Polishing

I waited about a month for the lacquer to cure. It seemed that the run on the side of the guitar had taken care of itself. I found only the slightest trace of it after the paint had fully hardened. 

To start the polishing process I wet sanded with 400 grit sandpaper. I needed to get the bumpy orange peel surface smooth before I moved on to finer grit sandpaper. I sanded from the center toward the edge, and never over the edge. Sanding over the edges and corners would cause the sandpaper to remove too much clear coat and possibly rub through the paint.

The body after curing for a month

The back of the guitar before polishing

It was important to make sure the sandpaper did not get loaded up with paint particles. This could cause the paper to be less effective but also scratch the surface if larger pieces of grit got lodged between the guitar and the paper. I would frequently dip the paper in water and wipe it off on a towel, then rewet the paper before sanding.

Wet sanding using 400 grit

After a fair amount of sanding I used a damp cloth to wipe off the slurry from the sanding to see if there were any shiny spots on the paint. If there were I would continue sanding.

The glossy spots meant more sanding needed to be done.

Something unexpected were bubble holes in the paint in the cutaway. It seemed that the thick coats of paint I had put on at the end of the painting process might have attached the earlier coats. Somehow bubbles had formed and drilled all the way through the clear coat. I would not be able to polish these out. 

The bubbles in the cutaway ate down to the wood.

After the paint was leveled with the 400 grit, I moved on the finer grits. I used 600 and 800 wet and dry sandpaper, and then used 1600, 2400, 3200, and 12,000 grit sanding cloths. Every time I used a sanding block and lots of water.

After using the 12,000 grit cloth, I could see a hint of a shine but the guitar was still nowhere near glossy. To achieve the high-gloss I used Meguiar's Deep Gloss polish. I'm not sure if this was a pure rubbing compound without wax, but it was what I had at the time.

Wiping off the Meguiar's polish

I used a clean, damp shop rag to apply the Meguiar's. I then wiped it off with the clean dry cloth. The shine was dramatic. I applied a couple more coats of the polish and the body looked pretty good.

The high-gloss shine after using the car polish

I found a spot on the cutout horn where I had rubbed through. It either did not get enough lacquer, or received too much pressure when sanding. After I completed polishing, I carefully repainted this area and filled the bubbles in the cut out by using a small brush. The touch-ups would have to cure before I polished them.