Poly just flakes & chips right of a MIJ '69 Thinline RI

[Vol. Knob]

My #1 guitar for 11 years is my trusty '69 Thinline RI. Early on in it's tenure at my house, my stepson was walking through a doorway with it and whacked a chip of poly right off the corner. I was suprised to see just how thick the poly finish is. Over time I've found that just chips and flakes off really easily. Leaving bare naked wood. I've also noticed that the poly feels like slick lifeless glass and the wood feels like... well.. wood.

It's gotten pretty bare on the back side, mostly due to my curiosity and picking at it like a scab.

So I just bough me some sandpaper, sandpaper sponges and some tung oil. I'm gonna chip it the rest of the way off and wipe it down with the tung oil.

I've always found it annoying how Poly reflects so much light in flash photography, and how fingerprint and forearm-skin-oil-streaks just jump right out at you. So I got the "Low Gloss" tung oil.

Here's the guitar now, I'll post some pics when I'm done. I took some of the poly coming off, I'll get them posted too.

[Vol. Knob]

I spent 5 hours yesterday with a pocket knife, gently sliding it between the finish and the wood. It just lifed right up off the wood. I have a huge pile of plastic chips lying around. However, you cant see anymore poly finish on the body.

Granted, I havent taken the guitar apart yet. I still need to get the poly off under the pickguard, bridge plate and neck plate. I have a gig saturday, I'll play the guitar "nude" for that and get back to work on saturday.

I took a few pics, I'll post 'em later.

[Buckocaster51]

Don't tell too many people about that "huge pile of plastic chips" that you have lying around.

The EPA might declare it a Super Fund Site!



Good luck with your endeavors!