Finish repair

[BradHall]

I recently acquired a 1992 Taylor 710. According to the records still available from Taylor it was built shortly after Taylor moved to the El Cajon location, although it has a Santee label on the head block. I was told it has a Frazee conversion varnish finish. There are a few light scratches and a rubbed dull area on the back that I would be interested in repairing. Since Frazee is long gone, does anyone have a suggestion of something compatible?

[phavriluk]

Has this topic been discussed with Taylor?

[BradHall]

Initial information only. Glitch on the chat function. Will try to call directly during business hours next week. Just thought someone in the repair field might be familiar with this particular product.

[srick]

Search is your friend!

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...94#post2079494

See the post by pickoid 1 about the third paragraph down.

[BradHall]

Thank you. Lots of information there.

[John Arnold]

I use CA to touch up catalyzed finishes. I use Gluboost accelerator.

[conecaster]

Originally Posted by BradHall

I recently acquired a 1992 Taylor 710. According to the records still available from Taylor it was built shortly after Taylor moved to the El Cajon location, although it has a Santee label on the head block. I was told it has a Frazee conversion varnish finish. There are a few light scratches and a rubbed dull area on the back that I would be interested in repairing. Since Frazee is long gone, does anyone have a suggestion of something compatible?

http://www.macraesbluebook.com/searc...company=452425

This makes sense, a San Deigo Co.

I suspect it is a Urethane finish sold as a varnish.

I would call Frazee and ask what their conversion varnish is.

CA banned solvent based finishes back when. Could be they stopped making it for locals.

[BradHall]

Thanks for the link. In case anyone else is looking for answers to my question, this is what I found. Frazee paints was bought out 10 years ago by Sherwin Williams. They do carry a conversion varnish. It is a “wipe on” finish and will not polish to a gloss finish. Available only by special order at approximately $100 a gallon. No smaller quantities available. Think I’ll pass.

[John Arnold]

California may have banned solvent based finishes, but Santa Cruz still uses nitrocellulose lacquer. I have never asked Richard Hoover how that works. Maybe it is a volume thing.

[conecaster]

Originally Posted by John Arnold

California may have banned solvent based finishes, but Santa Cruz still uses nitrocellulose lacquer. I have never asked Richard Hoover how that works. Maybe it is a volume thing.

Interesting John,

I suspect they had to invest in a lot of filtering to pass emissions standards.

The other finisher in Santa Cruz people use, I think his name is Adam, who worked with Rick Turner, does lacquer as well.

The whole UV cure polyester thing was adopted to get around emissions because its 100% solids.

I had to repair a side crack in a Taylor last week. I truly do not like polyester on acoustic guitars. Its hard and brittle. I feel like its the equivalent of putting a hard casing around the instrument.

Repairing it is a nuisance. I glued the crack with really high strength epoxy but it required a lot of messing around to fix the blending of materials and then spray over it with an acrylic urethane to cover up the lack of blending between materials.

I have no interest in using Polyester on my guitars. I do not care how fast it can be cured in a light oven.