restore

[bearsbyte]

In restoring my 65 Ventures I really have no choice but to refinish the body. But the hardware is in normal shape for its age. Should I rechrome or just clean up as good as possible? I think that unless I age the new body finish the old hardware is really going to stand out. Plus what is better from a collectors view? Here is the Head & date stamp. Thanks

[dubtrub]

I would refinish the body and don't do any artifical relicing as that doesn't change the fact that it's refinished. Leave everything else alone except a good cleaning and polishing. That way it still retain it's mojo. Why do you have to refinish the body?

[vibramutant1965]

you know, you would be surprised how well the metal parts will clean up. I clean everything in a carburetor type cleaner, then anything rusty goes in a liquid called evapo-rust (this will unstick the bridge rollers). Then I use simichrome to brighten the plating. Clean that off then wax everything. Dont forget to lube the trem bearings and string rollers (silicone grease).

[bearsbyte]

When I got it, even though it was only 2yrs old the 1st owner had painted over the original white with multi colored black light paint. ( it was the 60's after all). In 69 I was painting my motorcycle and had some left over metallic blue paint, so I stripped it and it's been that till now. It looked ok from a distance & who thought I'd still have it? So I thought I should give it back a little respect.

[bearsbyte]

Here's the tail & a pickup. I put the white on the pickup lettering, I always thought it looked better but I guess I'll remove it. I'll work on all the chrome with the stuff mentioned & see how it looks. Thanks

[JimPage]

Hey, Bearsbyte--

When I bought my '72 Celebrity Mosrite from Dennisthe Menace (forum member), it had that whitened lettering on the neck pickup, and a smooth pickup for the bridge one.

Bob Shade was nice enough to give me and install a Mosrite pickup for the bridge that matched the neck one, and he put some white paint or something in its logo and lettering to match the other pickup. I stained the "new" lettering with tea to match the aged paint in the original pickup when I got it home.

I think it looks nice that way, and it's easily removed if the mood strikes you to do that.

--Jim

[bearsbyte]

I thought I should post a before pic, so I just laid the parts back on for a before shot.

[panther]

If the photo of the blue guitar is the one you are referring to it looks pretty nice to me.
Dan

[Brian]

Like everyone else said, just clean up the metal parts. The chroming process is different now than it was in the 60's, so it'll look different. Was original Mosrite stuff even chromed or just nickle plated?

What color are you thinking?