Hazing, can this be saved or is it refin time?

This is my Yamaha LL-11 6 string acoustic. It's the nicest acoustic I've ever had. Something happened along the way to my old friend here and this hazing was the result. My house was flooded with water, just plain water. This was not submerged but the case did get wet. Anyway, this is water damage. The hazing seems to have confined itself to just the mahogany, the top has no haze. It still plays great since it's recent setup and sounds amazing.

It's not flaking off anywhere and seems pretty stable. All the braces are still firmly in place. Everything is fine and it been like this for at least 8 years and I haven't really cared. But I've been thinking it would be nice to have it looking like it's former glory

I read about some tricks involving everything from a clothes iron to mayonnaise. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask here if someone knows a fix for this. This actually isn't the only LL I've seen like this. I think it might have been a weakness of these for some reason.

Let me know what you think.
Bb

Have you tried a fine rubbing compound to see whether it's something on the surface? If it's not someething on the surface, I'd guess that the mahogany has absorbed moisture from the inside and the clear finish is now "fogged" from the other side. the problem may cure itself when the wood is dry. (All guesswork on my part.) Good luck.

I agree, try a very fine cutting compound or even a test patch with 1200 sand paper and a drop of water, just to see if it is a surface problem or if it is from the paint itself.....

FYI: The water damage was many years ago. I think it's dried out by now. It really seems like the hazing is under the finish. I'll take closer look.

Hell man start sanding.
It needs a refin anyway.
It can't look any worse that it does now.
Best of luck.

Meguiar's Professional Swirl Remover 2.0. Very gentle. Use it on lacquer body pedal steel bodies all the time during restorations. If that doesn't do it, it's probably on the underside of the finish. You're actually lucky! One of my Tacomas looked like that, and a couple days later, the finish started falling off in huge chunks! Rosewood is an oily wood, and care must be taken during finishing to remove the surface oil. Otherwise, the finish won't adhere well. Good luck!

There are furniture revivers that are intended for this kind of damage that may be a bit better than Meguiars this time (I normally like automotive products for guitar paints e.g. Farecla G3 paste)

One type is a solvent the other an abrasive.

Another old cure is to flood the surface with IMS (meths) and set fire to it, this works for French polish and other shellac finishes, it draws the water out of the finish. I did it once with a table and it was a spectacular whumph great ball of fire risk, but it worked.

Failing that use paint stripper and re-finish.

Assuming it's a lacquer finish and not polyurathene, a very light misting with lacquer thinner will cure the hazing issue. It's moisture trapped in the finish and a misting of thinner will usually remove it. You may have to do several misting but you should see progress with each one. Don't flood the thinner on....you don't want to destroy the existing finish. Patience and light mist coats should alleviate the problem.