Help, i think im gonna puke

[syxxstring]

So, I recently decided that if im gonna own my custom shop strat I should play it more. I've just been afraid to drag it around too much and get it beat up. It's not the most expensive of custom shops but its the only strat ive ever liked, none the less loved.

What a f'in stupid idea! I should be beaten with a korean squire factory reject!

Well last night my nightmares came true at band practice. Our studio(garage) is lined with cubical walls and has a few "booths" sectioned out. Well we had some brackets on the top of a shelf that fell and one hit my guitar. It has a small dent with some missing finish. I need to either fix it, have it fixed, or at least prevent it from getting worse!

If it was a relic oh well, or a normal paint job an easy repair. But its a holoflake, so I have no idea where to start or what material were used. There is a small crack around the dent, so I think its too hard to be laquer but im not sure. Heres a gallery of the GUITAR, Ill post one of the dent later.

Frank Falbo, LGM, Brian, Scott, Anyone?(well anyone with a clue)

[Morben Guitars]

First, my condolences..

Lets see a picture of the damage...Having damaged more than my fair share of guitars, I can relate. It sounds like this is a guitar that you wouldn't be selling in the future - and with "monetary" value out of the question, it's often easier to handle. I've learned to live with, if not like the battle wounds on my guitars...SRV's Number 1 was once a brand new guitar...and he was probably upset the first time he chipped the finish as well.

Contact the Custom Shop to determine what finish they used on this guitar. I'd put some similar clear coat on the area to prevent further damage...

Hey, I cried when I got the first scuff on my sneakers as a kid...I know the feeling. But that guitar was built to be played...and play it you should!

[frank falbo]

To prevent it from getting worse you get a little thin CA in there to seal the cracks and to lock it back down to the wood. To repair it, you could probably find the same pinkish base color and put that on, then use medium CA to fill it, after you sprinkled some flakes down. Then sprinkle a couple more down right after so they're more randomly placed in the CA fill, and not all just resting flat on the bottom of the base color.

I don't know how big your dent is, but if it's like a grain of rice, then just the pink would probably be fine, becuase it looks like the flakes are pretty sparse. If it's the size of a coin then you'd do like what I said, unless I'm missing something from the pic, like the pink is a flip/flop color or maybe there's really more flakes than the pic shows, due to lighting. Or send it to me and I will do it for $1700

[syxxstring]

Its a pretty flakey finish. I suck at photography and its hard to photograph. The dents about 1/4" in diameter.

My understanding is they put down a base coat and then put the flakes in all the layers of clear. Its kinda a 3d effect. I wonder if i can get it the base paint matched somewhere.

Hey frank, I'll be visiting chicago in may if i bring it with can we move that decimal a few places to the left.

Im probably being picky but this is the first sign of wear on a 10 year old guitar. Ive had it for about 7.

I've been contimplating selling it but every other strat I play is ugly in comparison and doesnt play as well.

[frank falbo]

We can do it here if you're in the area. I'll be taking a vacation around the week of the 18th (anniversary) but if I'm around we'll do it. It shouldn't be hard once you match the color and the flake size to make a good fill. You could look for nail polish, but it's so soft that a CA fill on top of it can be unstable. Apply it thin, too, just thick enough to block out the wood. Or put a "primer" of black or white CA if you have any.

That price is firm, by the way. No negotiating. After all, I have to take a vacation in May!

[syxxstring]

Similar Ebay Body

This body looks kinda like it but a horible pink color that mine is not.

Similar Guitar

black tele

another one

Holoflake finish but in black

Similar guitars. Ive actually seen very few of these in person and at prices that make me cough.

I think they do this finish on Guilds, Gretch's and Squires now. In fact I think LGM did some work on one of the squires recently?

Ill get a damage pic tonight at home.

Can i go to an autopaint store to get matching flakes if i bring them the guitar?

Are holoflakes different than regular ones?

[jefm]

Err...

sad to say but usually a flake finish can't be fixed without making the problem more obvious...

even touching it while it's wet you're pretty screwed...

see if you can maybe find an auto painting place that works with those kinds of finishes...they'd likely do the least bad job on it

or you could just go with the base color and hope nobody looks too close...

