad hole in the black finish on the reverse. Underneath it seems to be a pretty nice varnished wood finish. Would it be at all worthwhile removing the black? If so how? If not, how do I repair the black paint?

Cheers in advance for your pearls of wisdom.

[geoffbyrne]

Heat gun, sandpaper & elbow grease. Nothing else works on poly.

G.

[Cat Burrito]

The cheaper the bass though can mean the bigger horror under the paint job. It might not be a nice two piece body, I've heard of 11 bits of wood stuck together under some Squiers before - and one horror story with a Fender Custom Shop believe it or not.

That said I stripped back a 70s Fender body & it's now my main player. I'll be doing the same with a 1979 body in September. I used Nitro Mors & it took ages but was totally worth it.

[lanark]

So - it sounds like removing the paint may unearth a lot more problems than it would remove .... so what would people suggest to touch up an area about an inch square ... maybe an inch and a half, that's right down to the polished wood, with ragged edges?

[LawrenceH]

[quote name='lanark' post='939701' date='Aug 30 2010, 12:00 AM']So - it sounds like removing the paint may unearth a lot more problems than it would remove .... so what would people suggest to touch up an area about an inch square ... maybe an inch and a half, that's right down to the polished wood, with ragged edges?[/quote]

I have just stripped a polyester-coated (note that's not the same as polyurethane! But a Squier is probably polyester?) jazz with success and relative ease using a Tresemme hairdryer on maximum setting (!) and a metal paint-scraper and butterknife. Absolutely minimal damage to the body. The key is to get the poly nice and warm and this seems to soften it up, giving it enough flex to lift up in sheets off the body with gentle pressure from the scraper. I think where people go wrong is in using a heat gun which is actually too hot and melts the polyester/scorches the wood. Having said that I'm currently still in the middle of refinishing, and the painting seems less straightforward.

For touch-up, try a couple of coats of black nail polish underneath, with superglue dropped on top once dry, then smoothed level with 800 to 1500 wet'n'dry paper used wet and then rubbing compound to bring back the high gloss. I have to say I've only done this on a clear-coated bass where the grain makes it difficult to see if an edge is visible, but this would certainly make it look better than having a great big hole!