carlsim Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 So I began the process of repairing the Xotic I have been banging on about in the 'repairs and technical' section... Just spent about 40 mins stripping the bass down to the body and from there you can get a much better idea of the damage. Luckily, there is no structural issues (I was concerned that there might be some cracks in the control cavity but luckily there are none). Thanks to @Andyjr1515 for the advice, I will be starting off tomorrow with a heat gun and scraper around the damaged area to see how that comes away, and possibly a bit of sanding to gauge how thick the primer is! Softly and gently she goes! I will say that if the neck pocket is anything to go by, I could have a nice lump of wood so would be willing to put the effort in if the wood underneath looks good. Will report back tomorrow! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted August 31, 2022 Author Share Posted August 31, 2022 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 (edited) Fingers crossed... Natural Wax for me... I've used Rust-oleum Furniture Clear... Big tin for a tenner... they also do a couple of tints... For Wax (and oil) i dont think you need to go super smooth, best with a bit of wood texture to take up the product... a warm and worn used look, Edited August 31, 2022 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Pulling up a chair and getting comfy so as to follow the progress of this. The very best of luck to you @carlsim. 🤞 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGTay Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Good luck with this, hopefully there is something nice to work with underneath. 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 Some significant progress this morning - have cleared most of the top coat (just the sides left to go and had a little experiment of getting through the clear sealer / primer coat - man that was a b****!! So, I got quite excited first off, burnt off the top coat in a small area, a bit of a rub with 120 grit sandpaper and wahey!! Wood! oh wait... nope, that's the clear sealer coat. Hopes of a quick job were dashed. So, I burnt a bit more off around the control area just to be sure there was no damage to the wood itself and I thought, 'Odd - I can still feel it'. Start sanding and then realise that this was the sealer coat. Damn. So I sand.... and sand, and sand some more until finally, I start to see wood. And I am PLEASED! Lovely grain and gives me hope that a strip and a wax was not such a terrible idea after all! Yes it is a lot of work, but I can get through a lot of it with a tougher grit and an orbital sander leaving the finer stuff to hand. Will be a lot of work but the outcome should look good in the end I hope! The control knob recesses will be tough, as will the sides as I would be wary of tackling these with a orbital sander for fear of mis-shaping them. Any advice is welcome on that front! Overall I am pleased with the look of the wood so far, and you can kinda see the grain patterns through the sealer coat so I think it is definitely going to be back to the wood. When I get there I may ask for opinions on finishing as I want to achieve a satin lacquer look - not heavily glossy but with a nice smooth finish. Feel free to chip in at this stage with opinions! Going to try and strip the rest of the top coat from the sides later today and then the sanding can begin! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 This is a nice bit of wood! I have a good feeling about this project 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 1, 2022 Share Posted September 1, 2022 Leave the sides and curves blue, it looks really cool like that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 1, 2022 Author Share Posted September 1, 2022 46 minutes ago, Richard R said: Leave the sides and curves blue, it looks really cool like that! ha!! Bit late now for that, all the top coat is gone! More sanding this weekend… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 Mmm, nice wood! 😉 For the recessed knob holes (pack it in), do you have access to a pillar drill? Just thinking out loud here, but if you had just the right size flat wood drill bit you could run it in a the recess to take the paint off the sides and bottom, although they do tend to have a slight arc to the cutting face so would cut the circumference of the hole slightly deeper, but it wouldn't notice once the knob was fitted. They don't tend to cut cleanly though so it might not work. The better woodworkers here will hopefully advise. Possibly, if removing the blue cleanly proves difficult, just paint the recessed holes black, then sand across the top to get a clean edge. It all depends how much is visible with the knob fitted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 4, 2022 Author Share Posted September 4, 2022 7 hours ago, Maude said: Mmm, nice wood! 😉 For the recessed knob holes (pack it in), do you have access to a pillar drill? Just thinking out loud here, but if you had just the right size flat wood drill bit you could run it in a the recess to take the paint off the sides and bottom, although they do tend to have a slight arc to the cutting face so would cut the circumference of the hole slightly deeper, but it wouldn't notice once the knob was fitted. They don't tend to cut cleanly though so it might not work. The better woodworkers here will hopefully advise. Possibly, if removing the blue cleanly proves difficult, just paint the recessed holes black, then sand across the top to get a clean edge. It all depends how much is visible with the knob fitted. Thanks for the advice… I think I cracked it using a small dremel sanding tool and I managed to chip it off with a Stanley knife… no damage to the wood! That was a relief… just got to get the rest of the sealer coat off now… it’s coming off but it’s slow work… with the sides, I have taken to chipping it off with a chisel…. I can slide the chisel under the edge and it just breaks away! Will be slow work though… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maude Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 13 minutes ago, carlsim said: Thanks for the advice… I think I cracked it using a small dremel sanding tool and I managed to chip it off with a Stanley knife… no damage to the wood! That was a relief… just got to get the rest of the sealer coat off now… it’s coming off but it’s slow work… with the sides, I have taken to chipping it off with a chisel…. I can slide the chisel under the edge and it just breaks away! Will be slow work though… It's sometimes just trial and error to find what works best. Slow and steady wins the race. 