About to apply finish on first build....

[Ben Handsomer]

So I'm at the point of finishing my first kit build. All stained up and ready to apply the finish coats. I purchased the Mohawk EZ vinyl sealer and their classic instrument lacquer all in rattle cans as I'm not willing to invest in spray equipment at this point. A couple questions before I start:

At what point do I scrape the binding? Apply sealer and then do it before lacquer?

How many coats of sealer and do you sand at all before applying lacquer?

[Marty Jacobson]

So I'm at the point of finishing my first kit build. All stained up and ready to apply the finish coats. I purchased the Mohawk EZ vinyl sealer and their classic instrument lacquer all in rattle cans as I'm not willing to invest in spray equipment at this point. A couple questions before I start:

At what point do I scrape the binding? Apply sealer and then do it before lacquer?

How many coats of sealer and do you sand at all before applying lacquer?

Get everything sealed, then scrape. Then seal again, get a film over everything, and level sand. Once you can level sand and get a consistent flat surface (usually somewhere between 4 and 10 coats), spray your final coal. Wait 6 weeks or so, then level sand and buff. Lacquer finish complete.

(I've done a half dozen or so lacquer finishes, not a big fan though.)

[sunburst]

(I've done a half dozen or so lacquer finishes, not a big fan though.)

Well, I've done hundreds of lacquer finishes and the actual procedure (especially the first time) is more like this:

Stain, seal with a light coat of sealer, clean bindings, touch up places where you scraped into the wood, scrape where your touch-up got on the bindings, repeat until you abandon the idea of getting it perfect (you can't).
Spray sealer again and let cure.
Scuff sand to get the surface ready for lacquer. Touch up the places where you sand through the sealer, let cure and scuff sand again. Repeat until...
Spray lacquer coats; two or three depending on package instructions or your own designs. (I spray three coats at a time)
Scuff sand after a day and spray 2 or 3 more coats, let cure a day and begin level sanding. Touch up areas where you sand through the lacquer.
Spray 2 or 3 more coats and continue level sanding.
Spray and sand until the entire surface is level and smooth and then spray one more time.
Let cure for at least a week or 2 and level sand. Touch up color where you sand through and spray again. If you can actually get it level sanded to about 1500 grit or finer without sanding through anywhere, buff the finish. Touch up places where you buff through and spray, wait for cure, and sand again. Repeat until you decide you can't get it perfect and declare it done.

[Ben Handsomer]

This isn’t sounding like a fun process, but I sort of anticipated that. Can you define scuff and level sanding for me? What grits for each and are they both wet sanding?