Fixing/Patching a headstock finish chip...

[GuerillaPete]

Any advice on how to 'fix' this finish chip that occurred when this neck was shipped back to me?

Much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[sully]

Do you have the chip? If so, I can go on. If not, Get yourself some Timbermate, fill in the area,and get ready to repaint it. Before I give a long ass reply, lemme know.

Sully

[GuerillaPete]

Chip is gone. Like most of the chips in my life they either get consumed or fall to the wayside.

Timbermate? Oooh. Sounds like a project. Yay! Do tell Sully. Do tell.

And thanks in advance.

[RacerX]

If so, I can go on.

and on, and on, and on

[sully]

Chip is gone. Like most of the chips in my life they either get consumed or fall to the wayside.

Timbermate? Oooh. Sounds like a project. Yay! Do tell Sully. Do tell.

And thanks in advance.

This may be more than you want to get into (thatswhatshesaid), but you'll basically fill the chip with Timbermate (way better than bondo. get it here), sand it flat, shoot some sealer over it, paint it black, and clear it. All of that said, you'll be refinishing the headstock, which may not really be something that you want to do. It'll be tough to match the black perfectly and all.

If you don't want to do something that involved, you could probably get by with the stewmac lacquer touch up pens (but keep in mind that the original finish isn't lacquer, so it's not going to melt into the existing finish).

So I guess my final question is how involved do you wanna get with it? (shealsosaidthat)

and on, and on, and on

True story. But whatev, good times! (DRINK!)

Sully

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

For semi-invisible repairs with poly (using lacquer) I use an unscientific formula of about 3 drops of thin super glue and 1 or 2 drops of lacquer. You have about a minute before it starts to set, and it gets pretty hard in around 1/2 hour (that's what he said, embarrassedly.)

You will have a witness line for sure. It looks better than wood. That is the crappy thing about poly, it's pretty much impossible to touch it up perfectly.

[sully]

Great stuff for filling dings and chips, for sure! Why do you mix your glue with lacquer, though? Does it help it flow out?

[GuerillaPete]

Thanks Sully. If I go down the Timbermate path, I might as well try and get the face refinished and logo'ed again. With not having much available free time, I may go down the shorter path and either get a touch-up pen or just a black sharpie - got a drawer full of 'em!

Much appreciated.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

If the chip is down to the wood, I use the paint to color the lacquer to match the paint, and make it opaque. I just use the Duplicolor auto touch up stuff you can get at Pep Boys or any number of other places.

Kind of the opposite effect for the flow. What happens is, when you put the paint in the lacquer, it acts almost like accelerator and it starts to harden up almost immediately, so I do it on a plastic spoon and stir it a couple of times really quickly and then get it where it needs to go ASAP.

It gets about as hard as super glue (about as hard as poly) in 1/2 hour instead of only getting as hard as lacquer, after many days, if you know what I mean.

[sully]

I see what you're saying; when I read that you mix it with lacquer, my mind was thinking clear lacquer, which didn't make sense to me.

[sully]

Thanks Sully. If I go down the Timbermate path, I might as well try and get the face refinished and logo'ed again. With not having much available free time, I may go down the shorter path and either get a touch-up pen or just a black sharpie - got a drawer full of 'em!

Much appreciated.

No prob! You definitely don't need to redo the whole thing. The tip that MAJNH posted will be the easiest way to go, fo sho.

sully

[GuerillaPete]

Good stuff! [drink!]

[Hellbat]

Good times! [drink!]

Fixed!

[GuerillaPete]

The tip that MAJNH posted will be the easiest way to go, fo sho.

Thanks Sully!

MAJH, are you referring to Duplicolor's Scratch-Fix 2-in-1 pens? Mix a few drops of that with a few super glue drop?

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Yep. Practice a little with it first... Super glue is nasty shit and acetone (what you'd use to remove super glue) will eat poly so this is one job where you can easily make it worse rather than better. I mean, you literally go from stirring the lacquer into the glue to "pudding consistency" in a few seconds, and that doesn't blend well with the chip's edges, so you have to work FAST.

As thin as that chip is, and with the location being right at the edge like that, you might want to just grab some black lacquer and run a piece of tape up the edge and fill it in with lacquer, in about 1/2 hour you can play the guitar again so long as you don't touch that area, and in a couple of days put a little more on there, then when it's built up just use a little fine rubbing compound to blend it in, after it hardens up for 3 weeks or so.

If you mess up with the touch-up paint stuff, a little rubbing alcohol will take it right off without harming the poly. The down side is, it takes a long time to get hard enough, and it shrinks A LOT when it dries.