Clear coat over stain problem.

[Ollie78]

I am making a guitar kit ( electric ) for my Son at the moment.
The body has a thin figured maple veneer on the front which we want to stain in a fade like this sort of thing
The body not the fancy neck and headstock.

I have bought some Chestnut spirit stains and done a couple of practice runs on little offcuts, I think I can do the staining Ok.

The issue is that today I tested a spray can of clear coat I bought from a car paint place and it caused the dye to sort of re-activate with the solvent, I did spray a bit heavily which was partly why I wanted to do some testing and this actually caused the dye to run a bit.
I think if it were a solid colour I wouldn`t worry but due to the fade effect it could be a disaster.
Thought about wiping on shellac but a no go because its alcohol stain and will smear, I could do an oil finish which I would quite like but my son says he wants it really shiny (and better to be durable).

In hindsight maybe I should have bought water based dye but because the veneer is thin I didn`t want to raise the grain to keep sanding minimal.
Is there a trick to sealing the stain before lacquering ?
Maybe I could do a few really fine sort of mist coats ?
Don`t want to mess it up.

Thanks

Ollie

 

[Fitzroy]

Sorry can’t help much, but looks amazing, you’ll be the coolest dad in town making your boy an electric guitar! Someone who can help will undoubtedly be along soon.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Is there a trick to sealing the stain before lacquering ?
Maybe I could do a few really fine sort of mist coats ?
Don`t want to mess it up.

You've basically solved or guessed at a solution to the problem yourself. So, yes, spray a quickly applied spit coat over your dyed/stained surface, one that flashes off quickly so that the lacquer doesn't have enough wet time to reactivate the dye. This should be a thick enough coating of lacquer to prevent subsequent coat applications being able to reactivate the colourant beneath. You might need to do a couple of such spit coats with a light denibbing between coats with 400 -600 grit abrasive paper. Slainte.