So I bought a brand new Highway One Strat about 2 weeks ago. Good looking guitar, but I wanted a gloss finish. I bought some guitar polish / swirl remover and buffed the guitar to a bright shine, but the buffing wore through two TINY little spots on the corners of the neck joint. Since it was such a small blemish, I decided I would try to touch it up with some touch up markers from stewmac. I got a black and a clear because the blemish was at the neck pocket of my sunburst guitar. The black went on ok. Then I put the clear on.....this clear marker might as well have been an acetone marker. As soon as I put it on the area, you could see it melting the black nitro finish underneath. After choking back tears, I wiped the clear off and opted to use 000 steel wool to rough up the area hoping that the black would stick better. All of the clear came off and it was looking like the area was going to receive the black well until I began marking.... The stupid black marker had dried up after 5 minutes of use!!? I have contacted StewMac to try and resolve this issue. I am hoping that they will resolve it the correct way and repair the damaged area on my guitar since it was due to their horrible touch up markers. If not, can someone please point me in the direction of someone that I can pay to fix this issue the right way. At this point, I am willing to pay whatever just to get this guitar back to looking good, and I am scared beyond belief to attempt anything else on it myself. This has been a nightmare and should be a lesson to all to leave your guitar's finish alone...especially brand new guitars!

From my very sketchy knowledge of paint heres a quick 'maybe solution' till someone more knowledgable happens along.
It sounds like your initial chip went down to the polyurethane (or fullerplast) undercoat. You've applied the nitrocellulose repair paint to it and either not allowed enough time for it to dry fully. The top will dry way before the bottom of it does. So when the cellulose clearcoat goes on it just re-activated the top of the colour coat then mixed with the wet underneath and gave you a similar effect to applying too much at once.

Or, you simply put too much on too quickly.

Like I said I know next to zilch about guitar painting so prefer anyones suggestions over mine.

_________________
No no and no

I know you have that feeling like you are going to vomit. All I can say is we can try to get Ceri over here to advise you. If there is an answer he will have it.

Haha! Well OK...

Hi sp845: as Niki says, the solvent in the touch up pen has dissolved the nitrocellulose already on the guitar. That "burn in" characteristic of nitro can be very helpful in getting new paint to bond with old, but it can also make this type of lacquer difficult to handle, as you have found.

Photos would help us tell just where you are up to with this, but in the meantime, two possibilities. First is just to take it to a (good) tech or luthier and have them respray that area for you. That should be no problem, the fact it is black and also nitro means you stand a good chance of getting an invisible mend - or you could have them spray the whole guitar to be sure.

The alternative is to do it yourself, if you want to chance your arm. It's time to leave the touch up pens alone and spray you repair. No problem, as black nitro is readily available in easy to use aerosols. You could try Stew-Mac's product, here:

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Finishing_s ... cquer.html

Or these folks claim this black is the same formulation as Fender's own. A few more dollars, but I'd go for this one:

http://reranchstore.stores.yahoo.net/black.html

A whole canful gives you plenty to spare, so practice a good bit first. The trick with spraying is to put it on thick enough that all the individual droplets of paint join together to form a continuous film; but not so thick that it puddles and runs. That takes a bit of skill if you are new to it, so work out on some scrap wood first. And be aware of that "burn in" feature of nitro: you need to get this stuff on as thinly as possible so that most of the solvent vents into the air rather than penetrating downwards into the existing finish, melting it.

Several (five or six) very thin coats with an hour or so drying time between them will allow you to build a film thick enough that you can buff it later without rubbing through.

You may well be able to just touch up the affected area and get a nice invisible join with the rest of the paint. That's where the "burn in" comes to your aid. But if after it has dried you feel there is too much of a jump between old paint and new then you will just have to bite the bullet and spray the whole body. Can't be helped.

Either way, you then have to leave the lacquer to harden for AT LEAST three weeks, preferably much more, before you attempt to buff it.

I am not familiar enough with HWY1s to know if they have a clear coat over the color. Maybe, maybe not, but be aware clear coating is optional, especially if you have refinned the whole guitar. You can buff the color coat to just as good a shine as a clear coat, and that is how Fender's solid colors have often been done in the past.

So it's your choice whether to clear coat or not. It is one more possible thing to go wrong, after all...

Best of luck, and come back to us with any further questions if you like.

And photos, why not?

Cheers - C

The highlighted part is the only thing I disagree with in Ceri's post.

Black can be notoriously difficult to match up. if you decide to try fixing this yourself,h is links are probably your best bet. the Guitar Reranch has a stellar reputation. Go read Reranch101 (Their finishing guide) a bunch of times before moving ahead.

****IF YOU ARE AT ALL UNEASY ABOUT DOING THE REPAIR YOURSELF TAKE IT TO A PROFESSIONAL****


my thoughts are that being inexperienced you broke the first rule of refinishing, and hurried. The term "about as fun as watching paint dry" didn't come around for nothing. With the markers you still have to be very conservative with how much you apply. The temptation is to fill the hole, but really you still need to work in small stages to do a repair. Unlike a urethane coating Nitrocellulose lacquer will always
melt when it comes into contact with it's solvent, this includes the solvent carried in new lacquer you are applying, so you need an extra gentle touch.

Oh and again to slightly disagree with Ceri, 3 weeks is probably way too soon to even think of wet sanding or buffing a lacquer finish, I wait at the minimum a calendar month before checking a discrete area with the fingernail test. I have had a project sit for 8 weeks before i felt it had cured enough to buff.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Haha - well you might disagree with me, but I pretty much entirely agree with you on both of those points. I think eight weeks would be much better than three - though I've noticed there's others on this Forum just HATE all that waiting around...

Regarding black: yes, it can be very difficult to match it exactly. There's many different types of black.

The only point I'd make is that most other colors are even more difficult to match. Even white - let alone something like Fiesta or Daphne. And a spot repair on a metallic finish? Forget it!

I'd suggest black is one of the least tough to match. But it is still really tough!!!

- C

hehe ceri, I would say, metallics are the hardest to repair, by far, but not really because of matching the color per se. But more for the nigh impossibility of avoiding disturbing the flakes. then there is the fact that the transparent (Candy,) colors show any unevenness in spray and it's really hard not to get a darkened halo around the repair.

White and black are hard to match, white moreso in fact for matching hues i would have to agree white is the hardest,for sure. The thing is that 'black' and 'white' aren't really black and white, so some whites are really yellows and some are really blues.

As for Daphne and Fiesta and colours like that, unless you mix your own hues (I have dabbled, and Ceri has shown his adept hand at mixing paint,) they're all hard to match. even if you do mix your own it is tedious at best. It is near impossible to find a premixed colour that matches, because of differences in dye lots. two different batches of white house paint, same label same brand will only be similar, not the same.

_________________
I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.