Guitar ReFinishing

I belong to a message board where one of the members makes guitars for people. He offered to make bodies for members at a super cheap price (a quarter of the going rate). I decided to try and put together a Jazzmaster. By the end (hopefully this spring) it should look like this:

In order to learn how to refinish a guitar I purchased a cheap Squier Telecaster Custom and decided to turn it into a (fake) Fender Telecaster Deluxe.

Here's what I started with way back in October:


An inexpensive neck was purchased off ebay:
(not actual neck pictured)

The body and headstock were sanded down:





Primer was sprayed (poorly - lookit all those runs!):


More sanding (more mistakes):


Many products were purchased:
(most of them not needed, like these for example)


Sprayed the paint on (Krylon's Honeydew green).

Then F#*&*ING WalMart took seven (!) weeks to get Deft Gloss Clear Coat in. I went every Sunday after hockey for Seven Weeks (!). Every week the first words to Laura when I got home was "F&*&^ING WalMart!" (I know, serves me right for shopping at WalMart. In my defense they were the only place that sells it. I went to 6 other stores first.)

Applied the decal to the headstock:





Played a kick ass show with Barker:
(notice women's underwear thrown at us hanging on mic stand)

Sprayed the gloss and let it sit for a month.

Finally yesterday I wet sanded with mineral oil from 1:00 pm till 7:00 pm (minus eating time), working my way up the grits (320, 400, 600, 800, 1200) then polished it with 3M's Finesse It II. This is what I ended up with:








It's not as shiny as the guys at the ReRanch Guitar Refinishing Forum but it's acceptable for a first time.

Things I'll do differently for the Jazzmaster:
1) Use even finer grit sand paper (1500, 2000 etc) to get it like a mirror finish
2) Be more careful sanding on the edges. There are a ton of sand-throughs there.
3) Fix any sand-throughs.
4) Use the good masking tape. I used the cheap kind and it left a bunch of residue.