1968 Stratocaster - resurrection

[GrantB]

One of our own asked me to bring a tired ‘68 Strat back to life. It had great tone but was barely playable and had the paint job from heck. I’ll outline a bit of the journey.

What was done - refret (without removing any wood), nut etc, strip and refinish in glass-hard nitro, set up.
Old paint removal and prepping the body took a HUGE amount of time. Then the weather was a challenge, and what should have been a 2 month finish job took maybe 4. During summer we had very few days of 55% or less humidity. And when we did, I wasn’t able to spray. I want nitro to be rock hard so it will age naturally, like the originals. Can’t do that with higher humidity.

Let’s start with the finished product. I’ll add more photos later.

[Jay]

great finish

[Lostininverness]

Very noice!

[olegmcnoleg]

Oh yeah!

[Molly]

That finish is mint. Great job, Grant.

[codedog]

That's a very classy Strat! Great work!

[Cdog]

Wow.. Gorgeous! Nice work

[Bg]

Like a mirror, well done buddy!
Now relic it.... or nah let's not.

[robthemac]

Fantastic work. I'm battling the humidity with less success. Will let you know how the end result is regardless!

[GrantB]

Here what we started with

[GrantB]

Very very thick nitro clear, over 2 pack car Fiesta Red type colour, over remnants of Fullerplast.

The nitro burnt at the hint of the heat gun, the 2 pack was stocky n hard and almost impossible to move, and the Fullerplast...well, that along with cockroaches will survive our nuclear end.

[GrantB]

And underneath the wood was chipped, cracking and separating.

[GrantB]

Shoot - I'll resize these from now on...large photos.

[GrantB]

Note the S in the cavities? This was a sunburst.

[GrantB]

The fretboard has been worked over to around 6" radius. Which is strangely comfortable to play.