In the process of refinishing my Kiesel HH2... AGAIN.

[LexMentis]

I'm somewhat of a DIYer and relatively crafty, so I got bored and decided to refinish my Kiesel HH2 for a second time. Some of you might remember this thread: My Kiesel HH2 build - Am I wrong to be a little bit disappointed?

I saw a video of a car that I thought was totally gorgeous and decided to copy the steps shown in this video for a similar result:




Anyway, here's the progress so far:



Some might think this is crazy, but that's alright. It's a guitar. I'm having fun. I've always got creative juices flowing and it's a good creative outlet for me. I really enjoy this stuff and I might even refinish it again years down the road. Who knows. I've been getting pretty comfortable with it. I also have a Deluxe Telecaster of mine that I'm working on to prepare for sale.

Keep in mind that the lighting and camera differences make the shades of red look very different, but they are the exact same product. I'll be sure to post more when it's finished. I have a couple more coats of red candy to do, then a coat or two of clear with a little red mixed it, then final coats of clear. It'll look much closer to the car. Should have a lot of depth to it.

 

[mlp187]

That’s awesome. I want to do this to a couple of my guitars but with the Mazda red metallic. However, I am chicken shit.

Nice work so far!

 

[Shawn]

That came out awesome. Nice work.

 

[LexMentis]

Much appreciated!

 

[Pingu]

That’s awesome. I want to do this to a couple of my guitars but with the Mazda red metallic. However, I am chicken shit.

Nice work so far!

No way! Crazy you mention that!
For the past few weeks every time I walk past one of those red Mazdas I think that to myself.
It's something about how that red fades to black so dramatically with the light. I still can't figure it out lol...

 

[kriff]

Holy shit dude. Another bold move. Let's see if it pays off as well as the first one! Looking forward to seeing the finished pics.

 

[LexMentis]

Holy shit dude. Another bold move. Let's see if it pays off as well as the first one! Looking forward to seeing the finished pics.

I'll keep you all posted! Thanks!

 

[LexMentis]

Some progress shots:


Stained the fretboard to make it darker ebony. Wasn't a fan of the streaks. I dried it out with isopropyl alcohol and then rubbed in some black stain (stewmac brand). No sanding was needed.



Prepped for base-coat. The previous finish is preserved underneath just in case, but will probably never see the light of day again anyway.



Black base



Gold flake at maybe 85-90% coverage.

 

[Concerto412]

Nice work, can’t wait to see the finished product. Your rework of the faded denim finish looked excellent, but gold flake under red has great potential too - the Alfa Disco Volante 8c comes to mind.

Your in progress reel has a hint of Ibanez Crushed Ruby to it, looks great so far!

 

[LexMentis]

Nice work, can’t wait to see the finished product. Your rework of the faded denim finish looked excellent, but gold flake under red has great potential too - the Alfa Disco Volante 8c comes to mind.

Your in progress reel has a hint of Ibanez Crushed Ruby to it, looks great so far!

Thank you!

 

[LexMentis]

Mazda red metallic.

I just looked that up, and I am seriously reconsidering my choice. This and the Tesla ultra red are gorgeous. I'm starting to lean more towards something like this. I'm going to finish this paint job and see how I like it, but this definitely has me second-guessing.

edit: Yeah, it's pretty likely that I'm going to ditch this and do the Mazda soul red. Already looked up the steps involved. That's gorgeous. I think a brighter red will look nicer with the silver pickup covers as well, rather than a darker finish that I'm currently doing. We'll see.

 

[spudmunkey]

hopefully yours would be way less chip-prone than Mazda's Soul Red. It's bad enough it turned me off from it after being 100% positive my next car was going to be red, but ended up with dark grey.

 

[narad]

Damn that looks great, but the gold flake is really doing it for me.

 

[budda]

Damn that looks great, but the gold flake is really doing it for me.

Gold metallic never fails. Nice work OP.

 

[LexMentis]

Gold metallic never fails. Nice work OP.

Thanks! Hopefully the finished product will be good. Still waiting on some more red to come in the mail. Got delayed in transit.

 

[LexMentis]

Thankfully, if I decide to go with the Mazda red, all I'll need to do is sand it all back and spray a copper metallic base (which I can get a spray can of for $20) and then just used the red and clear that I already have on top of that. That's the basic formula for that red.

 

[LexMentis]

Finished product:



Going to be reassembling it shortly, and then I'll post some more pics after. Pretty satisfied with the result.