Fixing Cracks in the Neck - Any Guidance

[Radiohead]

Hey all,

I picked up an inexpensive project guitar. My biggest problem is the neck. Someone, at sometime, moved the base plate and reattached the neck. They did not drill pilot holes and as a consequence cracked the base of the neck. See pics. Can anyone provide some guidance on the fix procedure for this?

Also, I plan to change the colour to white. This is my first project. When stripping, do you use regular paint stripper and sand paper and remove the paint like you would with furniture? Can anyone provide suggestions or outline the process for painting? Do you use spray paint with spray lacquer?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[spider murphy]

you could put the screws(or something else like a thin metal rod) in the holes and carefully widen the cracks a bit by applying a bit of sideways pressure, and work some wood glue into the cracks with a piece of paper. after the glue has been worked into the cracks clamp it up.

[Cjpalo]

The best two ways I've found to remove paint ( Thanks Sully for the info) is with aircraft paint remover from most automotive stores and a heat gun. I've tried 4 other semi-paste paint strippers and none of them touched the finish. 60-100 grit sandpaper works well too but it strips off too much too fast imo.

[sully]

yikes. looks like a fair amount of CA glue or epoxy in there. You could drill out a fair amount of the holes (and cracks) with a forstner bit, fill the new holes with new wood, and clamp it all up.

there's a good amount of paint tutorials out there, but www.reranch.com has some great info.

sully

[DonP]

If the existing finish is not badly chipped up, it might be a lot easier just scuffing it up (so that the new paint can bite) and applying paint to this.

I decided to take one guitar down to the wood because it was a maple body and I wanted to see how the maple looked. It was a PITA getting the paint off.