Hello guys!

I decided to do a project log of me finishing my DYI guitar, I will be updating this thread as I progress.
The kit used in this thread will be the Harley Benton LP-style kit. I figured as it is really cheap I'd just go ahead and try it out.
Got the kit from Thomann.de, and costed me only 89£. The price itself made me wonder, but when looking at the positive reviews,
I decided to just go ahead and order one, with the thing being that cheap, it really doesn't matter if it's garbage.

However, unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the package/unboxing. But I figure that's not what's important here anyways.
So first off, i went ahead and checked that nothing was damaged from being shipped. It was not, so all good!

After that I got right in to assembling the guitar, to make sure everything is fitting and working.
Worth mentioning, is that this kit comes with a already soldered cablesystem.
Wich is good if you're totally new to building a guitar from scratch.

Here's a picture of the guitar fully assembled:
(You'll have to excuse me for the bad quality)

Spoiler:

Ok, next up is to disassemble the guitar again, and start to prepare the body for painting.
I will be sure to provide pictures as I re-assemble the guitar.

To be continued, cheers!

[UPDATE #1]

Alright, so I went ahead and disassembled the whole guitar to prepare it for painting.
Here's a picture of the body, all stripped down:

Spoiler:

I got right to sand the front of the body, this is so the paint will get sucked up by the wood more easily:

Spoiler:

After I was done sanding the body, I masked off the edges and all that:

Spoiler:

With that all done, I put the first coat of paint on the guitar. Keep in mind that it is far away from dry at this stage:

Spoiler:

With the first coat somewhat dried up, I put on the second and last coat of paint to the body:

Spoiler:

The paint I chose to use, is a dark walnut one. When all dried up it will really make the strains from the wood pop.
Unfortunately I'll have to wait 24 hours before I will be able to see how it will really look.

Next up is to sand the sides and back of the body. And then to put on the finishing oil, wich will make it all glossy and nice.
The oil will also do a perfect job of preserving the paint, and to protect the body.

Until next time,
Cheers!


[UPDATE #2]

Ok, so after brutally failing the get the finish I wanted on the guitar.
I needed another idea, so I came up with this idea that I could make the finish look
old and worn out, and that'd be cool.

So I started to sand down the dry paint on the body:

Spoiler:

And after I was happy with how it looked, I applied another very thin coat of paint:

Spoiler:

I think it came out pretty neat to be honest. Now I'll have to wait for the paint to dry,
and then I'll probably have to go another round with the sandpaper to get it to perfection.

Until next time,
cheers!


[UPDATE #3]

Small update this time!
Ok, so I finally am happy with how the final coat looks.
Now I'm just awaiting to get the oil wich I had to order.

Spoiler:

Next up is to apply the oil, and get the amount of gloss and protection we want.
See you next time!


[UPDATE #4]

Hello again, sorry for taking so long to update this log. I've been caught up with stuff.
However, unlucky as I am, I lost the pictures I took when continuing my work on the guitar.
I borrowed a fancy camera from one of my friends, to get better pictures,
turns out this camera refused to save the pics to the SDcard.

Anyway, I continued the work on the guitar. Applied oil to the front of the body,
as well as sanding down the whole backside, sides and neck. I decided to,
just go with oil on the rest of the guitar, besides the front of the body and headstock.
Turned out pretty good if I may say so, and again, I'm sorry for losing the pictures..

Here's the final product anyway:

Spoiler:

Hope you like it,
cheers!