hooglebug Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 i thought people would be interested to see this, so i made a new thread for it. as some of you might well know, someone wanted me to make a neck for a body that they had chromed at a well known finishers. when the body arrived it was covered in orange peel and didnt look particularly good. but i made the neck, and when i screwed it to the body, with no more force than was necessary, the finish around the neck plate lifted. it was then i noticed that the clear coat was lifting around some screw holes too - holes which had had nothing screwed into them. so the decision was made that i would have a go at re-chroming it. first things first, stripping the old finish. i gathered myself, ready for a long day of heatgun and scraping. when in fact, all i needed was a little craft knife to dig into the clear coat, and a bit of pulling. it just peeled off. sometimes in lovely satisfying bits like this you can see a little clump of it in the humbucker route. you can also see that once exposed to the air for a while, the silver nitrate just rubs off, so no hard work there. the white base coat however (i will be using black as the system i will use requires it, maybe this one did too and thats why it didnt work so well?) is STILL soft. this is after a good few months. i cant remember how many, but its at least three or four months. so once the base coat comes off, i'll see what the primer is like under that, and if thats not still soft too, i'll just use that and sand it flat ready for spraying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 looking forward to seeing this! do you have any pictures of the body before you started working on it? curious just how bad it was Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D3adstar Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 looking forward to seeing this! do you have any pictures of the body before you started working on it? curious just how bad it was Same here, Always wanted to see the process of a guitar body being chromed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 do you have any pictures of the body before you started working on it? curious just how bad it was i thought i did but i dont. you couldnt really see much on pictures anyway. just imagine olly's but covered in orange peel, a bit duller, with bits of dust in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I will be enjoying this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phill Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I think you should name and shame the company that did it originally. Companies don't deserve protecting when they deliver a lash job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I think you should name and shame the company that did it originally. Companies don't deserve protecting when they deliver a lash job. It's pretty obvious isn't it? Also, unrelated, but is that hole for the FF switch basically the size of a hole for a control pot? maybe it's just the picture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phill Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Yeah it's obvious to us, but if someone was googling because they wanted there guitar chromed, seeing Sims written here could save them from spending a tonne of cash for a shit result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimboMansonMB-1 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag now. It was Sims that did a shitty job, Internet! Hear us proclaim it and save yourselves! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 It's pretty obvious isn't it? Also, unrelated, but is that hole for the FF switch basically the size of a hole for a control pot? maybe it's just the picture the holes are the right size now. The jack hole wasn't before I opened it out a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomrulez Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 I've heard a lot of bad things about Sims recently... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randomparrot Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Very interested to see how this comes out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly. Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 (edited) ooer will be interesting to see this take shape! Also apparently said chromers will only chrome bodies built by them. Is that the case do you know? Edited June 13, 2013 by Olly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 Well this one was from the same place you got yours I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly. Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 ah, thank fuck they denied me the chroming Hugh thought it looked ace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 The guitar Tim is building me now was originally going to be chrome, and I recall Sims had guaranteed a perfect finish I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that's what they told him. This was late last year. Pretty sure the main reason I didn't go through with it was because of the price (yes, it was that expensive) coatofchrome seems good though, but they didn't answer emails! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave. Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Isn't there a company who posted a video of them spraying chrome onto a guitar and it looks great? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 13, 2013 Author Share Posted June 13, 2013 this is a picture the guy whos guitar it is sent me which it looks like sims sent him. you can see the orange peel in the pic. the orange peel was not only on the clear coat (they hadnt flatted and buffed it) but on the undercoat too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly. Posted June 13, 2013 Share Posted June 13, 2013 Hmm that shape looks different to mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musecasters Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Hmm that shape looks different to mine lower horn seems a bit skinny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L32 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Olly was right, Sims only chome their own bodies. Hope with the reshape looks better. nothing to say about Sims. That work speak itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 well i routed and filled the neck humbucker as he wants a p90 instead. i routed out to include the screw holes as it would be easier this way than filling them seperately. after i routed out the hole, i noticed the paint was lifting, so i put my nail underneath and tried to lift it, then i got my finger in there and just pulled it off. as you can see, it came off cleanly, exposing the primer. now, the primer is so thin that it doesnt cover the grain, which is its purpose. the white base coat is rubbery, as though they have used incompatible paints. in fact, there seems to be a sealer between the primer and the white. i put a bit of the top coat in my calipers to see how thick it all is. the top clear coat is 0.16mm. the silver nitrate would be hardly measurable even if you could measure it. the primer as i say looks really thin. but the sealer and white are 0.45mm thick. so overall, the finish is at least 0.6mm, probably 0.7mm including the primer. now for those of you thinking 'well that doesnt sound so bad', on James' strat body i made, i measured the finish that came off the tape that was covering the bridge posts. now this will have had as much finish as the rest of it - sealer coat, yellow, red, brown, then top coats, and it measured at 0.13mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bs Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Pretty sure the main reason I didn't go through with it was because of the price (yes, it was that expensive) Wait, what? This is all sounding pretty interesting anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james90 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 I wasn't going to pay that for a finish that could've turned out like the guitar hooglebug was given to refinish And hooglebug, do you think what Sims is charging is actually a fair price? Doesn't sound like it's worth it, even if they did come out flawless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooglebug Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 i dont know what they're charging. the system that i got to do it was £155. thats for half a litre of everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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