Huge Chip! What Can We Do?

[SJP]

HI there,

We sprayed our final coat of clear 4 days ago, and let the guitar sit. And today we decided to take off the masking tape before the paint hardened it in too much. Well in the proces of pealing it off a very large chunk of paint broke off (pictured below). We still have part of the chip that came out, and it fits back in rather nicely, but there is still quite a large gap as you can see to the right of the chip. Could this be because we only waited 4 days? The grey underneath is primer by the way. We are thinking we should apoxy the chip back in and then fill the rest with either more apoxy and then paint over it, or drop fill the rest with black paint until its high enough to sand level again. Does that sound good? Or is there a better way to do this? Thanks.

SJP

[thegarehanman]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the basecoat is supposed to be able to separate from the primer like that. I think you may have some adhesion issues, which would mean that this chip is the least of your worries.

peace,

russ

[westhemann]

i was thinking the same thing garehanman.but it could just be that it is spray can paintand that it was not hardened yet combined with uncareful unmasking

did you sand the primer coat with 220 or so so that the color coatwould stick?is the color coat compatible with the primer?

fixing that chip will not be easy...even if there are no adhesion issues.i am no expert on chips...but i think you have to at the least fill the cip,recolor the entire body,and reclear...

but i am fairly new into finishing

[Southpa]

No matter what you are working on I was told always ALWAYS remove any masking tape before the finish cures. And yes you should not have "lift-off" like that. Your primer coat did not have enough "tooth" to hold the topcoat, should have been a rougher surface. What kind of primer and topcoat was used? If the two paints are different then there could be an incompatibility issue.

[SJP]

I used Duplicolor primer/sandsealer and Duplicolor paint on top. So there shouldn't have been a problem with the two, but now that I think back I probably sanded the primer coat higher than 220, so it was too smooth. I can see why that was a mistake now.

[Mickguard]

I used Duplicolor primer/sandsealer and Duplicolor paint on top. So there shouldn't have been a problem with the two, but now that I think back I probably sanded the primer coat higher than 220, so it was too smooth. I can see why that was a mistake now.

I'd understand why the masking tape might have lifted off a bit of color, but I don't see why it'd chip like that...seems like 4 days isn't long enough for spray paint to get so hard it'd chip...did you put this under heat lamps or in an oven or something?

Just seems strange to me...

[PaintIt]

A common mistake regardless of the paint is not cleaning the sanded primer properly. If a good final clean product is not used a thin layer of sanding residue can be left on the surface or in the scratches. If this is the case it will have poor adhesion. One sign of this in the chip can be that the primer has not been stained by the color and the undersinde of the chip has the primer color on it very light. When using a final clean solvent you need to wipe on with one rag and off with a dry rag. The reason for this is so that the evaporating cleaner does not leave any residue in the scratches.

[Drak]

Just a word to the wise...there is no reason I know of to leave your tape on there any longer than maybe a 1/2 hour, that's it.

I usually pull tape after 15-20 minutes max.

[guitar2005]

The tape should have torn before the paint. I would seriously consider redoing the paint job properly.

[thegarehanman]

Paintit, do you use a special degreaser for cleaning sanded primer? I shoot PPG, omni and some other catalyst dried clears at the moment and on the rare occasion that I spray a solid color and use primer, I've always used this "special" degreaser from the auto-paint stores. It seems a lot less caustic than any of the solvents you'd get at home depot etc. Do you know if it's anything unique or just something that's been repackaged? I'm just curious.

[SJP]

Well I'm glad that all you guys pionted out our mistakes and all that, the advice will go to work on our next guitars. That duplicolor paint was horrible, it took forever to dry and was just a pain to work with all together. We were very new to finishing when we started this project, and still are, and I can't count on my hands how many things we would do differently.

But we realized today what caused the chip, it wasn't just the masking. We made a jig that attatched to the neck bolt holes so that we could rotate the guitar and spray our front and back flat (we read this was the best way to do it). When we took off the jig, paint was gluing the jig in and a whole chunk poppep out with it. So we'll have to revise our spraying methods next time.

But is doesnt really matter because we have filled the chip already and once we paint over it you won't be able to see or feel it. But next time will be better....

I'll post some pictures later tonight, or tomarrow.

SJP

[guitar2005]

Well I'm glad that all you guys pionted out our mistakes and all that, the advice will go to work on our next guitars. That duplicolor paint was horrible, it took forever to dry and was just a pain to work with all together. We were very new to finishing when we started this project, and still are, and I can't count on my hands how many things we would do differently.

SJP

I'm glad you sorted out your problems. Finish can be very frustrating at times.

Duplicolor ? Oh no... I hope you didn't use their clear and if you did, you used very little.

On my Rhoads V, I used DupliColor clear and I drove me crazy. It took forever to cure and to do this day, 1.5 years later, the clear still isn't hard. When I play the guitar sitting on my lap, I get imprints from my pant's fabric on the guitar's finish. If in another year, there's still no improvement, I will strip it and paint it all over again

I used 12-14 coats of duplicolor clear. I called their customer service and they said that it would eventually harden.

Their solid colors seems to harden better but I will never, ever use duplicolor again.

[PaintIt]

Paintit, do you use a special degreaser for cleaning sanded primer? I shoot PPG, omni and some other catalyst dried clears at the moment and on the rare occasion that I spray a solid color and use primer, I've always used this "special" degreaser from the auto-paint stores. It seems a lot less caustic than any of the solvents you'd get at home depot etc. Do you know if it's anything unique or just something that's been repackaged? I'm just curious.

I use two different cleaners that I purchase at my paint distributor. I will have to look at the names on them. Both are for final cleaning between stages. The first is similar to mineral spirits but not oily and the second is a low VOC cleaner that is really mild. The reason for the different types s that if you use the regular final clean it is strong enough to remove a small amount of paint. So on multi colored base and delicate airbrush areas I use the milder low voc cleaner. This prevents dragging one color over another and also does not remove the fine spray from the airbrush

[SJP]

Well I'm glad that all you guys pionted out our mistakes and all that, the advice will go to work on our next guitars. That duplicolor paint was horrible, it took forever to dry and was just a pain to work with all together. We were very new to finishing when we started this project, and still are, and I can't count on my hands how many things we would do differently.

SJP

I'm glad you sorted out your problems. Finish can be very frustrating at times.

Duplicolor ? Oh no... I hope you didn't use their clear and if you did, you used very little.

On my Rhoads V, I used DupliColor clear and I drove me crazy. It took forever to cure and to do this day, 1.5 years later, the clear still isn't hard. When I play the guitar sitting on my lap, I get imprints from my pant's fabric on the guitar's finish. If in another year, there's still no improvement, I will strip it and paint it all over again

I used 12-14 coats of duplicolor clear. I called their customer service and they said that it would eventually harden.

Their solid colors seems to harden better but I will never, ever use duplicolor again.

NOOOOOO, we definately did no tuse their clear. Not after what we went through! I think I actually read one of your posts that talked about how it still leaves an imprint. We actaully used Stew Mac's nitro. Worked GREAT!

SJP