Paint!

[fa01]

No, not just the title of a bombastic musical I'm working on, but also a relevant title for a thread I'd like to start.

Anyway, I painted my bass yesterday with acrylic paints, and I'm wondering if I need to do anything else to it, i.e. apply any clear lacquers or anything.  My parents have a bucket of Polyurethane clear gloss, which apparently isn't for use w/ painted surfaces.  So do I have to buy stuff?  If so, what?  And etc etc

[Engel]

Sandpaper of many different grits.  Start with coarse and work up to extremely fine on your polyurethane.  Take your time with this and dont jump too big a gap from coarse to fine.  If you do it right it will bring out the shine.  You can get high grit sandpaper at automotive painting stores or even some craft/hardware stores.


Engel

[nicklz]

Why can't you use the poly on it? If it's water based you should have no trouble using it over acrylics. If it had been an oil based paint then it might not be good, but I don't see any problem with it.

Engel's right about the sandpaper grit. The highest I've found in the hardware stores is 400 grit, but I just bought 1000 grit to use on polymer clay at an Auto Zone store. They had lots of different high grits. If you use them on your layer of finish you'll get a glass like shine. Read about it and practice on a scarp piece to make sure you' get the desired effect. In fact, you could do that with a painted wood surface to make sure your paint job and cover coats are compatible, too.
Post some pictures.

[fa01]

I appreciate the advice on sandpaper but I'm not going for a professional look, necessarily.  I may go look at clear lacquers if I'm in a place that sells them any time soon.  And I will post pics when I can.

Thanks for replies.