NGD & Refinish Combo Thread: Charvel Predator

[nojyeloot]

Picked this gem up on Easter weekend (MIJ, '89-'91, I believe). Didn't care for the Candy Red paint, or the hardware for that matter, so I did a little face lift on it . This will be picture heavy.

Original Hardware:

• Licensed Speedload Trem
• EMG 81
• EMG SA
• 250k pot (super loose roll)

New Hardware:

• Floyd Rose Special
• Big Brass Block
• High Tension/Noiseless Springs (from fu.com)
• DiMarzio Tone Zone (metal black cover)
• DiMarzio Air Norton S
• 500k pot (from ibanezrules.com)

The plan: strip the body's paint (with a heat gun), stain it, and finish it with tung oil, then sand off the finish on the neck and re-finish it with tung oil as well.

Before pics:


Daylight pics


Love this scoop


Progress pix up next.

 

[nojyeloot]

One of my other projects in the background (that will be updated soon)


Needed to do a reroute for the neck pickup to accommodate the single coil flange. I could've bought a flange-less pickup, but I really like the Caparison Horus look.


Used a heat gun and a 1.5" spackler to remove the red paint. This part was surprisingly and blessedly easy. I've heard some guys having a real time of this, but that wasn't the case for me. It was fun, only took about 45mins. Be careful here, as you can burn the wood. Thankfully, I didn't.


Unfortunately, the white base coat/grain filler didn't come off with the heat gun. So all this white will have to be sanded off.


Painted cavities

 

[nojyeloot]

Used my orbital sander (220 grit) on the body. Not going for perfection, so if it bites a bit too deep in places, that's OK. It'll add to the final look I'm going for.

Discovered they used a nicer than expected veneer on the top (and back) of the glued together pieces.






Cleaned up/wiped down the surface with this


Starting to look good. I had smoothed it out with some 600 grit paper.




Next step is staining.

 

[nojyeloot]

Had some of this laying around from some furniture my wife and I made. Always loved walnut

2 coats of ^this stuff




While the body was drying outside in the sun, I had stripped the neck, and started to apply the first (of 8 or so) super thin coats of tung oil.


When the body dried, I applied the first (of 13 or so) super thin coats of tung oil. It dried so fast outside that I just kept applying it b/c it looked better and better.


Reassembly and hardware install next.

 

[ApteraBassist]

Hey right on! looks like it came out looking a lot like mine. the bevel part on the back looks a little dark?

 

[nojyeloot]

Hey right on! looks like it came out looking a lot like mine. the bevel part on the back looks a little dark?

Dang straight.

Yessir, that's where I bit in a little deep with the orbital sander. I was kinda going for that "road worn" look, not really knowing how dramatic it'd be though. The back is actually my favorite part.

 

[ApteraBassist]

haha yeah the back ended up being my favorite part of mine too

 

[nojyeloot]

Installing pups




Everything was going great until this happened: Was replacing the anchors (old ones were chewed up) and the bushings started spinning. So, I pulled them out and after asking around, decided to put some dowels in the cavities, and redrill for some brand new anchor bushings I had laying around (thankfully)








Epoxied the new bushings in the cavity.


Had to grind down one of the anchor posts a bit, since I couldn't lower it enough. There may have been some seepage in the bottom of the bushing, though we sealed the bottom.


Full assembly pics coming soon. Need to go take some with a good camera.