Repairing paint chip on strat body

dan182uk · April 2022

Hi, I have a 50s subburst strat where a large piece of paint has chipped off at the neck pocket. I still have the chipped off bit of paint and was planning to stick it back on using black paint and then sanding and filling with clear gloss to blend it all back in. Don’t cringe it should work.

I’ve figured out by the serial number it has Polyurethane paint and seems to be slightly harder to get hold of in a spray can rather than Acrylic and nitro which is now more readily available. Is mixing paint types a good idea? Like if I used a Halfords clear gloss would it match the rest of it? I have nitro at home too which I can use so same questions goes for that too. Or is it best to try and source poly to match?

Thank you

Dan

Deadman · April 2022

If the chip fits neatly I'd be thinking about supergluing it back in place and leaving it. Maybe a touch in around the edge with black gloss if needed.

I'm afraid I am cringing slightly as it's a right old mess on to blend in by locally rubbing down, spraying and polishing back on a guitar, particularly a poly-clad Strat. I do it on cars (with 2K) but on guitars it can be a right old pain.

I also drop-fill celly with a brush (on nitro guitars) and flat and polish back, which is an easy way.

dan182uk · April 2022

Thank you for your reply, I will take a photo of it tonight and let you have a looksie. What you said was kind of what I was thinking. The black gloss would that be best poly?

munckee · April 2022

I did a small chip on my poly Acoustic recently (sunburst) painted it with a posca paint pen and then used super glue to fill the poly hole. Sanded it to 1200 being careful not to sand the surrounding area more than necessary.

Then Tcut then car polish to bring to a shine.

Deadman · April 2022

munckee said:

I did a small chip on my poly Acoustic recently (sunburst) painted it with a posca paint pen and then used super glue to fill the poly hole. Sanded it to 1200 being careful not to sand the surrounding area more than necessary.

Then Tcut then car polish to bring to a shine.

Same here, but I used nitro laquer (drop-filled). When flatting back I stuck my wet and dry to a small 1 inch square piece of plastic with double sided tape and wet flatted. Worked an absolute treat and like you said, kept it away from the surrounding area. I also went 1000-1500-2000 and it T-cutted up well.

Deadman · April 2022

dan182uk said:

Thank you for your reply, I will take a photo of it tonight and let you have a looksie. What you said was kind of what I was thinking. The black gloss would that be best poly?

A pic would help.

Honestly? I wouldn't mess about with 'poly'. I have (gallons!!) of polyurethane (2-pack) at my disposal as we use it heavily on certain equipment but would only ever use nitrocellulose for guitar repairs, it's so much easier to work with. Superglue works really well for 'filling' too as @munckee has suggested as you can flat it back.

ICBM · April 2022

I would superglue the chip back in if it fits perfectly. After that you can see if it needs any touching up around the join line.

SteveRobinson · April 2022

Using black superglue

dan182uk · April 2022

dan182uk · April 2022

Hi, thank you for your replies.

Here are some pictures of the paint chip.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBrRCzBD8hJANjkZx_ACptQe6hHoQ0Ib/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13beGkIXxzspJmgXkDFaI0UcEJ76zlhBy/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AAhjRBhMqHQk8o8GkqmQqVQ36aKT3P8j/view?usp=sharing

Cheers

Dan

dan182uk · April 2022

I have just ordered black super glue. Never knew you could get it!! I have loads of clear gloss nitro here so I can use that to drip fill around it. Will post pics afterwards

Deadman · April 2022

Blimey! That looks like it’ll glue on and fit very snugly. I probably wouldn’t even be bothered about ‘filling’ in the gaps and just accept it for what it is.

ICBM · April 2022

dan182uk said:

Here are some pictures of the paint chip.

Wow - I've never seen a chip that size come away so cleanly before. It looks like the wood surface wasn't properly prepared and the finish hasn't bonded to it at all.

As Deadman says, it's such a perfect fit it should glue back snugly without needing much else.

But check that there isn't a 'lip' on the edge of the neck pocket, and if there is, file or sand it flat (using inward file strokes only!) since if there is, the pressure of the neck against it may be what popped it off in the first place, and could again.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Repairing paint chip on strat body

Comments