new project...

[suckerdin]

the upright bass thread got me motivated to rebuild my strat. so, i tore it apart and i've already got a few things on order. (pickups, pickguard, etc.) The question i have is what will take off the really hard poly coating? i've checked out some strat websites and they said it's really hard to get off. so, does anyone have any experience or input or any particular chemicals that could do the job?

[black2002ls]

is it a polyurethane? You will want something that will take it off layer by layer, if you want to fully remove it, anything that penetrates too deep could possibly damage the wood.

[Superwho]

I do it a lot. Make sure it's poly and not nitro by rubbing some paint thinner on a rag, if paint comes off it's nitro, if not it's poly. For poly, a good trick is a heat gun and a scraper. Don't let it bubble, and it will scrape right off, I read about this years ago, and it has worked every time.

[suckerdin]

thanks. I'll probably start the process this weekend since i have two tests this week. it didn't occur to me to take pictures until AFTER i disassembled the guitar but i've started with the pictures and hopefully i can make a good build thread once i get it all done.