🙂👍 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 12, 2022 Author Share Posted September 12, 2022 So… I have been a bit quiet on here, mainly due to the endless sanding and chipping, sanding and chipping. I actually found that I was able to chip the sealer coat of much easier and quicker than sanding (that was slow and hard work) but sliding a sharp chisel under the sealer coat, it just seemed to chip away. This saved me a lot of hassle and sanding around those corners! Finally, I get all the sealer coat chipped off and clear the white base coat to be left with (what I think) is some lovely wood and once oiled and buffed, I think is going to look great! quite a bit more sanding to go, got to clear the white base coat on the sides and the progressively through the grits to get it baby smooth. Then onto the slurry and buff! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 Slurry and Buff: Slurry and Buff are a double act comprising a young farmer and a male model. Slurry plays the piano and pretends to be somewhat laviscious and drunk, Buff sings the songs wearing a tux but no shirt. Their rendition of "I've got a brand new combine harvester" has women of all ages go weak at the knees. Bookings now being taken for the Christmas season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 (edited) Random double post Edited September 12, 2022 by Richard R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 12, 2022 Author Share Posted September 12, 2022 19 minutes ago, Richard R said: Slurry and Buff: Slurry and Buff are a double act comprising a young farmer and a male model. Slurry plays the piano and pretends to be somewhat laviscious and drunk, Buff sings the songs wearing a tux but no shirt. Their rendition of "I've got a brand new combine harvester" has women of all ages go weak at the knees. Bookings now being taken for the Christmas season. I think I saw them once at a function I did a gig at… they were the headline act! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard R Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 There's a song they do called "Oil my neck". I wish they wouldn't. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 Luverly... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 12, 2022 Share Posted September 12, 2022 It's looking good! Lucky break that it would chip off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 12, 2022 Author Share Posted September 12, 2022 17 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said: It's looking good! Lucky break that it would chip off I was ever so grateful for that! Sanding through it with an orbital sander was hard work on back and front so doing the sides by hand would’ve been a nightmare! glad that is done - thank you for all your great advice! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 (edited) @carlsim If you havent started with the danish slurry... can sometimes go patchy and a bit sticky... I've just rubbed the danish of the neck of my P bitsa... And gone Rustoleum Furniture Wax... soooooo nice.. Recommend ya give it a go on some scrap... to compare the two Edited September 14, 2022 by PaulThePlug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 14, 2022 Author Share Posted September 14, 2022 20 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said: @carlsim If you havent started with the danish slurry... can sometimes go patchy and a bit sticky... I've just rubbed the danish of the neck of my P bitsa... And gone Rustoleum Furniture Wax... soooooo nice.. Recommend ya give it a go on some scrap... to compare the two I might do that. I’m using tru oil though, which is supposed to give better results based on other posts and recommendations from other BCers… the furniture wax, did you manage to buff it up to a shine?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulThePlug Posted September 14, 2022 Share Posted September 14, 2022 Satiny Matt... 'Matin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsim Posted September 16, 2022 Author Share Posted September 16, 2022 So the sanding continues, getting it smooth enough to start the tru oil next week… but I do like the ash control cover I made! Not perfect, I know the grain doesn’t match (what would be the chances!) and I need to plane about 1mm off the top so it sits flush, but it’s a lot better than black plastic! moving forward finally… another 6 weeks and I reckon she will be all back together! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted September 16, 2022 Share Posted September 16, 2022 2 hours ago, carlsim said: So the sanding continues, getting it smooth enough to start the tru oil next week… but I do like the ash control cover I made! Not perfect, I know the grain doesn’t match (what would be the chances!) and I need to plane about 1mm off the top so it sits flush, but it’s a lot better than black plastic! moving forward finally… another 6 weeks and I reckon she will be all back together! Lovely job 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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