Acoustic Guitar Construction

A couple years ago, I remember Ken talking about Hood's Quick Drying Pore Filler, and a while back I bought a can.
After stopping the building process for a long time, I got back to my son's guitar.
Here's what I did.
Brushed 1 coat of filler on the body. The next day, there were obvious brush marks, and I ended up sanding quite a bit trying to remove them. Same thing occurred after the 2nd and 3rd applications, excepting that I was leaving more of the filler on the wood each time.
I thinned the filler - about 8 oz of filler with 1 oz of lacquer thinner for the 4th coat.
It still came on pretty thick and required a lot of sanding to level it out.
Now I'm still seeing many, many tiny shiny spots. That makes me think I'm close to being done.
I want to put one more coat on, since I don't feel there are 2 really adequate coats on now.
What proportion of thinner can I use to get a fairly slightly thin coat? Is it recommended that I thin? The stuff does dry quite quickly. Putting one brush stroke on after the first one, it grabs the brush. Or, as just came to mind, should I just put one brush stroke on and not go back over it. I'm only afraid of my overlaps there.
All help would be appreciated.
Also, HI!! to all my old and young friends and acquaintances. I have been too long away from my task. As kind of an update, I've spent the last couple years trying to learn how to really play a guitar. Just starting fingerstyle, and just about to start the 4th guitar with a great set of Honduran Mahogany for the back and sides. Top is TBD.
Again, thanks for any help,
Bob

Welcome back, Bob! I wondered what became of you, glad to hear all is well.

Hi Bob -- welcome

Its not a good idea to thin any pore filler that defeats the purpose of the chemical. In the case of Hood lacquer base filler one of the main solids is silica (I am prerrty sure) so you want a lot of the particles (solids) so you quickly fill up the little valleys. Two things are in play with Hood Filler -- you must have a full layer of filler under the top coat, else shadows/blothes will be apparent in the finish. Although only two coats of filler are recommend, more can be applied, however take care not to apply so much that the silica begins to fog the surface to a point where you start to lose clarity. I found this clouding issue problematic on dark wood and have discontinued using the product -- I now use Zpoxy when I want a transparent filler.

Ken, I know this has been asked before, but do you put vinyl sealer on before filling with zpoxy?

I don't -- I seal and mask the top to prevent accidental deep staining.

Could the Hood pore filler be applied with a squeegee like Z-Poxy? It it is that thick as Bob says, it seems to me that pushing it into the pores with a scraper type applicator would work pretty well and give you a thinner, smoother coat.
Anyone ever try this?

Hey Bob, glad to see you back at it and we will all enjoy having you back around again.
I used the Hoods on the Walnut/Koa OM I made. I liked it, and I didn't like it.....
let me explain.
I liked it because it was clear, totally compatible with the nitro lacquer I was spraying as a top coat, and I could spray it on.
What I didn't like was kind of what you are experiencing. After two coats, I could tell the pores were not all filled to level. Hoods recommends not sanding back to wood, but leaving a full layer before top coating. I only leveled the Hoods a bit, then begain spraying my lacquer. I did find that by the time I reached my desired thickness before final level sanding the lacquer, all the pores were filled. The finish looked very good and I was happy with it. I didn't use it on the next build, but tried Timbermate on the Santos Mahogany body and honduras hog neck. I liked that stuff too.
From what I've been hearing on the forum, the ZPoxy for a clear filler may be the best way to go. You probably want to use up what you have so you should be fine with the Hoods. What is your top coat going to be?

Kevin