The fiesta red project!

How it all started:
A good friend of mine bought an old heavily used "Starfire" Strat guitar for like 40$. This guitar was made in Korea during the '90s. The body of this guitar was solid and finished in "fiesta" red but it lacked every bit of hardware and electronics. There were quite a few dents and marks on the body but the worst damage was the "Lord of the rings"-inspired tattoo someone had carved on it.
The neck was straight but the frets were worn out and the headstock had a break. The plastic nut was just awful. The guitar came with an SSS pickguard, a neck plate and 4 bolts. We had to buy the rest of the hardware and electronics to make this guitar playable once again. With all these problems, this project was a real challenge!

The restoration process

My friend wanted to keep the fiesta red color on the body and get rid of the words carved on it. The dents and marks would not be repaired as they provided the guitar with a natural relic 'd look.
To remove the "One ring to rule them all" tattoo from the top, I had to sand down this area of the body. Then I used some wood filler to cover up the remaining carvings. Once I sanded down the wood filler, the surface was smooth but the fiesta red color was long gone. So I sprayed this area with a white primer color and then I sanded the rest of the top to get it ready for a fresh coat of fiesta red color. I found a spray can that matched the color of the body and finished the guitar in fiesta red. The top was clean and it's like nobody ever carved something on it.

The neck:
First, I removed the old plastic nut and threw it away as it was garbage. Then, I repaired the crack on the headstock using epoxy glue. Once the crack was repaired, I sanded down the back of the neck and gave it a new satin finish. The frets were leveled and polished and the fretboard was cleaned and oiled up. Finally, a brand new graphite nut was placed on the neck.

Electronics and hardware:
Once I have finished working on the wooden parts, it was time for the new hardware to be fitted on the body and neck. I got a Sung IL 6-point tremolo, a set of vintage looking closed tuners, two white strap buttons, a new jack plate and a loaded pickguard for the guitar. Once the new hardware was fitted on the body and neck, I was ready to wire the electronics on the guitar. I bought a pair of red and black "Zebra" humbuckers and fitted them on the new white H-H pickguard. I also replaced the 250K log-type master volume pot with a 500K linear one to get a bit more output and highs out of these humbuckers.

Setup and sound:
Once everything was fitted on the body, I placed a thin piece of shim inside the neck pocket and bolted the neck back on. The guitar was finally set up with a fresh set of coated 0,009" inch strings and it was ready to rock. The sound is pretty good and these ceramic zebra humbuckers are really hot! I set the guitar for a medium action and the intonation came out perfect. It's now such a playable guitar. I was impressed by the result and my friend could not believe his eyes when he saw his newly restored guitar!

Another guitar was restored and saved! These project are quite challenging but the result is worth the effort and the risk.

Here are  few pictures of the guitar:

Cheers,
Thanos