I'm opening a separate thread for the resolution as I have some pics I am posting.
Ok my arm wore out from buffing, but I have maybe 90% of the scratches out. I asked for help here:
http://forums.guitarnoise.com/?board=luthierstuff;action=display;num=1079253087
I tried Turtle Wax Polishing Compound on a small corner on the back of the guitar- NEVER USE THIS STUFF lol... Swirl City- I put many tiny scratches on the guitar (it got fixed though)
I then did a little research and found that for car finishes "Glaze" is a type of compound that is considered 'superfine' and is used to get out tiny scratches and 'swirling'. So I set out. I came back with "Meguiar's Scratch X" They say on the tube that basically if you can't get it out with this stuff, go get a buffing maching cuz it ain't gonna go!!! hehe
So I load the corner I scratched with the TW and BLAM smooth and shiny.
So I pile it onto my guitar's face (I had taken off the strings to do an overall cleaning anyway, and the pickups too so I could get at them better with the q-tips and lighter fluid).
I focused more on the sides for buffing and I still have the tail area to really focus on.
I had to apply about 4 times and buff like a mother, but little by little the scratches are going. I know that my finish is very thick (IMHO) as I have a chip in the headstock- so I'm not too worried about wearing it thin. It's doing the job and that's all that matters. Here are my sequenced photos:
01 - Before- OUCH!
02 - Before- tore down
03 - Finished- only a few scratches
04 - Finished- note my sexy fretboard now
05 - having a hard time getting scratches to show up
06 - as bad as it gets- this looks worse than it is- you have to really tilt it up to the light (or get a flash right on the scratches) for them to show up.
And just to compare here is the first image again:
01
I'll keep working on it and it will be totally scratch free. For now, I'm just happy that I can't see some 14 year old's scrawl "Motly Krue!!!" bleeding thru my finish anymore lol!
I use Meguiars and some other stuff, they both work really well.
It takes a lot of elbow grease, but you really made it shine.
Thanks for the pics.
On a whim I used Turtle wax on it just now after buffing it again. It filled in virtually all of the scratches- I have some tiny ones but all in all my guitar is now 10 times cleaner looking... what do you think?
Like a mirror:
Looks pretty good, good work.
joe
Fine job, looks really great.Nothing like tenasity and perserverance to get a good job done.
C'mon, that's a different guitar, isn't it?! ;) You did a really fine job on it. It looks so purdy! ;D
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
Yeah this was my first real tear down, so I was certain it was going to be FUBAR, but it was just fine.
Some people have asked whether having the strings off affects the tremelo or bridge so I'll post here.
The bridge and tremelo are sort of 'locked' onto the guitar several ways- The bridge is held in by two large post-like srews that serve to raise and lower the bridge as needed.
You can see them on the 'upper corners' of the bridge- closest to the bridge pickup.
The tremelo is likewise held on via 3 chunky springs that are fastened to the tremelo and anchored to the body via two sturdy screws. This is seen via removing a large plate on the back of the guitar.
In fact, I had the bridge completely off to clean it a little better and when I put everything back on, my intonation was perfect. Having string locks up on the headstock and those little mini tuners down on the bridge really help keep it in tune as well.
Glad you enjoyed the photos. It's hard to really show just how awesome it looks- it's one of those 'you gotta see it first hand' kind of things, but you get the idea hehe.
Sorry about the polishing compound, Voodude. Glad it worked out so well. Looks great!
Not a problem- that's why a bit went onto the back only hehe. It just caused what I would call haze. But the tube of Erm... I think it's spell Meguiar's really worked out well- that and the more liquid form of turtle wax.
Of course this is on a completely opaque finish- I would not consider doing this on a see-thru finish- I would have to do a bit more research to see if others have done this sort of thing on a flame maple top for example... I may just leave that job to the pros hehe. It would just seem to me that those finishes would be alot more fragile and show a poor job done more readily.
