How to surface finish fine tone woods for paint?

[911hillclimber]

Wood working is certainly not my best skill, but I'm restoring a 1950 East European guitar as a project and something to learn from.

The guitar will soon be in raw timber, none of the woods are fine German quality, the guitar is constructed in a cheap and unusual way, however:
1
The back is made from coarse plywood, about 2mm thick. I need to fill the grain but using what?
The final finish I want to be dark metallic green preferably from a rattle can automotive.
I would like to use a high build filler, again aerosol, be will need to fill the wood surface first.
And suggestions please what to use?
2
Sides and top are nicer woods and will be green metallic again with a black metallic sunburst around the sides and front/back edges.

Ideal would be to spray the whole thing in a wood sealer, spray over that with high build filler and then the colour.

Can anyone give me a bit of guidance please?

[mean_in_green]

There's a guy on YouTube called Dashner Design with some furniture restoration content, some interesting techniques that might be helpful as far the prep stages go (although I don't recall any paint).

[911hillclimber]

Thank you.
There are lots on YouTube about painting guitars but mainly from the USA which use products not available here.

[coomo]

Lesonal make a primer specifically for wood.High build 2k type.We sourced from our paint supplier Car colours in Romford.I presume available elsewhere

[911hillclimber]

Thanks, will look into that.
The grain on the back is very open in places, almost tempting to cover the whole area in wood filler paste and sand like mad.

[Psw1811]

You could use a grain filler like Rustins etc - but not the nicest to use. Depending on how textured the surface is you could use something like zinsser BIN, it’s a shellac based wood primer - it dries fast and sands beautifully. You can build it up and sand between coats. even available in a rattle can! But you get better filling by brush. Great for finishing end grain mdf too.

Be wary of water based alternatives especially if you brush paint - you will always be fighting against the water raising the grain, better results can be had by spraying.

[911hillclimber]

Excllent, thank you.
On the back I've smeared the entire surface with simple wood filler as the groves were too deep and numerous, but once sanded I hope the real defects will be covered, the Rustins sounds good .

[scalino65]

Have you had a look at steve robinson's place? loads of advice on there.
https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/shop/
I've painted loads of guitars with his nitrocelly paint. Much nicer than carpaint which i'd would imagine was too thick and heavy and wouldnt help teh sound quality.
Use rustins grain filler, manchestergtrtech sanding sealer , white primer and then one of his top colours.
Rotko and frost also do decent gtr paints.

[911hillclimber]

That's goo de advice, thank you.
Just getting the body right for conversion to a bolt on neck instead of 6 big wood screws, so when the neck is on will be ready to sand to infinity and beyond (it seems).
Fine tone woods is not really a good description of this East German masterpiece that has the look more of a hand built guitar...
Thanks again.