Hey guys, I'm the new guy for the moment.

Just picked up a nice looking American Standard Stratocaster on eBay ('07/'08?) in white (Olympic White?). It's got one good ding on the front (under the second tone knob, not too bad), the rest looks really good. I was wondering about possibly picking up some touch up paint that matched the urethane off white, and just dabbing it in that area, to lessen how obvious it is and seal the edges of the paint around it, to prevent chips spreading.

Any thoughts, threads on the topic you could point me too? (Tried the search function, but got a huge, wide ranging response).

While we're on that topic, I also have an American '62 Reissue with a ding over the upper bout. Paint is all still there, but there is some cracking. I'd like to seal this one too, maybe some clear nitrocellulose?

Thanks in advance for any sources and help!

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"If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music".
Keith Richards

Hey T Bone: what's the touch up paint you are talking about made of? Is it automotive paint? Within which case it is probably acrylic, these days. I think you'd have a hard time matching the color, cos there's a zillion different "off whites". And even if you did you'd find over time that the different binders (urethane against acrylic) would behave differently and the fix would start to show even if it didn't at the start.

Instead, I'd get a small tin of clear polyurethane, easily available. I'd source the correct type of pigment/dye for that (ask the manufacturer if in doubt, they are usually very willing to help). I'd get some white pigment and some sienna-looking yellow at the very least and I'd mix up half an egg cup of the urethane with the white and then add tiny, tiny flecks of yellow, trying them against the guitar repeatedly till the match was as perfect as possible. Then I'd do a "drop fill" repair on that ding.

Google "drop fill" if you are in doubt about how to do that.

Far as the other guitar is concerned, I believe it will have a nitrocellulose finish, so nitro is the material to use. Have you ever used cellulose before? There's some stuff to be aware of...

Cheers - C

If the ding isn't all the way through the colour coat, like no wood showing you might be better off just drop filling with clear.

and ditto on what ceri says about nitro.

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

Thanks for the replies. The white one is through the paint, but a small area. I'll Google Drop Fill as suggested. And yeah, it's urethane, was hoping someone (Fender?) offered a proper touch up product. Wouldn't try automotive. Sounds like the clear and mixing my own may be the answer.

On the Nitro, never worked with it, but I know it's nasty stuff. Really was just looking to stabilize that one, but it's not showing any signs of spreading (it's a dent in the wood, finish is cracked where it was dented in, but still intact).

_________________
"If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music".
Keith Richards

Hi again T Bone: in some ways nitro is the easiest to work with. The "nasty" aspect is the toxicity of the solvent, but so long as you work outdoors and even then use the right kind of breathing mask (not expensive, but you do need a proper one: the disposable paper sort won't do) it is fine.

What you must be aware of is that unlike other lacquers the solvent will redissolve the existing finish to some extent as the new stuff goes on. This can actually be helpful, because it bonds the new to the old, but you need to be ready for it. If you go heavy-handedly and spray too much at a go you may find that not only do you get runs and orange peel and such, but that all of that involves the old finish as well as the new. Very frustrating to realise you've further damaged the existing finish rather than repairing it.

If I were you I'd give that body a very careful sand over with P300 - 600 wet-and-dry paper, obviously not going through the color coat but just knocking back the topmost surface a touch, so cleaning up the existing paint and creating a "tooth" for the new lacquer to take to.

If you have spray equipment then use it. But if not you will find that clear nitrocellulose is readily available in aerosols from the likes of Behlen, Stewart-MacDonald and others. Even my local automotive spares shop still sells nitro in aerosols (though for some reason the car world tends to call it cellulose rather than nitro. Ask for the latter and they sometimes look at you in confusion).

For what you want aerosols are a perfectly reasonable way to go and in no way second-class, if you work carefully. Just two or three thin coats will be good. Oh, and once you have the new lacquer on you must leave it to cure for a minimum of three or four weeks before buffing it. The longer the better - nitro goes on slowly curing for ages...

Good luck - C

I got a small chip on the back edge of my Candy Cola Strat. I found one of those tiny glass bottles of Testors model car paint at a hobby store. It's virtually an exact match, color-wise. Seems very durable, and you actually have to look really closely to see that there was ever a chip there.

This stuff... (Not sure though, what color of theirs it is that corresponds to Fender's Candy Cola... Have to go find the bottle.)

Wow, I never thought about model paint. A friend has a MIM strat with a bad ding on the lower body below the pickguard. This would be perfect to fix.... Great idea!

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"Epitaph on a blues musician’s tombstone: “I didn’t wake up this morning”" Davy Knowles


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Thanks, I'd actually thought about model paint, but was unsure if the type of paint would be compatible with the poly on the American Standard. If it attacked the existing finish, the end result would be worse, if not, it'd be great and probably easy to find a good match, as they have quite a color range available.

_________________
"If you don't know the blues... there's no point in picking up the guitar and playing rock and roll or any other form of popular music".
Keith Richards

Well everything is going to depend on how good you want the repairs to look and how handy you are. I know Ceri kind of makes this sound easy, but then you would have to understand he is a genius when it comes down to doing this work as you would be able to attest to by looking at some of his old restoration post.

The Poly ding will never be a perfect touch up because that is just the way it goes with urethane, but the right person can get it good enough to where someone would have to look for it. The Nitro in the right hands-like Ceri's lol can be a totally invisible repair that someone would not be able to tell it was ever there. It is possible to melt in new finish by using Blush Retarder then drop filling in the Nitro which after hardening then sanding and buffing you can get that invisible repair. I would find the best guy for the job to do these.Good Luck