Newsgroups: rec.sport.golf
Subject: 1/3 Metal Wood Refinishi
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 00:00:00 -0600


"Experimentation is how we all learn and new techiques evolve."

REFINISHING METAL WOOD HEADS

There are refinishing kits available for metal woods, but these  are
only  for metal woods WITHOUT painted finishes.  Golfworks has a new
refinishing system with blue, black, and clear  polyurethane.   BUT,
it  requires  a  compressor/spray gun setup.  Also, some of the mail
order houses like Golfsmith will refinish your painted  metal  woods
(for  a fee).  The Golfsmith process (as described in their catalog)
is to chemically strip off the old  paint,  sandblast  the  clubhead
down  to bare metal, apply a primer/sealer, then the epoxy, and then
the final polyurethane.

I  had  an  old  metal  wood  clubhead  that  had  several nicks and
scratches in the paint finish and wondered if it would  be  possible
to  refinish  it  myself.  I also wanted to put a different color on
the  clubhead  before  re-use.   This  particular  clubhead   is   a
relatively   cheap  one,  so  I  decided  to do some experimentation
based on the stuff I had read.

I quickly decided that epoxy paint was the  only  choice  for  metal
wood  heads.  It  is  more durable than lacquer or enamel (or combos
thereof). The hits that a clubhead takes absolutely  requires  epoxy
paint if paint is used at all.

There is not a  lot  of  colors  of  epoxy  paint  to  choose  from.
Typically,  epoxy  paints available in hardware stores are in black,
white, or cream colors.  I did find some in a dark red and a  green,
also.   (JC Whitney has some gold,copper, and silver epoxy paint for
sale.)  But, then again anything is better than that battleship gray
that 95% of metal wood heads are painted with these days.  I decided
to use black as the new color for the clubhead.

Here is the step by step process I used to re-paint the clubhead:


1)Clean  the  clubhead  throughly  with  soap and water. Use a stiff
bristle nylon brush to remove the caked on dirt/grass from the  face
groves and any stamped lettering. Dry the clubhead.

Be sure to also mask off any shiny,polished, unpainted areas of  the
club  that  you  would  like to keep from being sanded/painted (e.g.
hosel area, face area on some clubs). Masking tape is fine for this.

If the face grooves are already  paint  filled  with  a  contrasting
color  like  white and you want to keep that color, fill the grooves
with pipe thread stick (available in a  big  crayon-like  tube  from
hardware  stores).  Just rub the caulk in and then remove the excess
with a dampened rag.

2)Hand sand (you could use a power sander, I suppose)  off  the  old
paint  finish down to the bare metal clubhead.  I used 100 grit sand
paper to start and finished off with 400 grit using the wet  sanding
technique  (some  water  and  elbow  grease).  This can be done on a
clubhead with or without a shaft attached.  I did  find  that  those
sanding  sponges available in hardware stores are great for cleaning
up the tight areas around the hosel.  You might  want  to  skip  the
sandpaper and just use the sanding sponges instead.

-Most  clubhead  soles  have  metal stampings that are unaffected by
sanding, so do sand the soleplate as with the rest of the  clubhead.
Remove  any  nicks if possible with the sanding.  It is suggested to
sand both the sole and top of the clubhead  from  toe  to  heel  NOT
clubface to back.

OPTIONAL:

If you have a brand name stamped on the top of the clubhead and want
to get rid of it for whatever reason:

-scratch out the paint in the stamped area.

-use  a  tiny bit of Bondo (car body filler) and fill up the stamped
area with an extra amount (like a 1/16") over the top. Let the Bondo
dry 30 minutes.

-Use  successive  grits of sandpaper (100,400,600) and wetsanding on
the fine grits to "feather edge" the stamp in the metal and  provide
for a smooth surface. BE SURE to leave enough of the Bondo to  "fit"
the  curvature  of  the  clubhead.  If  you  take  too much off, the
indentation  of  the  metal  stamping  will  still  show. Like  many
things, it takes a bit of practice. Run your finger over  the  Bondo
when done and if you can still feel the stamping indentation, you've
taken too much and you'll have to do it again.


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 * Origin: Dark Knight's Table (1:282/31)
From: David.Moore@tdkt.kksys.com (David Moore)
Sender: FredGate@tdkt.kksys.com