A bad decision has been made

Hard to tell... It could be a walnut stain, or it could be black stain and the clear ambered over. I can't make the call without eyeballing it in person.
 
haha well there is nothing to see in person on my end :)

the amber'd over part could be true. On the examples I've seen online the gretsch inlay looks pretty yellowed
 
Holy turds. I've almost handpicked, scraped, begged and pleaded every last bit of the wonky clearcoat off. The neck is stripped and ready for color. My in-laws willing, I might have an outside shot of putting some color and clear back on this guitar over the long holiday weekend. Here's what is left to do and where I need some help.
  • Binding gaps--it's shrunk in places and caused a couple gaps. And just in the parchment/white part of the binding. Not the inner black area. My plan is to fill in with replacement pieces and melt it in there with acetone. Should work but open to other ideas.
  • Headstock inlay- the super old faceplate with the Gretsch inlay I used is awesome but definitely got bounced around a bit in the 40-50 years it was sitting in a plastic bag. The wood around the logo has some little chips here and there. I was going to use CA glue to fill it in and sand it back. Now I'm thinking maybe something quikwood. Any big preferences either way?
  • Pitted areas on body-After lots of scraping I am down to velvety smooth original nitro in some areas of the body. It's awesome. Other areas have lots of tiny dimples or pits. I'm not sure what it's from, if the cruddy clear I tried to take off is living in those pits and worst of all......how do I level it? I got some of that new Assilex paper coming and I'm going to try and lightly go over the whole thing and see what happens. Prob the best I can do. I tried a little micromesh and it helped but not a ton. I really don't want to get down to the color and take that out.
That's it. Thanks for the help and going on this ride with me. Dare I say we are somewhat nearing the end. I hate saying that. Totally jinxed myself.
 
Binding gaps - Acetone will work, but I suggest you buy a green & yellow tube of Duco Cement. It has acetone in it, but it works slowly melting the old stuff back together. I rub the glue & binding with a bare finger until the glue starts to set. When it cures - it will be straight and hard.

Headstock inlay - Order some black C/A glue from StewMac or elsewhere. Works great, and it's very black.

Pits and dimples - The finish that is left is probably pretty thin. You might not want to sand or polish it very much... After all, it IS an old guitar. The world will expect some patina.
 
Thanks man. Appreciate it.

I found an old tube of stewmac binding cement and carefully dobbed it in the gaps then heated it up a bit to push it together flush. That was a way better idea than acetone which likely would have ran all over the finish. Thanks for that.

I have the black CA glue. I'll see what I can do to fill it in. Why black though? I'm going to paint over it anyway?

The pits.......I don't know. I need to figure out something. What do you think about some sanding sealer to help fill in the pits a bit?
 
Sanding sealer is kind of dull, plus it's soft - not a good idea. Now that I think about it - it might not even stick to a hard finish.
 
It's all nitro based so I think it would stick but to your point, it might just make the pits more obvious.

I'll prob just shoot some regular old clear and see what it looks like.
 
Patched up the bits of binding gaps as best I could. I think it's time to paint the neck now. Wowza. What a journey. Hoping I didn't forget anything along the way but I think I'm good.

Anyone know a magic formula for matching the walnut stain color on the body? My plan is to fart around with Stewmac stains on test pieces until I get something I think is close enough. Then I'll put some vintage clear over the whole thing and call it a day.
 
Test frequently in places that can be covered up. Remember to build it from lighter to darker. It's very hard to go the other way. As always, good luck!
 
did a quick color match test over the holiday. looks like Stewmac Red Mahogany is going to be dead on for this one which is great because I was hoping not to have to mix any magic potions. I'll be spraying in early 2025 and then getting near the end. I hope. Talk about famous last words.


color match.jpg
 
Put some color on it today and that felt great. Pretty good match or at least close enough that I'm going to be happy with it. Purposely faded a bit more color at the ends like the original.

Need to clear it and then do the front of the headstock still. Once the finish is done I'll have to look at the frets and make some choices about what to do there. They are pretty tiny but came like that from the factory. A couple are popped up a bit but that's a pretty easy fix. Hoping for a February finish date if all goes well.

neck paint 2.jpg neck paint .jpg
 
Clear should be the last - after you spray the peghead face.
But you are right - it looks good, and it's a darn good feeling!
 
yep yep!

I need to clear the body as well but I'm struggling a bit on how to prep it given it has a fair amount of pitting in different parts. I might just do a light test coat and see how it goes.
 
It would be too much work to make it smooth. Just protect it, and call it good. Don't get so wrapped up trying to hit perfection that you mess it up this close to being done.
 
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