Finally, the paint arrived, and coincided with a couple of days of nice weather! Here are the re-ranch paints I got. Note that I didn't buy the yellow from the sunburst kit as the guitar body already had the yellow base. I bought black, three color edge, clear, and Fender Neck Amber, which I used when finishing the neck.
So, picking up where I left off, I wanted a smoother transition from black to red. I made a cardboard trace of the body and cut out a rough of the area where I didn't want black. Holding this an inch or so off the body while I sprayed the black allowed me to protect the center of the burst without having a solid edge to the paint. I held the can over the center of the body and painting in an outward direction, the same way I did the three color edge.
Here's the result on the back. I got the mask a bit too close to the body on the top curve so the line there is more solid then I wanted, but decided it was't worth the effort to sand it out and do over. I shot a couple of coats of clear and let it dry.
While the body was drying I taped off the neck fretboard and got it together. First I sprayed two coats of Fender Neck Amber, and then about half a dozen coats of clear. Keep in mind, I laid the paint on heavy, not thin the way you're supposed to, mainly because I'm impatient and lack subtlety.
Here's the neck with the tint and clear coat.
After the body dried, I took on the front. Here's the body as I started.
Here's the body with the mask on top.
After the first round of color. Note that on the top, the german carve goes all the way around, except at the inside of the horns. So. without thinking, I used the same positioning of the mask as over the carve, and got a really thick band. I should have stopped and sanded it out, but being in a rush, I decided to just do a thicker band of black.
Here's the thicker band. On the positive side, the dowel repair is pretty well masked.
After the black I shot more three color edge to smooth the transition. Where the three color edge is a very forgiving paint as it goes on very light on each pass, the black is very heavy and comes out dark on a single pass so you have to be very careful with it. I imagine that with a proper air brush you can get more control on the black, but I did what I could.
At the end of the day I shot a bunch of clear coats on the front of the guitar to prep for buffing.
