Just Enough Makeup In the World

I felt like a cosmetic guitar Frankenstein when I smoothed out the wood filler with my putty knife and long straight-edge. But in less than a day, my repair work had cured and it was time to hit it with my sander. "Have 6o grit, will travel," I always say. The dust this produced was incredible and I could only do it outside lest I get lost in a dusty fog in my own basement.

One small point of concern was filling in the holes where the control knobs were once located. The guitar's owner wants to put a full time pickup inside the body and will no longer need the controls in this location. I glued a small block of wood underneath so this first round of putty would not fall through the holes.

You can see how extensive the damage was from the sanded areas. This will be smoothed out further over the long weekend. If you glimpse in the background of the first photo, you can see the headstock is already cleaned up and sanded smooth.

The Disaster DIY guitar project has turned a corner. It was a scary job at first, but everything is working out as planned.

No Turning Back Now...

The guitar restore project was sidelined the past few weekends due to cool weather (and a blown water heater that I had to replace), but now it's all systems go.

Fair weather is important in order for me to do this work out in the garage. The chemical solution I need to strip the paint is temperature sensitive and has undesirable fumes. The sanding process is also, well, in one word, messy. Nonetheless, this past weekend was very productive and the guitar body is now stripped down and ready for wood filler.

The paint stripper did its job as you can see from the bubbled orange paint. I took a palm sander to smooth out any stubborn areas to avoid using additional chemicals. All this revealed the many burn marks that were carved into the wood from the disc grinder. It's hard to believe the wood was not completely ground away -- though in some places it did come close. I will need a smaller sander to get into the crook of the horns, but it will be a good investment for any future woodworking projects.

I love the shape of this guitar and I look forward to seeing it look healthy again.