In over my head(?)...need advice please.

[lowatter]

Albeit not the greatest way to make a 1st post but, such as life.

Hi guys, newbie here with somewhat minimal build/repair experience(built 1 solid body/1 tube amp some setups & repairs). I'm kinda freaking out right now doing a side crack repair on a Martin D-18V gratis for a friend of mine that took an insurance beating on a "bay" guitar purchase that was shipped with the strap pin left in. Basically he recooped $1,000 of a $1,500 investment and now has a D-18V with a 16" side crack. This is the most expensive guitar that I've assumed the responsibility in repairing.

I titebonded the crack without too much ado and I opted not to cleat because I feel that the cure is worse than the symptom and if it ever opened up again, then it should be cleated. I know that I should've clamped from behind the repair with magnets or wire-drawn cleats but I took the chance and it came out fairly even and had to do minimal level sanding to get it nice and smooth. I then found a nice stain match from my stain cabinet and when I went to stain the wear-through areas it would not accept the stain(probably vinyl sealed) and now I can't figure out what to do next. In an act of frustration I did shoot 3 coats of nitro thinking that I'd try spraying  the stain on instead of rag applying it to cover the repair area.

I know that it's pretty taboo to attempt a repair on such a fine instrument without refined luthier skills but I do have a cabinet making background, I'm of at least average intelligence(I hope), and I eat, sleep and dream guitars/amps etc.

Any insight of what I should do next would be greatly appreciated guys. I don't know if I should try to strip the wear-through areas to accept the stain, strip the entire sides or try to pray over the areas. HELP! 

Here's a pic of the current state of the D-18V prior to 3 coats of nitro...

Here's a pic of the DC Jr I scratch-built 3 years ago...

 ...and the 18W tube amp I scratch-built...

 

My projects page...http://www.flickr.com/photos/10000602@N04/

My music page...http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=854782&conte...

[Paul Verticchio]

Hello and welcome to the forum (:.

It all depends on how "perfect" your customer wants the guitar to look. The best option is to strip, sand & refinish the entire side.That's only my opinion and you'll probably get better/alternate advice from our members who tackle refin jobs more often than I.

I checked out your photo site and you definitely have the skills to do this. I think the best way to have done this repair (hindsight: ALWAYS 20/20), would have been to do the crack repair and use a drop fill technique to blend in the repair

All in all, with simply the crack repair you did..even without a finish touch-up, your customer got him/herself a fabulous instrument at a give-away price. Any further cosmetic repairs you make to it will just be icing on the cake. (:

Best of luck & nice work...'specially that '59 jr clone(-:

[William F.Eden]

What I would do to that 18 is first put a coat of nitro. on the bare spots then get some Rose wood or walnut water bace stain and rub it on the repair to blend it in .When you get it matching then put more Nitro on .....Bill...........

[Frank Ford]

One way to blend this kind of color touchup is to lay a thin coat of clear over the area, and then use an airbrush to spray tinted lacquer or stain.  It's best not to try to mask, but to allow the color to overlap the original.  Then, after it's dry, you can scrape the color off the original areas to make an indistinct transition to the new finished area.

[lowatter]

Thanks soo much for the welcome guys and for the input.  Yes, Frank this is what I was hoping to hear. I figure that I will hve nothing to loose doing it this way and if necessary I could always resort to doing a full stripping of the sides. While I'm at it I probably should work on touching up the headstock repair I did on my LP Studio Lite. I plan to do a tobacco burst over the area to hide my morticed spline repair I did a year or so ago. I'll post pics of the Martin later to show what I was able to come up with.

This is how it looks now...