so as you know, i really screwed this up last time. it was all my fault. i was being impatient and foolish. i'm starting to learn that the secret is all in the preparation. so check me out.........preparing the paint. warming the gold flakes to a nice 80 degrees so they can be born. it makes it easier for them to slip out. i don't know if you have used flake paint, but it's like spaying out a magical rainbow. and you think i'm kidding but huff enough of this stuff in a closed garage with no mask on, you'll see them.


check me out........... i got some pinstriping tape at the auto zone. they say it's the best for protecting binding from paint.



here's the full protection. i'm not messing around.


check me out...........laying down the plastic is a must. i like to keep the floor of the garage super clean. i pride myself on it. i don't know if you ever have gone to someone's house and their garage floor isn't clean, but gross.

here is our screwed up guitar. notice how ugly it looks. right now it's about a 3. the reason we lay it down for the gold paint is that we want the gold flakes to gently rain on the guitar like apocalyptic ash raining from the night sky.


here it is after like 3 coats. it's looking like a 5 and a half right about now.


here it is after like 20+ coats. a perfect ten. i'd hit that.


now let me tell you about the most terrifying part of painting. after you paint the top of the guitar, you've also buried the bindings with paint. so what you have to do is scrape them off with a razor freehand. you use your thumb as a guide. it's awful. here is a picture i stole from the gibson website. they only employ women to be scrapers because they have a more delicate touch apparently. check out these babes scraping away. i've always been told that i have the hands of a woman so i went for it.


here's the result. it's pretty good. and i feel like it was the most satisfying thing i've done all week.


one more small piece of advice about spray painting with nitrocellulose, wear a mask. because although the high is awesome, the comedown is harsh. i'm nursing a goldflake hangover as i write this. not so fun.