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I've been experimenting with solarez and love the ease of application, quick cure time, super easy to level sand, but when I try to buff it, I can't seem to get better than a satin finish. The finish is level, looks perfectly flat. For comparison, the same sanding and buffing regimen on lacquer works great for me. Any ideas why I can't get the solarez to gloss up? I level sand 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000 and then use Menzerna on the buffing wheel, medium, then fine, then extra fine. Any ideas? Thank you!

Hi John, I don't really have any information for you as I've not used the product, but have you tried more buffing time with each grit? I suspect it's harder than lacquer.
Also I have a quick question, how do you think this would work for pore filling? I've been considering doing some experiments on that.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Hi Jim, thanks for the tip, I tried additional buffing with extra compound and it definitely improved results. I guess this product is much harder than lacquer. I'm going to continue working it but as of now, I'd say the gloss is about a 6 out of 10--not a product I would use if I was looking for high gloss. That may change after additional buffing, we'll see. The pic below is on a scrap headstock I used for testing.

As for use as a pore filler, I think this is my new favorite. I have both products by solarez, the pore filler/grain sealer, and top coat. They could both be an outstanding pore filler. I'm not sure of the difference between the two. The pore filler smells like epoxy, and the top coat smells more like bondo. They have the same consistency which is like thick maple syrup or honey. The work time is as long as you want providing you cover windows and have no UV light in the shop. When ready to cure, expose to sunlight (I used one of their portable UV lights for $50--seen in the pic) and it was cured rock solid in about 2 minutes. It sanded like cured lacquer with a nice powder. I haven't experimented yet with other top coats, but as long as they bond correctly, I love using solarez as a pore filler. I'll keep this thread posted as I get more info.

P.S. the higher gloss around the tuner holes is where I sanded/buffed through to the old finish. I didn't build my top coat very high for this test.

John,
I contacted Solarez a while go about it's compatibility with shellac and they say "Should be compatible with shellac".

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

What is this stuff? Is it actually an epoxy?

It's probably not the best pic but it looks like you are experimenting on an old neck? I'm wondering if you should just experiment on a freshly sanded flat panel.

I tried that stuff many years ago thinking it would be dynamite porefill, but it wouldn’t cure on rosewood. Perhaps a shellac washcoat would solve that...

Polyester or Epoxy? Polyester comes in laminating, sanding, and gloss....laminating will not cure hard...sanding will, but not high gloss, glossing resin will buff out normally.....I see solarez has many products in both types....

Epoxy...same thing....some cure hard, some don't (by design)....good luck..

Hi John,

I've used this a couple of times. You can buff to a high gloss it just takes ages. One guitar took me 2 days. I sanded to p2000 and started with Menzerna GW18 then Medium and finished with Fine. It goes against what is usually advised for buffing but holding in one spot for a few seconds longer than you would for Lacquer helped. Keeping the piece constantly moving over the buff (which is usually advised) did nothing. It is bizarre as like you say it sands so easy. I'd be interested if you find an easier way to get a high gloss with this product because I wont use it again because of the buff time.

Good luck.

Glenn.

So I went back to the test piece and was able to get it to gloss up much better by using the same process I use on my CAR for the clearcoat. Lol. I used my power handheld Makita buffer with Meguiar's medium cut compound (this brought up the shine much better than Menzerna on my buffing wheels). After that I followed it up with Meguiar's swirl remover and it shined right up like my clearcoat in no time at all. Strange how it sands so easily but required heavy buffing to gloss up. I really like how quickly it cures rock hard so this could be an option now that I understand the buffing process better. I'm going to test on some bare wood next and see what happens, as well as try and scrape it up and see how it holds up.

The idea of a wipe on product, that pore fills, cures in minutes, and buffs to a high gloss sounds like the holy grail.

Sounds like this product wipes on, pore fills, and cures in minutes. Keep us posted on the “buffs to a high gloss” side, please.


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