Hi folks. I just discovered this forum the other day and thought I'd join. I've been away from the guitar hobby for a few years and I am just now trying to get back up to speed. I built my first of two and a half Warmoths back in the 80's ( the half was a Warmoth/MightyMite) .My nephew showed up the other day with a Fender Lead I that he got off ebay. It was in pretty poor shape but fixable. After filing and re-crowning the frets, when I removed the masking tape, big pieces of lacquer came off with the tape. I have ordered a can of amber nitrocellulose from Stew-Mac and was wondering what kind of prep I should do to the bare maple where the lacquer pulled off. Thanks for any help, TIm.
Newbie With Touch-up Question
- Thread starter TimC
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jackthehack
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Just leave the lacquer off and resell it on eBay for a profit as being "relic'ed"
No, not that TimC. I've already got quite a bit of time into the guitar. I made a new pickguard from stock and I have installed an EMG 81TW at the bridge and a SA for the neck. I ended up making a left hand pickguard on my first attempt. Oops. The guitar had been dropped or fell over and tweaked the neck and bend a tuner. Fender must start out their painters on the low end guitars. The finish on this one is kind of rough. I had to route out for the taller pickups so any eventual collectors value is now gone (not that there would ever be any).
TimC said:
The lacquer that pulled off isn't lacquer - its poly. You can fix it with lacquer... or with poly, or with CA. The way to do it - without seeing pictures of it, is to get the underlying stuff level, then flow the new finish on. Since thats not possible due to the frets being there, you might want to fill and level with CA, then shoot lacquer over all of it for cosmetic reasons. Lacquer over CA works ok. Dan E and Frank Ford both do that with good success.
Lets do this by the book.
1. Get some acetone. Pure acetone. Make a little spot on the finish with a Q tip, in an un noticed place. You can dismount the neck and make a spot on the heel of the neck. If the finish softens after a few minutes, its lacquer, and we'll treat it as lacquer. If not, its some sort of poly, and we'll treat it like poly.
2. If its lacquer... and I'm thinking its not... then you drop fill, or rather, brush fill, many many thin coats, over a period of a long long time, letting each coat dry for a good week or so between it and the next coat.
3. If its poly, then you can drop fill it with superglue, let it dry overnite or even two days.
4. Either way, level sand when fully dry - at least one month after your lacquer, or two days if superglue. Inspect it and see if it needs additional filling to level out. If so, do that and let it dry again......
5. Do your final leveling (and do ALL leveling with a sanding block please!). Then buff out. Both super glue and lacquer will buff out from 600 grit paper, although you can go to 800 on super glue for a bit easier buff. No need on lacquer.
Thats it.
The key - ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS - is adequate dry down. Lacquer is going to be thicker than the original finish - and take next to forever to dry. With lacquer, many thin coats is the key on a fill operation. For super glue , you can get by on fewer, and a bit thicker coats.
Also, for super glue, you might want to try this - mask the area so you get a little bit of ok finish around the bad spot, then swipe on the super glue with your finger. Do that a few times over and over... until you build up finish. When you remove the tape, you'll have a bit larger spot to level down, but it levels so easy, there's no real problem there. It also helps if you lightly sand the area around the repair to get some tooth on it. You can do this once its masked. Something like 320 paper should be fine ... just rough it up a bit.
And thats that
1. Get some acetone. Pure acetone. Make a little spot on the finish with a Q tip, in an un noticed place. You can dismount the neck and make a spot on the heel of the neck. If the finish softens after a few minutes, its lacquer, and we'll treat it as lacquer. If not, its some sort of poly, and we'll treat it like poly.
2. If its lacquer... and I'm thinking its not... then you drop fill, or rather, brush fill, many many thin coats, over a period of a long long time, letting each coat dry for a good week or so between it and the next coat.
3. If its poly, then you can drop fill it with superglue, let it dry overnite or even two days.
4. Either way, level sand when fully dry - at least one month after your lacquer, or two days if superglue. Inspect it and see if it needs additional filling to level out. If so, do that and let it dry again......
5. Do your final leveling (and do ALL leveling with a sanding block please!). Then buff out. Both super glue and lacquer will buff out from 600 grit paper, although you can go to 800 on super glue for a bit easier buff. No need on lacquer.
Thats it.
The key - ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS - is adequate dry down. Lacquer is going to be thicker than the original finish - and take next to forever to dry. With lacquer, many thin coats is the key on a fill operation. For super glue , you can get by on fewer, and a bit thicker coats.
Also, for super glue, you might want to try this - mask the area so you get a little bit of ok finish around the bad spot, then swipe on the super glue with your finger. Do that a few times over and over... until you build up finish. When you remove the tape, you'll have a bit larger spot to level down, but it levels so easy, there's no real problem there. It also helps if you lightly sand the area around the repair to get some tooth on it. You can do this once its masked. Something like 320 paper should be fine ... just rough it up a bit.
And thats that
Thanks CB. I have the guitar re-assembled working on a new nut. When I'm finished with the nut, I'll do the acetone test on the heel and proceed from there. If it's lacquer, I'll inform my nephew he won't be getting his guitar back any time soon. One more question though; should I go ahead and chip away any other loose finish on the edges of what is already gone?
jackthehack
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If that's poly, and I'd have to agree with CB that it most likely is from the way it pulled off with the tape, and you gave me that neck to fix, I'd take a heat gun and strip the rest of the poly finish off, sand it to #320 and reshoot it with Neck Amber if you wanted tint and a lacquer gloss top finish. You could knock that out in 5-7 days this time of year; reassemble and use, then pull again in 4-6 weeks when the lacquer's cured better to level/wet sand and polish.
