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  #1  
Old 03-18-2019, 12:44 PM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Default Help needed. Point me in the right direction, head stock repair.

I picked up this 60s/70s Hummingbird style, Made in Japan, with a previously repaired head stock break. The repair is solid but ugly. The guitar plays surprisingly great. Neck is straight and neck angle good, action perfect (adjustable saddle, save that for another day).

I could just fill, sand, repaint and buff but I think I'd like to save the inlay/logo. Would a drop fill and sand with black CA or gluboost work? I'm pretty sure it's poly.

All suggestions welcome. This guitar sounds and feels great, I'd like to get it looking more presentable. Thanks

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Old 03-18-2019, 12:52 PM
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Old 03-18-2019, 01:39 PM
runamuck runamuck is offline
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What I would use to repair that is a high quality, slow set epoxy. In my opinion, there are too many broken, short grained fibers to use an aliphatic glue like Titebond, which are bad at gap filling and will tend to swell the grain because it's water-based. When the grain swells becuae it's wet, the joint will not come together as tightly as when using epoxy. Don't use any of the 5 minutes types. Those never harden properly and soften over time.
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Old 03-18-2019, 02:02 PM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Sorry. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear, the repair is solid and it’s been holding for a long time. I wasn’t planning on taking it apart, just refinishing.
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Last edited by BB Brown; 03-18-2019 at 02:11 PM.
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Old 03-18-2019, 02:11 PM
redir redir is offline
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It looks like it slipped when he was clamping it up. But if he used a good epoxy then that's probably why it's held together so long. It's probably finished with Nitro. You can test that by removing one of the tuners and checking to see if the finish melts with a lacquer thinner.

Black is very forgiving to touch up. You can fill that with epoxy, level sand and spray with black nitro. Mack off areas you don't want over spray and try to thin the finish to zero, IOW don't spray right over masking tape else you will have a ledge.

FOr the back side you could just fill and spray black too, it would look different but certainly better anyway.
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Old 03-18-2019, 03:18 PM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redir View Post
It looks like it slipped when he was clamping it up. But if he used a good epoxy then that's probably why it's held together so long. It's probably finished with Nitro. You can test that by removing one of the tuners and checking to see if the finish melts with a lacquer thinner.

Black is very forgiving to touch up. You can fill that with epoxy, level sand and spray with black nitro. Mack off areas you don't want over spray and try to thin the finish to zero, IOW don't spray right over masking tape else you will have a ledge.

FOr the back side you could just fill and spray black too, it would look different but certainly better anyway.
Thanks, would paint thinner/mineral spirits work to test to see if it's lacquer? Because I used some paint thinner on a q-tip and can rub for 45 seconds and nothing came up...no mark on guitar and q-tip is still white. I hope it is nitro, I have a rattle can in black already


I agree it looks like it slipped when clamped, but it's held through different tuning and string changes, so I think it should be okay.
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Last edited by BB Brown; 03-18-2019 at 03:36 PM.
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Old 03-18-2019, 04:10 PM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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I have no doubt that the finish is polyester. I would fill the gaps with CA, then sand lightly and overspray with lacquer.
Paint thinner (mineral spirits, naphtha) has no effect on lacquer. Acetone or lacquer thinner are the test solvents. Polyester is impervious to pretty much everything.
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Old 03-18-2019, 05:53 PM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
I have no doubt that the finish is polyester. I would fill the gaps with CA, then sand lightly and overspray with lacquer.
Paint thinner (mineral spirits, naphtha) has no effect on lacquer. Acetone or lacquer thinner are the test solvents. Polyester is impervious to pretty much everything.
Thanks John. Just so I have it correct, lacquer over poly is okay?

To keep the logo, even though it's not the cleanest looking inlay, I should tape over? My thinking is I need to feather it very lightly when I overspray toward the top to get it to look okay.
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Old 03-18-2019, 06:27 PM
runamuck runamuck is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BB Brown View Post
Thanks John. Just so I have it correct, lacquer over poly is okay?

To keep the logo, even though it's not the cleanest looking inlay, I should tape over? My thinking is I need to feather it very lightly when I overspray toward the top to get it to look okay.
Lightly sand the entire finish with 320+- and the lacquer will stick.

Sorry that I hadn't carefully read your OP and gave you irrelevancies.
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Old 03-18-2019, 07:25 PM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by runamuck View Post
Lightly sand the entire finish with 320+- and the lacquer will stick.

Sorry that I hadn't carefully read your OP and gave you irrelevancies.
No worries, I appreciate the help. I'm still a little unsure about spraying the transition from the break up to the inlay. I'll take it slow and see how it goes.
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Old 03-19-2019, 04:21 AM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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It is an easy colouring job.

Process.

First - fill the void that exists in the headplate at the break, use wood putty, or epoxy, or car bog or whatever is readily available.

Second - smooth sand the surface flat

Third - shellac the filled area

Four - paint just the lower section, or mask the inlays and spray the whole headplate black

Five - scuff sand and apply 4 coats of clear lacquer

Six- allow dry for one to two weeks, wet sand 2000 grit on a backing block

Seven -buff smooth or micro mesh

You should have a pretty inviisble headplate repair, repeat similiar for the back area

Steve
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Old 03-19-2019, 05:01 AM
BB Brown BB Brown is offline
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Steve
Thanks for the detailed reply, really helps. One question, what purpose does the shellac over the filled area serve?
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  #13  
Old 03-19-2019, 05:17 AM
mirwa mirwa is offline
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Shellac simply seals the surface so nothing affects your paint process.

Steve
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