Mark Perillo's 5150 project guitar
Welcome to my 5150 project guitar page. I will be updating this on an ongoing basis until the guitar is finished.
Guitar:
Unchained kit from Mean Street Guitars (http://www.meanstreetguitars.com)
Paint: Nitrocellulose
Paint (2 cans each of White Primer, Dakota Red
(was Fiesta Red), Olympic White, Black and 3 cans of
Clear)
from Guitar Reranch (http://www.reranch.com)
10/8 UPDATE - I think Dakota Red would be a better choice since
the Fiesta Red is a bit light over time!
Striping Tape: 3M Fine Line painters tape (1 Roll of: 1/2",
1/4", 3/4", 3/16", 1/8") from TCP Global (http://www.tcpglobal.com/3m/3m400-3.aspx)
5150 Tape:
SpaceTape (http://www.spacetape.com)
-
10/08 - UPDATE: This website is no longer
available, try NoBozos (http://www.nobozos777.com/No
Bozos 777/Decals.html)
A BIG thank you goes out to Mitchell at Mean Street Guitars, I know I bothered you a lot!!! And to Bill from Reranch whose site is great and gave me the confidence to make this guitar.
UPDATE 11/08: Here are the images I used for the stripe patterns. I found these online someplace in 2004:
Guitar Purchase - Step 1 (01/14/04):
I had several ideas about making this guitar out of parts at first, but I finally settled on buying a 5150 kit from Mean Street Guitars (http://www.meanstreetguitars.com). Mitchell has been very helpful in this process and has answered any questions I have had. His guitars are top notch but don't cost and arm and a leg. I recommend him 1000%!!
I toyed with buying a new Kramer from MusicYo (http://www.musicyo.com), which I didn't do as I doubt they would be anything like an original kramer (I have a few from the mid 80's which I play regularly). I also looked at finding some used Kramers on ebay, but I never found anything I liked.
Prep - Step 2 (01/23/04):
Mitchell sent me my guitar routed for direct pickup mounting, so I had to dry sand (320, 400 & 600 grit) before I could spray it with the primer: I sanded it until all of the shine was off of the original paint.
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Primer - Step 3 (01/25/04):
Now I am ready to prime the guitar before the white paint is applied. I wiped the body with a painter's tack cloth (3M from Home Depot). Then I cleaned the body with a damp paper towel and dried it so it has no dust and waited until it was dry to prime it. I have done about 2-3 thin coats of primer.
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White Paint - Step 4 (02/02/04):
I am ready to do the white undercoat, I am using reranch's Olympic White. I have done 4-5 coats of white on this body. I have not needed to sand between coats as everything is coming out great.
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Striping - Step 5 (02/09/04):
Next I am using the 3M tape to mask out the areas prior to painting with the red paint. I used 3M painters tape in various sizes to achieve the effect. This was the most time consuming part besides the actual clear coating later on.
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Red Paint - Step 6 (02/18/04):
The next step is to paint it red. The color I am using is Reranch's Dakota Red (was Fiesta Red). I have done about 6-8 coats of red in this step. I got some bleed on the white lines but I am happy with the stripes in general.
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Black Stripes - Step 7 (02/28/04):
This is what I considered the hardest step. I first put masking tape on the body where the black stripes would go. Then I masked the edges and removed the middle tape I put on first giving me a stripe the correct size. I then added some paper to cover the areas I didn't want the black on. I did about 3-4 black coats per stripe.
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Clear Coats - Step 8 (02/25/04 to 3/27/04):
The Final step is adding the Kramer logo to the headstock and covering the pant with approximately 20 coats of clear coat using 3 cans of clear lacquer from Reranch. I used the 3M tack cloth between every hard coat (see the Reranch site for an explanation). I waited 3 days before I polished it. I skipped the wet sanding at the end as the finish was very smooth and I polished it with 3M Finesse-it. I added the 5150 numbers and stars from spacetape.com (use eBay now, see top of page).
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The guitar came out a lot better than I thought. I think I can do a better job now since I did it. You'll never know if you don't try. Have fun and I hope this helps. E-mail me at perillo@bestweb.net with any questions.