Hi All,

Recently I've (well my friend actually) acquired a noticeable dent on the lower cutaway on my 2008 American Standard Strat. I'm aware of the technique of using a soldering iron and a wet cloth in some cases to remove the dent to an extent, is it do-able with a intact urethane finish?

Thanks

Welcome Jack. I am no expert in removal of dents but I am fairly good at acquiring them in my guitars. I have found no easy solution to repair dents in polyurethane finishes. I do know that the typical hot iron and steam repair is normally applied to the wood itself and employed mainly on guitars with nitrocellulose finishes as they are much easier to repair. It will always involve sanding and refinishing. If it is a small dent and in a fairly unnoticable area I have heard of shops using super glue to fill it. Below is a link to an article.

http://www.thirdcoastguitar.com/article ... new-again/

If Ceri wanders across this post he may have more valuable advice to contribute. My suggestion is live with it. It certainly won't be the last one.

Ooo - my ears are burning!

I think that's good advice, Dan. But supposing jacko93 can't live with it...

Hi jacko93: no. It isn't.

I'd use a clothes iron rather than a soldering iron - but that trick is for getting small dents out of bare wood by forcing steam into the fibres to make them expand. Some light sanding is usually required too. Any kind of instrument finish is there in large part precisely to prevent moisture entering and leaving the surface, so the steam treatment is negated.

The most you'd ever achieve with a plastic based finish is to melt it, especially if you used the very hot soldering iron. Polyurethane catalyses as it cures - that is, it undergoes an irreversible chemical change. Which means that it can't be softened and then rehardened - most especially not with steam.

In theory urethane is fixable by other methods - but how to go about it depends on the amount of damage. So show us some nice close-up photos in good focus and we'll take it from there. If you wish.

Cheers - C

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I lived in the loft on the 4th floor above third coast guitar on Racine in 04. A great guitar shop and very cool Bros work there.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Thanks Folks,

I guess ill probably just live with it but look back on it in 20 years and blame it on my careless youth!