Taping Off Sound Hole for Polishing

[Robbie Collins]

I have a Gibson J-200 vintage in for repair. The original owner glued double wooden pickguards on each side and the new owner asked me to remove them and replace the original tortoise pickguard. I removed the pickguards, loosened most of the remaining glue with a damp cloth, and scraped off the residual with a single-edged razor blade using FF's cellophane tape method to narrow the exposed scraper edge. Finally, I drop-filled scratches and tiny divots using nitro and an artist's brush. After 5-6 sessions I let it dry for a week before leveling and wet sanding up to p1500. I only touched up the area to the left of the soundhole.

Now I need to polish it up. I will be using a portable drill with foam polishing pads and Turtle Wax Premium Grade Rubbing and Polishing Compounds.  I plan to use rubbing compound only on the area sanded then polish the whole top.

These compounds are semi-liquid and the drill splatters the stuff everywhere. I'm worried about getting it into the soundhole. I thought about the balloon method, but suspect a balloon would burst from friction. Perhaps a balloon used to hold a flat, flexible piece of plastic larger than the soundhole with circles of tape to stick it to the underside?

All thoughts appreciated.

[Mike Kolb]

yeah, that sounds like it'd work...

[William F.Eden]

Just stuff the hole with some rages.

[Cal Maier]

Hi Robbie,

Just blow up the balloon like you would to cover the sound hole, then insert a chip dip lid into the hole and the balloon will keep it in place till you take it out. No need for tape.

Cal

[Robbie Collins]

Thanks, I did something like that...I used a piece of .018 flat polyethylene cut a bit larger than the hole. Worked fine.

[Allen L Wall]

Hey Cal

Thanks for the balloon/chip dip lid idea. Never heard that one. This site is absolutely the best!!

[Kerry Krishna]

 Robbie, you really got me scared talking about razor blades to get the glue off. Why did you not just use Naptha to dissolve it? 

[Robbie Collins]

The pickguards seemed to have been reglued at least once and probably twice. A warm, damp rag loosened and removed 90%. Naptha another 5% but there were some blobs that were very hard and impervious to those methods. So, I very carefully shaved the blobs down until they were level with the finish. I didn't do any additional damage. The surface was pitted and scratched I assume from previous attempts to reglue.

[Len Biglin]

I have used the old toilet-roll holder and piece of card . You probly need to trim the roll holder for length tho.

[Robbie Collins]

I like that idea!

[Robbie Collins]

Just finished up...turned out swell. I used a balloon and a plastic card without tape. Lots of splatter but none in the sound hole. Thanks for all your suggestions.  Here's some photos of before and after:

The pickguard is a little misaligned but I placed it over the tan line exactly.

[Paul Verticchio]

A nice 'save' of an iconic instrument. Good & nice work, Robbie :)

[Len Biglin]

Can only imagine how bad it looked in-between , thats an amazing turn-around , well done.