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The dreaded plastic guitar case. I’ve had these cases for Fenders, Ibanezes, G&Ls, and now a Jackson. They do tend to get pretty crappy looking after years / decades, but the thick molded Styrofoam that makes up a large part of the innards actually does a pretty good job of protecting the guitar and holding it tight, and I’d guess a good job of insulating from temperature swings, since there’s not a lot of dead air space. It seems like the clasps are the weak link, and eventually break off of the plastic, and I don’t know of a good way to repair that condition after a couple of them break.
I should have gotten a before pic, but I didn’t. This one was fairly rough looking, scuffed up with paint rubs, had the plastic skin looking dull and gray, the aluminum trim was dull and oxidized, and the metal feet on the bottom edge were pushed part way through the plastic. It also had flaking silver paint on the embossed Jackson logo, with what looked like fingernail polish.
I’ve restored several of these, and they come out very well. I use auto products – Maguiars Natural Shine Protectant, and Mother’s Aluminum Polish. I’ve used the Maguiars for years on my car trim, plastic, and rubber, and it works amazingly well at restoring faded dull plastic, and lasts for a LONG time, even out in the sun and weather. On a guitar case, it seems to last almost indefinitely. The Mothers shines the aluminum, but takes some rubbing. I didn't put much time into the aluminum because it is scratched up all the way around, indicating that it's doing its job. I used a hot glue gun for the metal feet, and after building up a few layers of glue, they got pretty solid.
I used naptha and Scotchbrite to get the paint scuffs off, and scraped the nail polish off with a screwdriver and brass brush. The inside was still good, and just needed vacuumed. It came out pretty well, I thought. Some Hoppes 9 gun oil on the latches got them working smoothly again.
I had a G&L case that had a whole bottom corner eaten off, down to the white Styrofoam, and I cut out the bottom corner of a plastic oil bottle and slid it in between the foam and plastic shell, and hot glued it up, and it worked out fine for a gigging / beater case. I did cover / reinforce the corner with black duct tape engineering on that one.
I bought an old MIJ Fender Tele Thinline from a guy, and when we were haggling on the price, I said it needs a new case, and he said, yes – this one is roached. Surprisingly, I cleaned and restored it to nearly like new with the Maguiars. It was the first one I did, and I was amazed.
Once I do one of these 30 year old cases, I probably won’t touch it again for years as far as cleaning it, but I like to bring old things back to life and extend their service life, and an hour or so of effort goes a long way in usage, cost savings, and resale value … and makes the case more worthy of a cool guitar that goes inside.
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I should have gotten a before pic, but I didn’t. This one was fairly rough looking, scuffed up with paint rubs, had the plastic skin looking dull and gray, the aluminum trim was dull and oxidized, and the metal feet on the bottom edge were pushed part way through the plastic. It also had flaking silver paint on the embossed Jackson logo, with what looked like fingernail polish.
I’ve restored several of these, and they come out very well. I use auto products – Maguiars Natural Shine Protectant, and Mother’s Aluminum Polish. I’ve used the Maguiars for years on my car trim, plastic, and rubber, and it works amazingly well at restoring faded dull plastic, and lasts for a LONG time, even out in the sun and weather. On a guitar case, it seems to last almost indefinitely. The Mothers shines the aluminum, but takes some rubbing. I didn't put much time into the aluminum because it is scratched up all the way around, indicating that it's doing its job. I used a hot glue gun for the metal feet, and after building up a few layers of glue, they got pretty solid.
I used naptha and Scotchbrite to get the paint scuffs off, and scraped the nail polish off with a screwdriver and brass brush. The inside was still good, and just needed vacuumed. It came out pretty well, I thought. Some Hoppes 9 gun oil on the latches got them working smoothly again.
I had a G&L case that had a whole bottom corner eaten off, down to the white Styrofoam, and I cut out the bottom corner of a plastic oil bottle and slid it in between the foam and plastic shell, and hot glued it up, and it worked out fine for a gigging / beater case. I did cover / reinforce the corner with black duct tape engineering on that one.
I bought an old MIJ Fender Tele Thinline from a guy, and when we were haggling on the price, I said it needs a new case, and he said, yes – this one is roached. Surprisingly, I cleaned and restored it to nearly like new with the Maguiars. It was the first one I did, and I was amazed.
Once I do one of these 30 year old cases, I probably won’t touch it again for years as far as cleaning it, but I like to bring old things back to life and extend their service life, and an hour or so of effort goes a long way in usage, cost savings, and resale value … and makes the case more worthy of a cool guitar that goes inside.
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