1. Sand the area lightly. This is not enough to take off any paint or laquer (there is a layer of hard clear laquer over the paint to protect it); the sanding is to make the surface less slippery and easier to get traction on.
2. Use a dremel to really hack at the laquer on the outside, and the paint. I stop using it when the paint has been completely removed. This is probably the most nerve-racking stage of relicing. I was so afraid that I was going to totally ruin everything. As you will see, I went through several stages of trial and error before the final result. Make sure not to so much as touch any part of the finish that you don't want to come off. Even if the outer laquer is scraped, scratched, dented, etc. it will look like TOTAL CRAP. Any part that is to remain the original color should not be touched at all. I had to learn this the hard way.
3. Next I would use some sort of power sander with both coarse and fine paper. I used a Mouse, which worked quite well in most places. It's just the right size for this type of thing. You just have to sand down to the bare wood. Until all the laquer is off you can't add any stain or oil. I had to make sure and only sand the places I knew were going to be bare wood. Any place that you want to have paint on needs to be untouched or it'll look like crap, as mentioned above.
4. Eventually I experimented with various oils, stains, polishes, etc. I wanted it to look as real and *dirty* as possible but still look clean. It's kind of hard to explain what I did exactly because I went through so many stages. I ended having to re-sand areas over and over because I didn't like the staining. If I ever do this again I will skip all those steps and go straight for the gold. I first outlined the "bare" area above the pickguard with light pencil. I got it as close as I could from the original. Then, I used a Walnut wood stain to darken the area around the bare area. I used a Q-Tip to apply it which takes awhile but is well worth the precision you get with such a small tip. Be sure to make it look as real as possible! The edges of the bare spot are the darkest, and it gets lighter and lighter from there. Then I used a light walnut stain for the rest of the body, and I used some matches and what not to 'dirty it up.' In the final pics you will see the burn spots I'm talking about. Anyway, all these steps I talked about will be seen throughout the "evolution of pictures." Obviously you will not see all of this on the pic below or even the next page. Just keep going and you'll see the results!
