This past month I picked up an early 90's G&L SB1 bass. The bass was in need of a good cleaning and set up. The hardware was a little rough, the bridge being a lot rough. The chrome plating was bubbled and raised. Being a zinc material, it also had some pitting and white chalky stuff around the pitted areas. I did buy a replacement from the G&L online store to replace it with. That said, I have worked on old G&L basses with the black finish hardware and I have always thought that the wrinkle finish was really Cool.
I did some looking online and found that there are products out there that offer a wrinkled finish, so I thought the old bridge would make a good test piece. Below are the pictures to show a before and after picture of the bass with the two bridge. Just to let you know, the before picture of the bass is with the new chrome bridge. I did not paint that one.
The finish came out very nice! It is a little more coarse than the G&L finish, but very close. The picture looks much more coarse only because it's tough trying to take a picture to show some detail. The finish appears to be very tough and durable! I bought this can of paint at the local Autozone store for under $11.00.
The prep work on the bridge was, I removed the chrome with Muriatic acid and rinsed thuroughly in water. I lightly sanded the bridge to relieve the high spots and then de-greased and dried. From there I followed the instructions on the can. The finished was cured in an oven at 200 degrees for 1 hour and done.
I might suggest that if you want to try this, use an old POS bridge as a test piece first. Careful with the temp setting on your oven and I would recommend not going any hotter than the recommended temp of 200 degrees. Zinc does not fare well with higher temps. I know, been there, done that!
If someone is looking for this type of finish, I hope this will give you some ideas! Enjoy!
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