Buffing out swirl scratches on black Rickenbacker

scarry67

The outer front “horns” on my 96 Rik 330 are dulled by age and swirling on finish (as if rubbed by washing up pad). Is there a good way to buff ‘em up to be a bit more glossy again? 

ICBM

T-Cut.

nero1701

I quite like DoDo Juice Lime Prime, it's a little less aggressive than T-Cut,  also the cut particles diminish with use.

PeteBo

I had a black Rick 4001 that someone had scratched what looked like a phone number in large digits on the back, T-cut did the job on that

scarry67

I’ve got some T Cut in the shed. Scratched bonnet of car when wiping off bird shite so I’ll put it to more use!

BillDL

scarry67 said:

I’ve got some T Cut in the shed. Scratched bonnet of car when wiping off bird shite so I’ll put it to more use!

My preference too.  If it's been lying for a long time give it a really good shake or even decant into a container, stir really well, clean the crusty dried residue from the neck of the bottle, and return the mixed contents to it.  It does separate quite a lot over time and all the fine abrasive sinks below the liquid. for fine hazing I double over a piece of soft cloth from an old T-shirt and wrap it around a ball of cotton wool.  For deeper scuffing I just fold the cloth multiple times and use it in a ball with more pressure, making sure I'm not pressing an edge or sewn seam down onto the surface.  Keep it wet and use a fresh side when it starts feeling sticky.  Allow to dry to a white haze, buff off, inspect and repeat.

scarry67

Thanks for detailed guidance, Bill. 

PeteBo

Don't know about 96 vintage instruments, but the Ricks I had were from the 70s and the paint seemed fairly "soft" hence the t-cut  buffing worked quite well.
I had a nasty moment with a different one once, when I tried to get some crap off with acetone (nail varnish remover) and it started taking the paint off 

BillDL

Acetone will most certainly start taking lacquer off given that standard nail varnish is nitrocellulose and nail varnish remover is mostly acetone.  Be very careful with Meths also.  Some of the brands these days don't just contain alcohol and purple dye, they contain other more aggressive solvents including something very similar to acetone that can eat into lacquers and plastics.

ICBM

Rickenbacker finishes aren’t nitro - not after 1959 anyway - they’re ’conversion varnish’, a type of catalysed polyurethane. Unlike modern 2-pack polyurethanes it is still prone to solvent damage, including from stands and straps with plasticisers in the material.

More recently - I’m not sure of the exact date, but around 15 years ago - they’ve changed to UV-cured polyester, which should be tougher. 

GoldenEraGuitars

scarry67 said:

The outer front “horns” on my 96 Rik 330 are dulled by age and swirling on finish (as if rubbed by washing up pad). Is there a good way to buff ‘em up to be a bit more glossy again? 

Based on my experience with Rickenbackers, and indeed the last Rickenbacker I worked on, the factory finish didn’t appear to be glass flat and smooth. Shiny, yes.. but not glass flat. They all seem to have a soft orange peel which indicates they are sprayed, buffed and polished but not wet sanded flat.

Based on that, I would take some Farecla G6 rapid cut paste on a buffer and (at a very slow speed) work the paste in. If you want to lubricate the pad you can use a little white spirits. Use a hard pad for this part too. I would advise against taking any wet and dry paper to the finish (unless you can post pics) as this will leave a very flat and shiny area on a guitar which may have soft orange peel. It’s also possibly you’ll put deeper scratches in than the ones that are already there.

Once the finish is back to a decent shine with the scratches removed switch to a soft pad and use T Cut (metallic, the one in the grey bottle which seems to work better for me) and this part will add depth and lustre to the black. Take it slowly, less is more.

You can do this by hand, but it’ll will likely take considerably longer to do.

Good luck.

scarry67

Limited success with T cut. Definitely put a bit too much on cloth…

GoldenEraGuitars

That is why I suggested G6 paste.. T Cut isn’t aggressive enough for the situation you described in your opening post. It won’t lower the surrounding finish enough to get the marks out. So in effect, you might just be making the scratches shiny. All this is based on a written description though, pics would help to advise further

Bowks

I've had great success with Music Nomad polish, if you sare looking for a guitar specific product. It buffed out pick scratches on my Musicman, which is a poly finish, but it says it is safe to work with nitro.

scarry67

It’s a poly finish and the swirls only really appear when looked at under light so I think I’ll stick. Sometimes best to leave things be! 

ICBM

scarry67 said:

It’s a poly finish

No it isn’t. This is exactly why that term should never be used…

It’s conversion varnish - which although chemically a type of polyurethane, behaves very differently from 2-pack polyurethane or any of the types of polyester which guitarists (and pretty much only guitarists) call “poly”. In many ways it’s far more like nitrocellulose in that it can be damaged by contact with synthetic materials containing dyes or plasticisers, buffed up quite easily, wears away with rubbing and is subject to weather checking.

scarry67

Interesting ICBM. It doesn’t quite look or feel like a poly finish. Nothing too conventional from Rickenbacker…

renaldo

The advice on the Rick Resource forum was always to use Meguiars Scratch-X (or more recently Swirl-X after they updated Scratch-X to Scratch-X 2.0 which was more coarse) to remove scratches and swirls and then Zymol Cleaner-Wax:
https://www.rickresource.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=255794&start=105
I've used these on my JG 360 with good results.

scarry67

Thanks Renaldo.