Repairing Polyurethane Finishes

[Johnny Two Tone]

I have a Jackson that, apparently, has a polyurethane finish and I'd like to re-do the chipped clear finish around the nut (so that the nut seam is covered... you know what I mean). On top of that I have a crack where the neck meets the body that I'd like to repair.

 

I once got a botched nut change and the store ended up paying a luthier to re-do the clear coat on the headstock.

 

My question is how do I actually do the repair? At first I thought I'd just buy some polyurethane and drop coat the areas. I later learned that only softer paints, like lacquer, allow for drop coating because of their melting-type properties (they melt the lower layer and sort of fuse the old with the new).

 

I have heard of using super glue to fix dings but that's certainly not going to cut it for a larger area or crack. And, I don't know what the luthier used to do that old repair.

[WRGKMC]

You're right about the issues getting poly repairs done. The best way is to tape off the affected area and spray with more poly. Fore very small areas you can buy the liquid and then use an artists paint brush and dab it into the affected area. You're going to have a seam where the two finishes meet no matter what but it doesnt usually look to bad if you go lightly. i wouldn not use crazy glue. It doesnt dry to the same clearness. I have used 5 minuite epoxy and used a putty knife to apply it in cracks. Does an excelent job and you can quickly wipe it off the areas where its not needed.

[mrbrown49]

Poly is really hard to impossible to repair invisibly like you can some oil and lacquer finishes. I've had ok luck with superglue for small chips, but they only repair to a point of being less noticable than the chip. At the right angles you can still see the line btw the poly and the repair. For larger areas like the one describe I'm not sure it will get you very far. It will even out the surface, feel smooth and prevent further spreading/chipping, but you will still see the damage under the repair. Same goes for a drop filled poly repair though.

 

If you really want it invisible i think your only option is to remove the damaged finish and refinish.

[WRGKMC]

The other problem with crazy glue is it soaks down into the poors of the wood. The when you refinish you may have to take the wood down alot to get fast it. At least with poly, its a direct chemical match. I'm surprised its cracked though. poly will normally stretch when under stress. I can see the nut problem when replaced, but the neck makes me wonder if its a nitro finish.

[Johnny Two Tone]

Hmm. Now I'm really curious as to how the luthier corrected all the digs/scratches that were on the headstock - it's perfect looking (except for around the nut).

 

The worst thing about all of this is that the reason the poly around the nut is chipped away is because some a$$hole I PAYED to change the nut completely botched the ever loving s**t out of the headstock. And, AND! I only reason I brought the guitar into a shop was because I was worried about working on this extremely rare and moderately expensive Jackson (here's a link to my exact guitar [scroll 2/3rd of the way down to the "Jackson USA Soloist SLS" in silver swirl]) but it got screwed up anyway. I could have easily done a job 10000000x better.

 

Live and learn.