Swirl painting a guitar

symphx

Fractal Fanatic
Hello all, Ive read nearly everything I can find on this topic. My thought is to buff the clear coat off an old guitar, prime it then swirl paint. Looks easy, sounds hard. My biggest fear:

Type of paints and products. Seems some gurus on line use a borox method, others simply thin down oil paints.

what type of paint to use? seems has to be oil based (enamel I guess) or will mix with water. Then one guy online says oil enamels are for metal only, will never dry, will be thick and stick and even be able to dent 10 years later with light pressure:

The final question is if one uses oil enamel what type of glossy spray on coat can I use, apparently this can either ruin the paint or keep it from ever drying.

ANYONE DO THE ABOVE, ANY EXPERIENCE AT ALL? thanks. even advice on non swirl spray paints, and gloss covers.
 
Maybe you've already seen these, but there's a builder that was posting videos of swirling to document and share his research, I guess. The YouTube channel is TheBigDGuitars, I think. His results aren't necessarily awesome, but he talks about the paints and such. Here's a link to an "overview" video he posted:
Overview of my Swirling Tests Dipping Guitar Body luthier using Magic Marble, Humbrol, Testors - YouTube

Hopefully there's some helpful insight there. And yeah, the process looks deceptively simple.

Edit: it must be too early to spell stuff properly
 
Awesome guys Ive seen your vids many times! cool to put a name with a face so to speak , I will PM many or all of you, appreciated. One real quickie, what to use as a base coat I was thinking of basically a colored primer, or coloring my own primer, or painting and scuffing. ( I will scuff my original (not to the wood ) but I want the base yellow with black swirls. I want it real real real ferrari or corvette yellow and am worried the black may gray out or muddie up the yellow; or I wont get a thick yellow base.

so what primer to use? should I prime with gray, add a spray of yellow then swirl in black and yellow, or even anyone swirl ONE COLOR, IE BLACK? just to not confuse the base of yellow?
 
Cool man.

Yes, I suggest a colored primer. Something flat. Most swirls I've seen use white, but some use a much lighter shade of the over all color they want. So, for a cool marbled black and green, I saw a guy use a very pale/light green base coat. Turned out killer. So, TEST, TEST, TEST. Each color pops differently on a different color base. You'll be amazed at the difference it makes.

For primer I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X 12-oz. Flat Gray Primer General Purpose Spray Paint. For the base coat of white, I also used another primer; KILZ 13-oz. White Oil-Based Interior Primer, Sealer and Stain-Blocker.

When you do paint a fresh base coat, you'll need to sand it, but don't make it too fine. IIRC, the finest grit paper i used was 600 and it was wet sanded. BECAREFUL when sanding the corners to get the orange peel off (as user MGW instructed me) b/c it'll bite through quick. Be gentle, go slow, and enjoy the process.

I highly suggest spraying your own base coat and not to use the pre-existing "scuffed" coat. You'll get much better results with a well prepped and uniform surface. You make that surface too smooth and your paint will run. You make the paint too thick (like mine was on the back) and your paint will run.

EDIT: Also, if you want to watch someone with STELLAR technique, then check out MrDean2005 on youtube. I took a lot of inspiration from his videos.
 
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