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On the guitar that I posted pics of the other day, I have a crack in the lacquer about 1 to 1.5 inches long on the top in the lower bout area. I assume that it got bumped or something during our recent move, at least I didn't notice it before the move.

Question is, how does one go about repairing this type of thing? I thought about using a fine brush and applying a little lacquer thinner there to see if it would melt together. I hate to spray the whole top cause it's a pain to buff out around the bridge and FB.

Any help would be appreciated.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Bump.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I would use some butyl cellasolve with a fine brush.It melts lacquer very well.Then wet sand and buff it in. As you said,thinner should work .This stuff is just a bit stronger.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Thanks Dave! I don't have any butyl cellusolve around and was trying to avoid another Stew Mac order for a month or two.

Maybe I'll just try it with the thinner and see if that works out ok.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Hey Dave, I just checked at Stew mac and it looks like they don't carry it anymore. Probably wasn't selling enough I suppose.Anyways ,good luck with your repair.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Thanks bud! If you hear loud screams coming from NW of you you'll know it didn't work out as expected.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

worst comes to worst you can sand back and re-coat that area. Nitro will burn in just fine

Thanks Michael! I figured if nothing else works I would try that. Just trying to avoid making any bigger mess of it than I have to.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Ntiro will melt into previsouly sprayed areas, but dont bother rubbing ti out for a while, like 6 months. The new stuff will be way softer than the original for a while and if you only let it cure for 3-4 weeks then flat sand and buff I GUARANTEE it will sink, leave a witness line of sorts and look like a repaired area. I stripped and redid two backs because its the only way to get it right IMO.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Thanks for the info guys!

Todd, did you spray some of the Tamiya into a cup or something and brush it on?

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Dave,

Here's a bit on Nitro cracks that's covered in Frets.com if you haven't already seen it...
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Finish/Lac quer/CheckRepair/checkfill.html

Rich

Thanks for the ideas Todd and Rich!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars