I was bad and didn't get as many pictures as I planned, but most would probably just show a shiny board in varying stages of shininess so no big deal.
Started off by sanding it down by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. Smoothed out the edges and corners, got the grain nice and smooth. That sort of thing. Then I removed the dust using a tack cloth.
This is right after the first coat of polyurethane I believe. Nothing fancy, just brush it on. The can says it's quick drying. Apparently quick drying means taking 4-6 hours. Not sure I want to experience the slower stuff.
After that was dry I sanded it down again with 320 grit this time. Then I applied the second coat. You can see the very much wet second coat above. I was planning to do a few more, but it honestly looked great after two and I was pressed for time to get this done before my parents returned from their vacation. I was doing this as a surprise for the old man so it being done when he got home was important and the flu ate up a week.
Here's the board up on the wall. The screws going into the studs are around 5-6 inches long minimum. I can't remember the exact number, but I didn't want to smurf around when it comes to expensive instruments. I'm pretty sure that if the board was thicker than one inch I could hang off of this no problem.
First guitar hung (a Peavey Wolfgang for anyone curious), and the spacing for the other hangers marked. The nice thing about using polyurethane was that I could mark the spots for all of the hangers using dry erase marker and wipe it right off when I was done.
Last shot with all four guitars up.
I'll note for Pete's benefit that this is just less than half of his total number of guitars. Some highlights missing from this are a Gibson Flying V (can't remember how old it is, but a few decades at least. I think he got it in the 80's maybe), and a Gibson Les Paul Custom sitting behind me on a stand right now (I bought the game Rocksmith 2014 to try learning guitar and my old man insisted I use something that will "stay in tune." Apparently his tastes are a bit too refined for my Epiphone Special ).