1983 Ibanez Roadstar II RS100 - Getting the TLC it needs

Trevormc

Hi all,

I have recently acquired an Ibanez Roadstar II RS100. Thank you Andy!
Made in the Fujigen factory in October of '83, it has: SSS pickups, 5-way selector, phase switch, solid brass bridge, great tuners, solid maple neck all the way.
Fretboard and frets need some attention, and the body needs some sanding and a fresh coat of pretty stuff.
Andy and I will be hopefully doing the as much of the work ourselves as we can, and will be posting our progress as we go along.

Hope you enjoy it!
Trevor

AndyD

Aha. Another opportunity for Trevor to work his Magic! I am Sure this one is going to be epic. A couple of nice challenges lie ahead ie the neck, but you have to love 30 year old ash. Looking forward to this one

AlanRatcliffe

Great guitar to fix up! I'm not wild about the bridge saddles or the pickguard mounted jack, but otherwise they are great guitars.

Trevormc

Herewith the de-fretted neck, ready for sanding! ?

I have also made an 11" radius sanding block (to match the neck) on the CNC machine, so it's good to go!

Danele

O man, I'd love to get my hands on a project like that.

Trevormc

The body ?

I have sanded off the old clear lacquer now. Looks great huh!?
Busy filling in some dings and hold that shouldn't be there..

On a further note (excuse the pun).. The neck has been sanded down, frets have been carefully removed.. I bleached the fretboard to remove old stains etc..
It will be stained yellow again to try match the headstock's original face color which I have not sanded down.
I was going to keep the new blonde look, but the bleaching has put way to that idea.. so yellow it shall be.
I tested a bit of the stain on the back of the nut section as it joins the headstock, and as u can see it's a pretty decent match.. At least I hope it turns out that way!

Chabenda

It's looking nice! The fret board has cleaned up well.

AlanRatcliffe

It's beginning to look good. Good to see the bleaching worked out well.

domhatch

yowzer. love watching these projects in progress. and the outcomes, naturally.

can't wait to see how this one turns out
dh

AndyD

Nice One Trevor. Looking Good.With All this work I hope you have time to practice all the stuff I gave you this week!

Norman86

im looking forward to the finished product!!

Trevormc

And now with the Blue fade! (The camera doesn't do it justice) It's does actually fade in real life ?
Used Blue - spirit based Leather dye. It will look even better once the many layers of gloss clear are applied!

ZarK

Love that colour! Very cool indeed!

Reinhard

There is some very nice grain on the body and even the neck. Fantastic job on the blue burst!

Are my eyes deceiving me, or is there a lighter circular shape on the back of the body? Almost like it rested on a paint can? Or is it the flash?

Looking forward to see the finished guitar ?

Trevormc

I'm afraid ur eyes are not deceiving you ☹ It is indeed a paint tin..
It's very light, and the flash is exasperating it a bit..

It is my first time at ever spraying anything, so I have much to learn I think..

Back into the booth, for some corrective feathering....

domhatch

paint tin or no (sharp eyes btw reinhard), it's still a great-looking paint job. can't wait to see the end result...

Neon-Gecko

Just a tip for the future. Get yourself some off cut pine or similar and make yourself a dummy spray neck to hang the body from. That will not only stop the tin impressions, but means that you can paint the whole body in one go, which is a massive time saver.

StefStoep

Very, very nice! I'm not an ibby fan but this is in that i wouldn't mind playing. Can't wait for the final finished pics.

Trevormc

Right.. New frets are glued in.
Boy, do you learn a lot doing your first fret install!!
Now comes the hard parts.. Trimming, filing, leveling, crowning. fun times ?

Update on the Blue body: I had to wash the whole body down with alcohol and get rid of blotches on the side that had developed.
This was actually a good thing in the end, as it filled the grain better, and I was able to give it another blue coat, and take the infamous "paint tin ring" out ?
I have applied clear coats in the mean time, and will post pics after I have buffed it to a nice glossy shine.

Trevormc

Ok I couldn't resist it..

Here with the new Blue pics.
Please bear in mind that the clear does still need to be flatted, then re-sprayed, then flatted some more and buffed.