finish crack help... :(

[toogoodd]

Just purchased a MJT body on Ebay a couple days ago. Even though it was well packaged, the box came pretty squished on one side... I'm currently residing in Seoul, South Korea, and I've purchased MJT bodies from the US 4 times, but this is the first time it came in damaged. I'm sure the damage came during shipping. This sucks because I really like the grain and the color... But absolutely heartbroken about this. The seller is really good to me, and we're trying to figure something out. But at the moment... I'm trying to check if there's any way of fixing this without refinishing the whole thing. The body is lightly relic'd, so this looks really off compared to the rest of the body. Apparently, Korea doesn't have a lot of top professionals that can handle nitro-lacquer finish problems. I've talk to three of the best here, and they all said it's a either a full refinish, a relic job, or just staining that exposed wood with similar color. Which all are really expensive here because hardly anyone does this work.

I was just wondering... what would be my best option here... and is it really that difficult to touch up on this damage? (excuse my for being naive about this ) Anyways, any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Jupiter]

man that sucks, but I hope you are ready for some good-natured ribbing about damage to a relic'ed body

 

[toogoodd]

man that sucks, but I hope you are ready for some good-natured ribbing about damage to a relic'ed body

Thanks for the words, Jupiter. I guess positively it's somewhat good since it's where the picking arm rests, but the crack is a bit rough, so it feels a bit uncomfortable when I rest my forearm on it. Of all the places, it's where the arm rests that's damaged...

 

[Uncle Daddy]

Banjo armrest?

 

[trev333]

maybe look online for arm rests to cover it...

or roll the corner off with sandpaper to give it a nice blended curve ..

or find that exact shade in nail polish to get the colour back and then many coats of clear laquer or even super glue and sand/polish it back to blend in...

I made this one for my acoustic that has square/sharp binding.... comfy

 

[Jupiter]

The armrest thingie could be a good tactic.

If it was me, I’d prolly try to minimize it first, a bit of color, a bit of filling, a bit of sanding, and when I had it nice and fully botched, then I’d do trev’s idea

 

[trev333]

now if it was black and dinged at the bottom, like this one..it would be easier to hide

 

[Freeman Keller]

Apparently, Korea doesn't have a lot of top professionals that can handle nitro-lacquer finish problems.

Are you sure it is nitro? That makes a big difference - nitro can be drop filled with tinted lacquer, then some clear, then sanded and buffed.

If it is anything but nitro (some sort of catalyzed poly something) then it can be drop filled with tinted cyanoacrylate, sanded and buffed. I don't have as good a luck with poly finishes but I have repaired them with

Fill n' Finish

Fill n' Finish is a flexible, water clear wood finish, pore filler, and repair products that are both fast and easy to use.

www.gluboost.com

They are similar process but very different products and while you won't be able to completely hide the chip you can make it look better and not continue to chip away. Gluboost has some pretty good videos about how to use their products.

 

[toogoodd]

Are you sure it is nitro? That makes a big difference - nitro can be drop filled with tinted lacquer, then some clear, then sanded and buffed.

If it is anything but nitro (some sort of catalyzed poly something) then it can be drop filled with tinted cyanoacrylate, sanded and buffed. I don't have as good a luck with poly finishes but I have repaired them with

Fill n' Finish

Fill n' Finish is a flexible, water clear wood finish, pore filler, and repair products that are both fast and easy to use.

www.gluboost.com

They are similar process but very different products and while you won't be able to completely hide the chip you can make it look better and not continue to chip away. Gluboost has some pretty good videos about how to use their products.

Thanks for the advice, Freeman Keller. Greatly appreciate it. The top shops here in Seoul use Mohawk Lacquer products as far as I know.

But the prices they're offering are just ridiculously high here. Also, all three pretty much refused to repair because they say it's not worth the time. I even asked them if they can just stain and tint the exposed wood to a similar color, doesn't have to be professionally done, but they all refused either way. It's really frustrating because I feel like they should be able to do this.

I've just checked out some of Glyboost's products. Looks pretty promising. But as I don't have any tools at the moment, do you have any recommendations for tinting products?

Again, thank you so much for your advice. It's giving me some hope to somehow solve this situation.

 

[stratisfied]

That is a simple repair. I'd have it looking brand new old again in about an hour. Sandpaper, airbrush, toner and matte lacquer.

 

[toogoodd]

That is a simple repair. I'd have it looking brand new old again in about an hour. Sandpaper, airbrush, toner and matte lacquer.

Thanks for the reply. That's how I felt, too. But the shops here were asking for $500 for full refinish job, about $350 for a soft relic job around that damaged area (but they said it won't look pretty), and about the same price for a touch up job that will look like crap. They were all very hesitant because it's a burst finish.

 

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the reply. That's how I felt, too. But the shops here were asking for $500 for full refinish job, about $350 for a soft relic job around that damaged area (but they said it won't look pretty), and about the same price for a touch up job that will look like crap. They were all very hesitant because it's a burst finish.

If they are anything like the finish people in Japan, they’ll be VERY hesitant to take on any project that they don’t think they can do PERFECTLY.

 

[Freeman Keller]

Well, as I said before, it makes a huge difference what the finish is. Its an easy test, put a couple of drops of lacquer thinner or acetone or nail polish remover on the finish in a hidden spot - neck or pickup cavity. If the finish softens its lacquer, if it doesn't its something else. The process is the same but the materials you use are different.

Lacquer - put a drop of amber transtint dye in a little bit of clear lacquer until you have a good color match. Put a drop in the crack, let it dry. Another drop, let that dry. Keep it up until the crack is full and higher than the surrounding finish. Scrape with a protected box cutter blade, wet sand starting about 800 and going to 2000, buff. If I was doing it I would spray a couple of coats of clear lacquer fading it into the surrounding finish (lacquer will melt in to old lacquer) before the buff.

Not lacquer - tint some medium viscosity CA until you are happy with the match. Put a drop on the crack, let it cure. Put another on, ditto, until it is level with the surface. Scrape, sand and buff as before. CA will not melt into the old finish, however it should glue down the edges of the break so it doesn't continue to crack out. I would not use an accelerator with the CA, it can turn it white.

With either finish it often helps to actually stain the bare wood first if you can - you might be able to mix a bit of amber transtint with alcohol and brush that onto the wood before you put the lacquer or CA on.

Here is a guitar that was dropped onto gravel, it is poly so I used glue boost.

There were dings on both sides of the back. The little light lines are the bare wood showing thru - I should have put a bit of stain on the wood first. Its not a perfect repair but its better and won't continue to chip.

 

[Beebe]

I think a good repair can make a guitar cooler.

Twoodfrd has my favorite repair videos. Below are a couple that could help.

@Freeman Keller 's advice sounds like the right way to do it, but for another way, go to 9:10 on this one. Here Twoodfrd shows how he color matches by layering alcohol based artist markers. And then fills with shellac. This can work for unknown finish types:



He also does a lot of headstock repairs that could help. Here is one.

 

[Timbresmith1]

If you can get Mohawk stuff, take it to the paint store. There may be a touch up marker that is very close.

 

[stratisfied]

Here's a repair on an Electra Omega that was dropped and splintered the corner off the back. I built the corner back up with some 5 minute epoxy and an airbrush to apply Mohawk Deep Red Toner and then sprayed with Mohawk UltraFlow Lacquer straight from the can to cover and blend. I played a little "hide and seek" with the grain on the back as the entire corner grain was lost due to the depth of the epoxy fill. The original finish was poly. This is before I rubbed it out with McGuier's Ultimate Polish.