How to turn a Gloss finish into Satin?

[Holy Schnikes]

Whew. I saw the semi-long post, and immediately thought disaster.

It's kind of freaky at first, taking a sander to a perfectly good (and expensive) guitar. Once you get past the initial nerves, it is a really fun, rewarding project.

I can't wait to see some pics!

Mike

Btw, what kinda wax/polish did you go with Mike?

Yeah, I won't lie, had a little sick to my stomach feeling after first starting and seeing those initial, unpleasant results. Once you get comfortable with the sander and establish a technique/feel for it tho, everything goes pretty smoothly and it starts looking really good really fast.

A practice instrument would be ideal but I got lucky and figured things out early on. You'd have to go heavy to burn through the poly on mine but edges require MAX caution. Luckily I read that part beforehand.

[Mike]

Btw, what kinda wax/polish did you go with Mike?

On the Agile, I followed the plastic wool with Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound, and then used Mothers Carnauba Cleaner Wax. Cleaner wax has a bit of polish in it to smooth small scratches.

On the Cyclone, I went straight from the plastic wool to Meguiar's Scratch-X 2.0, and then cleaner wax. It left a bit more visible scratches, which looked good to me on a black instrument. It's probably from skipping the rubbing compound, which worked well. One thing to note is that Scratch-X contains silicone, and therefore is not "body shop safe." That means that if the polish reaches the bare wood, you probably won't ever be able to repaint it in the future.

For polishing, I used a buffing attachment on my drill for the curves, and the sander w/ soft cotton cloth.I did the final couple of coats by hand.

Mike

[Holy Schnikes]

Thanks!