Woops! Sanding Through A Guitar Finish

[John Walker Waldsmith]

Got a Taylor 310 in the shop that had a crack from drying out this winter that we rehumidified and cleated. Went for the the super glue finish repair which always works great for me. Anyway someone got a little carried away with sanding and went through the finish. (You know who you are if your reading this ;-) ) Dose anyone have a trick or good advice one how to tint or make that small area blend in to the UV finish again?

 Thanks!

John Walker

[nathan clark]

Unfortunately, nothing short of working with the original materials and related curing equipment is going to hide burning through that finish.  Maybe there's a sympathetic shop with the finishing equipment that you can sub-contract to?  Or just pay the factory to partially or completely refinish the guitar?

[Frank Ford]

Even armed with the original stain and clear coat materials, it can be next to impossible to match perfectly.  My best advice is to work with the owner of the guitar to come to an equitable arrangement.  

We have that problem all the time, and try very hard not to raise expectations before taking on the job, and to warn the owner that the repair WILL be visible after repair, but that the integrity and sound of the instrument will not suffer at all.

[Mark A. Kane]

Frank and Nathan,

I'm really glad to hear you guys chiming in with concurring, experienced-based opinions on this subject. It is one I have the most trouble conveying to the broken-hearted owner who is convinced that because someone can fix the dings on his car, it ought to be a piece of cake on a guitar. In some cases it is, but they are far and few between.

[Andrew]

I also warm people that anything involving finish repair cant be guaranteed to be invisible, or even very close. As to cars v. Guitars: metal is malleable, weldable, putty and fiberglassable, and finished in opaque colours. Wood is none of those things insofar as we're concerned here.

About the sand through, depending on how big it is, Id consider not charging for it at least. Hard to say without knowing the customer and your relationship etc. Once a few years ago I slipped installing a trem spring and created quite the ding. The guitar was already covered in them, but I was not impressed with myself. I gave the rest of the guitar the full treatment with extra attention to fret and fingerboard polish etc. that turned out pretty well between the customer and myself. But I was swearing the whole time I was working :).

[slowhand15]

Those catalyzed, cured finishes are so hard to work with. I had the same problem on a Taylor 214L3. Fortunately it was my son's.

It had an aging toner on it and I used the Amber StewMac marker and got it close to the same color then worked with a little Formby's satin tung oil to seal it. I used my finger and put a very light coat on. It didn't look too bad but I don't think there is any way short of what Frank Ford said.

I wouldn't touch another w/o explaining to the client that there is no way it will be a perfect match.

One reason I don't like catalyzed, cured finishes.