Gmc Finish Repair

[Filback]

Hello people,

I'm new to the forum but I do come to projectguitar often... It has helped me quite a few times.

Anyway, I'm sorry to just barge in asking questions, but, if you'll help me, here's the deal:

I have an Ibanez Jem GMC. A few months ago it suffered a fall and the finish on the upper edge next to the arm rest cracked and broke. Only the clear was affected, not the paint. I picked up all the bits and assembled the "puzzle" and covered it all with adhesive cellophane (I think it is).

But of course, I'm not happy... it looks bad and the adhesive is starting to come off.

So, I would like to ask you guitar shop gurus if it is possible to repair it... The clear is really thick (never guessed it would be that thick).

It doesn't have to be perfect, I accept the fact that you can see it was repaired, but is it even possible to refinish just that bit?

I appreciate your help.

Cheers,

Filipe

[urbansmurf]

You can repair just a small part like that, but you'll have some work to do. You'll need to feather the clear out onto the rest of the guitar and then wetsand the overspray with really high grit paper and then buff it. A better option, is to sand down the damage with high grit paper, just to get it even, not to go through the color, and then reclear the whole guitar. Either way is going to be a bit of a task but it can be done. Either way you want to go I'd help you out with advice as best I can. I painted cars for 2 and a half years so I've done my share of both methods. Hope this is helpful.

[SwedishLuthier]

How big is the ding? If it isn't too big your best option could be a very simple but slightly time consuming CA (takes some time to buid thickness) glue fill, followed by levelsanding and buffing. The advantage of this is that you do not need any special equipment, only super glue, sand paper and buffing paste. This is very similar:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Te...l/dropfill.html

More on scraping out excess fill:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Te...zorscrape2.html

Or just glue the chips back:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Te...lake/flake.html

Frank Ford, what a guy...

[Filback]

The ding is huge (at least in my opinion), and the clear is about 3mm thick. I can't glue the pieces back together because they're not opaque, and the glue might dissolve the paint. Also, I don't have all the pieces.

Here is a picture:

It has the adhesive tape covering the pieces.

The idea I liked most was swedishluthier's. That might work, no?