I just got an almost new used guitar that I want to polish up just a bit. There are a few places in the black section of the sunburst that has some small scratches that aren't very deep. I bought some 1000, 2000, and a 3000 grit finishing sandpaper from the automotive store and thought I'd test a section to see if I can at least get the same shine back before I start sanding anything more coarse. Here is the result I got so far:



Although the photo looks really harsh, the sanding mark around the nick is actually very very smooth...almost feels more smooth than the clean finish. However I want it to have the same sparkle and transparent look of the guitar's natural polish. Any suggestions on what I should do to fix this? Do I need a finer sandpaper than 3000?

Also this was polished with the Dunlop 65 spray. I assume there is some step between 3000 grit and polishing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Personally, I would use a slightly abrasive automotive polish and forget about using sandpaper at all.
If, as you say, the guitar is almost new, sandpaper sounds a bit extreme to me.

Boxbang is right. Try some auto polish/wax on a soft cloth. Put some folded paper behind the cloth to make it like a flexible sanding block, and go easy until you get the result your happy with.

You should have just left it alone. Marks and scratches are a badge of honor. Besides, your guitar is now "officially relic'd" and is worth twice what you paid for it.

In all seriousness, put away the sandpaper before you do any further damage and just use polish on the scratch as others have suggested. If it doesn't come out, don't sweat it.

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Bill

The makers of Big Bends Nut Sauce make a fine scratch and swirl mark remover that's suppose to work well on minor scratches. http://www.bigbends.com/

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Turtle Wax Premium Polishing Compound (reducing nano-abrasive technology), possibly followed by Zymol Cleaner/Wax (super-mild abrasives), followed by the Dunlops...all via soft cotton polishing cloths/rags Use the Polishing Compound in numerous applications until the spot is glossy 'enough'. Get it glossier still by the Zymol.

You could also get a Stew Mac pack of finishing micromesh soft touch pads - have grit all the way up to like 12000, which is necessary for glossy finishes. Can be used in combination with the polishing compounds.

+1 Either have it professionally done or just leave it alone. Scratches look way better than a poorly done attempt at repairing it yourself.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

I don't understand all the "just leave it alone" comments. They show up on every single thread about refinishing and rebuffing a finish. If I wanted to just leave it alone I wouldn't have posted this thread. I have several guitars with nicks and scratches and I'm fine with them because I personally remember how most of them got there. This guitar has no sentimental value to me yet and I'd like to fix it up as best as I can before I put it through the ringer. Plus fixing stuff like this is a fun project that can make me appreciate the workmanship that goes into these coatings.

So I have some Meguiars ScratchX Fine Scratch & Swirl coming in the mail which is the most common brand I've seen recommended. I also bought some of the Players Kit guitar polish from guitarscratchpolish.com which seems to have the best marketing I've ever seen for a guitar polish...they show up on google no matter how you type in the keywords

I guess if I can buff and polish out the little scratches from the 3000 grit sandpaper with the guitar/car polish then I should be good to go. I think I can sand out the larger scratches in the finish that I'm pretty sure the polish won't be able to buff out.

The only issue with Meguiar's ScratchX is it has silicone - up to you whether using it would be an issue.
(The TW Premium & Zymol don't)

Fixing/improving minor scratches that are otherwise annoying is pretty easy, with the right gear and some brains - not sure what the big deal is, either.

I can't understand the 'leave it alone' approach.
Unless it's a valuable vintage guitar, what's wrong with wanting it to look pristine.
The fact that old worn strats look cool is true, but really those strats were not well looked after.
I love the look of my Roadworn, but that doesn't mean I don't treat it and all my other guitar carefully.

I will be interested in hearing the OP's experiences in polishing the blemish out.

Have you thought of trying applying gloss black enamel paint, in layers, allowing it to dry for a few weeks, and then polishing that with T-cut.
I did that years ago to the black on a sunburst, and the repair was almost invisible.

Why all the "just leave it alone" comments? Because of statements such as this:



If you don't know that what you are considering will work, then you have no business trying them and should take it to a professional for evaluation. Good luck. Just dont come back in another week or so whining about how you ruined your guitar's finish.

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Bill

+1 Sometimes it's better to ask before the damage is done. You can do what you want, it's you're axe. But why would you came to a forum like this one for refinishing advice? I sure there are other places to look for information. You obviously have no experience in refinishing or repairing your guitar. Silicone is a monster to remove.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Just because I don't know what I'm doing means I should take it to a professional? What are you guys talking about!!! Have you ever thought of learning a new skill? When you first started taking interest in guitars, did you shy away from changing the strings or not tinker with your amp's tubes because you were't a professional at that point? Heck no!

The reality is I enjoy dabbling with this sort of thing and taking the time to research it online. Money is no object so if I have to spend effort and time to buy the correct items to do this then that's what I'm going to do. This isn't a '57 Strat I'm playing with; it's a $1000 guitar that I bought used.

Anyways, for those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, this is what I found out. I took the tremolo off my guitar because I was replacing the bridge saddles with FerraGlide graphites. When I took off the tremolo I realized there was a perfect test spot to sand on the guitar which was between the tremolo posts (you can't even see it when the tremolo is back on).

I sanded that spot with 1000 grit, then 2000 grit, then a wet 3000 grit. It made the finish really smooth but just a touch cloudy. You could actually tell that I sanded it but it was really smooth.

Today I got the two part polishing cremes from guitarscratchremover.com and figured I'd try them out. I used the blue bottle twice on the sanded area and the red bottle once. The Blue Bottle I think is just a little more abrasive than the red...but they are finer than the 3000 grit wet process I used.

Anyways, the final polishing turned out great! You would have never known I had sanded that spot at all. So I tried the sanding on the area shown in the photo above. I definitely pushed the 1000 grit sanding just a little too far since now I can see a tiny little bit of the guitar's wood now. But after going through the other processes of 2000,3000 and the guitar polish it's super clean, smooth, and hardly noticeable. It's def more noticeable than the original scratch which kind of stinks but now I know I can sand these scratches but I have to go a bit slower on the 1000 grit. The finishes on these guitars are paper thing. I thought the clear coat was 1mm thick but it's actually much less than that.

I dont' know if I'm ballsy enough to add a little black fingernail polish to the area and sand that back down to fix the black....that might be going a bit too far. But I can say for certain that you can sand your guitar with finishing grade sandpaper and then polish it with a good finishing polish. Just make sure you go extra conservative on the 1000 grit paper...maybe even start with the 2000.

There are still a few other scratch issues I want to play around with on this guitar so I'll keep you guys posted. It's a really really beautiful Strat Ultra but I'm glad I played around with removing the scratches. Hey I learned something new!

So this is preferable to the original scratch? Oh, well. Glad its your guitar.

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Bill

I'm like you, I like to tinker. I accidentally scratched a nearly flawless MIM strat and decided to see if I could polish it out. I have the micromesh pads that StewMac sells and I highly recommend them. (Just don't pay Stewmac's outrageous shipping, google "Peachtree woodworking"). I got a real good result, but I needed to use the Novus polishing creams for the final finish. I long for a buffer as I think that will match the exact gloss of the unmarked finish.

If you do the paint touchup, you'll have to do it in painstakingly multiple layers and it takes weeks for the paint to cure to the point where you can sand it without it clumping.

Check out this guy, http://www.frets.com/fretspages/pagelist.html he has a neat trick with a razor blade to use in scraping down finish touchups.