Peeling/Lifting up Clear coat.

[AAEA]

Hey guys, so I do a lot of restoration on guitars and just got in a Ibanez USA custom with the "Aliens Revenge" graphic, by all means this is a Giger esk finish and was done by none other than Dan Lawrence. my issues is this, lots and lots of clear coat bubble up, lifting, and peeling off. sorta flaking away at areas. Now usually when I encounter such a situation I simple strip guitar and reapply but in this case I can't do that unless I want to wipe out the Dan Lawrence graphic.

So keeping the graphic safe is #1 priority but I would like to eliminate the clear coat issues or at least significantly reduce them.

any thoughts would be helpful. pics to come soon.

[DonP]

Take it here http://www.drlgrafx.com/

[rjohnstone]

^^^ This.
Have Dan fix it.

[AAEA]

Yea, I messaged him when I got it and haven't heard back yet. I asked him the same question. but if anyone else has some clue as to what to do I'm all ears. I've been restoring guitars for close to 16 years now so I do have lots of experience but this is a especially tricky job.

[jacksonaxes]

I had a USA Fusion with EDS finish, and the clear was separating- lifting inside the single coil pickup routes. I dripped some water thin super glue in there and bingo it looked like new. For some reason the clear on those EDS finishes does not adhere real well. Can we see some pictures of the lifting?

[AAEA]

So here is a spot I was working on. And yes, I am doing what Dan himself said to do.

Pretty much chip away the flaky area best you can without damaging the airbrushing.

clean area with a non solvent cleaner or non corrosive cleaner. (water and soap worked great)

Get a bottle of Wipe on self leveling poly clear. (this stuff is thin as water)

Get some artist bushes and make sure to get a fine tipped one for hard to get to areas.

then apply the poly lightly until covering.

repeat if needed.

[SylentCommando]

I would just apply some super glue to the damaged areas and and let it dry and add a couple coats to fill the affecte area's then scrap with a flat razorblade with tape on both sides of the blade and leave the center bare, and level the glue to the body, wet sand and polish, good as new. Also every guitar needs some battle wounds lol.

[AAEA]

It came out pretty good and I feel I saved the graphic. I'll post pics soon.