Repaired my Les Paul

Wound_Up

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I've posted this on other forums and in other threads on this forum. So I figured I'd make a thread for whatever reason lol.

The FedEx guy dropped it at my front door and cracked the neck. Smh.

Before I repaired it

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When I glued up the crack, the finish had a step where it didn't line up perfectly. So I attempted to sand it down and even it up. Not realizing there was no clear coat, I went straight through the color coat.

First attempt to cover it was with a cherry red lacquer pen from Stewmac. The color was spot-on but the more coats I dabbed on, the nastier it looked due to all the lumps. Every time I'd try to sand down the lacquer, I'd sand through it again. So I eventually bought a spray can of cherry red lacquer from Stewmac, hoping it was the same color as the pen. It was! Sweet!

So I let the can warm up for a few hours, taped up the guitar with a very quick tape job, and gave it a coat of lacquer over the stock polyester? finish. Surprisingly, it came out perfectly slick with no fish eye and no trash in it.

So I sprayed 3 more coats over the next 3-4 hours, waiting an hour between coats like it suggested on the can. It was 74* with under 30% humidity in here so it dried quickly. The results were astonishing, to say the least. I never imagined it would turn out as good as it did. I'm completely and totally satisfied with the results.

I doubt I could've done a better job, tbh. I stopped at 4 coats because I could tell it was building up along the tape line at the binding and I didn't want a huge edge right there. I probably could've hidden it a little better with a few more coats but it looked good to me so I stopped there.

One Pic of the first coat and then the finished product. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good Pic of the repair area before I sprayed the first coat. You can still see where the wood grain was visible in the first Pic. It's the lighter area "between the cracks".

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A few more pics. It wasn't my intention to hide the actual crack itself at the time. Looking at it now, I probably should have put more effort into covering it. Oh well. As I've said before, this guitar won't EVER be sold. It has far too much sentimental value like all of my guitars. My dad had his stroke the day I bought it so no, it won't ever leave my possession. Ever.

I also did more detailing around the binding and nut so it doesn't look like such an amateur repair job anymore. 😁 No pics, though. Maybe later. Recovering from a migraine headache currently.

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Did you repair the crack itself or just its looks ?

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Above is a Bessy clamp with a neck caul from a JAWS fret press on the bottom and a 12 inch radius block cut down to fit between the nut and first fret on the top.

Like this

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I glued it and clamped it. That's how the color was sanded through. When the two edges of the finish came back together, they didn't line up exactly even so there was a slight ridge. So I tried to sand it down thinking there was thick clear coat and there wasn't, so I went through the color almost immediately. I was so mad at myself because it looked terrible lol.

Had I not glued it, it would still look like the first pic and I wouldn't have needed to do anything. I was quite disappointed with the results when I was done with the glue up and sanding. So I thought about what to do for a while. First was the lacquer pen. The color was right on but I couldn't get it to lay down flat enough. So I jumped in feet first and went for the spray can. Lol. 👌

I wonder what would happen if I sprayed the top with clear lacquer? Lol i scratched the top today and the super thin clearcoat flaked off in a spot maybe 0.5mm wide? So I've been brainstorming how to fix it so it doesn't keep flaking. If it was any other guitar, I'd just dab a drop of super glue on it, scrape it, sand it, and buff it to a shine but it's not so I can't. 🤷

With how good the cherry red laid down, my next thought was "maybe I can lacquer the Top? 🤔" 🤣🤦

I see a rabbit hole.... 😂
 
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One thing that O did on a red guitar that had a paint chip (it was see through red) was add a couple of drops of red food coloring to clear super glue and dab it in the chipped area with a toothpick. When you add the food coloring, you have about thirty seconds to apply it as a chemical reaction occurs. It will make a hissing noise and bubble, but it dries almost instantly. Let it sit overnight and then scrap the surface and then sand smooth.
 
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