Here is a thread where I post about restoring an old guitar of mine

I started this project like 10 years ago. The guitar is a mexi Strat and I wanted to strip the paint down to the wood. I tried chemically removing it but failed because the paint was actually a think export plastic like substance. I sanded the gunk off after that

So far I removed the electronics and the first big step will be using a heat gun and a chisel to remove the plastic coat

In the underside of the neck joint we can see the “fender micro adjustable” neck washer. I think it’s just a washer and a screw but it’s not in the way so we will leave it

Because it won’t be visible I might just not fuck around with removing the epoxy from the cavities. If this turns out to be breezes, I’ll do it , but they aren’t visible so who cares.

Part of the plan is to switch the pick guard and plastic components out for white pearl and white plastic components. I’m going to leave this all intact for now until I’m ready to make the transfer

I will only need to solder three wires for this, which had to be snipped to dissemble the guitar:
1. Gound, which goes to the spring holder for the tremolo
2. Power and ground which connect to the jack

Should be easy to get these reattached. There’s a decent amount of slack

One of the straps is glue in because some dumbass (me) didn’t think ahead. And you can see that the screw is a little stripped. I’ll have to go at it a bit with a pliers

The head broke off. This is kind of how I thought it would go down

Using the part of the pliers behind the fulcrum to get maximum grip on the remaining exposed screw. Show be able to extract it. We will fill this in with a little would glue before resembling so the strap screw fits snugly.

The remain screw broke too, we will just grind it down and make a parallel hole for the strap right next to it. Oh well

We have three, brand new Stanley brand chisels. I’ll be using these to scrape the epoxy off after heating it up

I’m going to have to wear pants to use the heat gun probably

The first little bit of the epoxy is coming up, but the base is black. This could be a nice surprise!

Wow, it’s sunburst underneath!

About 80% done

Calling it quits for today, I’ll take another shot tomorrow. After the epoxy is gone this is going to require a lot of sanding

Burnt garbage ass paint

Im not too worried about getting all the paint that is sitting underneath the pick guard, I should be able to get it off all the visible areas I care about

This morning I will wear a hat to keep the hair out of my face while heat gunning

Epoxy down! Probably done with the heat gun now.

The next step I’m going to drag a chisel along the grain backwards to scrap the top coat of black off the best I can. This will save a little time in the sanding stage

It’s cold out this morning so the look is soft Dutch with layers

Futch, apple is homophobic

Okay scraping done. I just watched to clear the shit that was going to immediately turn to gunk on my sand paper.

For sand paper grits we have 80, 150, 220, 320, and 400. We will use the coarsest first and move to the finer paper in order

80 done

150 and 220 done

320 and 400 done

I was going to say I am done for the day but if he dye cane, which is our next step!

*but the dye came

Dye is mixed

First coat, looks like shit but we will let it dry and apply again tomorrow

Worst case scenarios, the dye is a bust and it cost me 2.50. If I’m not happy with it I’ll buy a matte pink paint and be happy with that

After meditating on it a bit in the shower, I think paint is the way to go

Here is how the first coat came out. I think I might not mind it. And using advance 3D imaging we can see how it’d be with a pick guard

The pick guard and bridge should come today. I can probably finish the build

Nice new parts. Next step is transferring the electronics from the black pick guard to this shiny new one

To transfer the electronics, we just need to remove these 8 screws and 3 nuts and attach them to the other pick guard

The pickup covers will also get switched out, they aren’t physically attached to the pickup so it’s easy once they are free. When handling pickups it’s critical not the sever the winding. The pickup will be dead, so be careful

The pickups have little springs behind them to make pickup height adjustments possible

All together

Next up, term assembly. the pieces are a little different because the new one is an American Strat and this one is a made in Mexico Strat, but I don’t think there will be a problem

Spring holder installed. We will be soldering our ground to this in a few moments

Minor hiccup, the new bridge screws are a little bigger, the fit in the hole nice, but they are longer than the existing hole. I’m going to snip it down to size

Hmm I don’t have an appropriate snipping tool. Thinking of other solutions:

A washer would fix this
A different means of modifying the screw

Another solution is just to use the old bridge, but transplant the new string saddles. This is what Im going to do

The main difference between the two is that angle, which would theoretically let you do deeper bends but I don’t do that. My main reason for getting a new bridge is that the stock saddles were sharp and missing springs, so the intonation couldn’t be adjusted.

To do the transplant, we just need to unscrew these 6 screws and put them on the old bridge

Two things:

1. Gross, we will clean this
2. The assembly is exposed and this is two pieces. We may be able to use the fancier trem with this bridge

Saddles detached!

So, the string spacing and screw positions are different enough that they aren’t compatible, no big deal. We will just use the original trem+new saddles

Another hiccup, the saddles are designed for the string spacing of the American bridge, not the Mexican one. Doing another think

Okay, I cleaned up the old bridge and used the new springs and screws. An okay solution I guess, but overpaid for a couple of screw and springs but oh well. That’s what I get for not doing my homework

Pickguard installed

Soldering is next. But first cleaning off the old solder

We start by taking the jack out of its cowl

Soldier complete! Relatively clean and painless!

Jack and backplate installed. Next we are going to switch out the string tree

Jk lol, string tree isn’t compatible and I don’t have the appropriate tools to modify it, so we are leave the stock tree in place!

Neck attached!

I applied a fretboard conditioner and cleaned the fret board

Now strings, I’m putting on a set of d’addario 9s, nickel

Strings are on! Cosmetically, this is it. However, there is still a bit of set up needed. Up first, truss rod adjustment . Before that, the moment of truth: does it make sound?

It does! I didn’t fuck up the electronics completely! Yay!

Okay, I suspected something was wrong with the electronics and in fact the line and ground came unsoldered from volume. Should have checked before closing, it’s all rewired now.

Restrung, rewired, all good? I hope. Going to check the sound. Won’t be able to complete the set up until the strings stretch out a bit