But unless you're really sure about it I'd just leave it

I think toyota makes a holoflake finish...at least a black one for their new cars...it looks like you can jump into it it's sooo deep

[syxxstring]

so its 4mm wide and about 7 mm long. The base color for the paint is silver(under the purple) and still in tact its just the base color and cleard flake that are damaged. Its on the left side of the guitar about even with the bridge pickup. I havent been able to get any close up pics to come out.

Im hoping jeremy will chime in since he'd done some work on this type of finish.

I think i follow franks idea. Im trying to find some flakes to practice with and find a close base coat.

[JohnJohn]

Have you tried contacting Fender to see if they will ship/sell a small sample for touch-up?

[frank falbo]

There won't be a touch up paint, since it's a three part process. You can try to get the base color coat, but it could just be a tinted clear over the silver. I couldn't tell you without seeing it. Even if they used silver with tint over it, getting a solid color that matches would still probably be fine. It's what you do in the flaked clear coat that really matters. Some of those comparison pics were very "metallic" in that you could tell the flake was in the color. But yours is a base coat (that could also be sparkly) with flakes on top of it. What jefm is saying is more true for a metallic finish where the flakes are smaller and whipped into the color coat.

[balooka]

just my 2cents...

my bro owns an industrial coating company (spaypaint, powdercoat etc) and he uses those big flakes for the bikes of a team he sponsors. They are bright yellow ducati's with loads of huge flakes in the clears. They 'bright' will go away after the clear with the flakes is sprayed tho.

So maybe yours is a purple/pink (?) base (bright) with only flakes in the clears. Should be obvious if you look over the coat at an angle. I asked him about repairing spots this small but he has no experience with repairing, he'd just redo the whole thing :/

hth

jp

[syxxstring]

From what i can tell I might be best looking into supplies for making your own fishing lures. They sell small amounts of holgraphic glitter, some premixed in clears.

Now to find a base.

[mdw3332]

I did a similar thing to my '91 Am Strat. It is sunburst and everyone I talked to said the only thing to do was to have it re-finished. It was in virtually perfect shape before this but not worth $400 for a refinish. I've never really liked relics, but I better adjust.

[Guest Litchfield Custom Gutars]

I'd say that it can be touched up. You mentioned Jeremy's Sqwire job. Its pretty hard to tell. Patience is key. I'll look around and see if I can get a clue.

[jefm]

Yeah...from my experience...which is basically automotive type stuff unless it's scratches and scuffs that can be polished out it's easier to strip the panel and start over...with normal paint it's not so bad...with metallics the flakes all go on at once and any thing that looks like it was put on after stands out like crazy...So I might be wrong but from anything I've seen a touch up involving a sparkling finish usually makes it look worse than the damage...

Actually the back of this guitar is what it can look like...Ewwwww

http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/wgp_body_d...temNumber=ps148

[LGM Guitars]

Hey guys, There are a couple of ways to do this.

first is the way I did the touch up on the squier guitar.

You have to match the base color, that was easy with the squier as it was black, it's going to be tougher with this guitar since it's a pink and it's pretty hard to see the actual pink color through the holoflake.

First you have to paint the chipped area with the pink color.

Next, go to a craft store like Michaels or something, they sell the holographic glitter in 3 sizes, extra fine is what you want, but be sure to look at the bottle, they are notorious for mislabelling them.

Since I didn't want to spray that glitter crap through my gun, mixed up some epoxy, spread it over the painted area, and sprinkled the glitter on top of the epoxy, then took a piece of wax paper and pressed it in so it would adhere well. Once that cured I put another layer of epoxy over the top of it to level things out a bit quicker, then I sanded it with 400 once that was cured. Then I shot a coat of clear over the area and buffed it all out.

The second option is to buy the paint that Fender uses, it comes from House of Kolor and I believe is sold in kits with the glitter clear and base colors. The downside is it is very expensive for a small chip, the matching kit I looked at for the squier was somewhere around $150. The glitter from Michaels was $2.95.

The biggest challenge will be matching the pink, look at a LOT of color chips and try to look at them outside in the sun, it will be easier to match that way.

Hope that helps.

Jeremy

[syxxstring]

Thanks Jeremy.

There is some color in the dent so I can at least see some of the base. Ive been trying to match it to house paint colors to get close when i look in stores. Im probably gonna buy a few colors and go with the closest.

Im hoping the glitter will cover any slight mismatch.

So are you saying to do it in layers like frank said?

Only using Epoxy rather than ca?