OK well this is clearly the place - I found a cheap 80s MIJ Jaguar (listed as 90s but the serial and neckplate say '85-'87) which had what looked like a bit of airbrush art on the body. I figured I could buff it off.
Flash forward a few weeks and it arrived, I took it apart straight away to restore it - figured it would take an hour or two. Neck pickup was an AVRI replacement which I guessed from the beveled polepieces.
Wasn't prepared for the bridge pickup to look so gross and grungy:
but all is forgiven:
(that'd be 12-01-64 in pencil)
Turned my attention to the airbrush art - a little sanding took me thru the grey to the red, and I tried a couple of solvents since the MIJ finishes are bomb-proof. To my horror the red dissolved and put me through to silver - figured I had ruined it a bit.
Some sleuth work where the cavities had been masked revealed that this was not the whole story. In fact the refinisher had done a primer coat, then re-done the candy apple red finish (to a lesser standard than the original CAR finish) and then done the other art on top. At that point I realised I had seven layers to strip off. Here's a montage to save you the six hours it took me:
Finishing up with some wetsanding (800/1200/2000) gave it the matte finish at bottom right.
Then - medium cutting compound and fine compound with a wool pad on my hand buffer. When I wiped off the residue I couldn't believe how good it looked.
Currently too tired to rewire a Jag so I'll leave you with this test-fit:
