Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

This guitar just keeps on giving.

It has multiple cracks on each side, probably from being dropped on end. 2 of the cracks on the right side were 18" long.

I made 2 acrylic culls to stabilize the sides, while I glued the cracks. I used titebond glue, watered down a bit, applied outside of the sides, then blown into the cracks via a compressed air tool with a suction cup tip. The glue penetrated the cracks, without adhering to the sides. It did not go beyond the cracks on the inside. It stabilized the sides enough to allow me to strip the back and sides.

I have no idea what they used for finish. After 5 coats of a safe stripper, some of the finish persisted. I moved outside where I could use the caustic stuff safely. After 3 coats of the nasty stuff, the guitar is finally stripped. The finish has the consistency of a hard gooey stuff. It was not polyurethane.

I inlaid the rosette and have rough cut the wood for the eventual braces. The owner has specified forward shifted and scalloped.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

The top is ready for final thickness sanding. I finally hit bare wood on the sides and back. I think they used epoxy for the finish as well.

I'd named it the Epoxy Nightmare. Her new name is Epoxy Roxy. She was full of epoxy, but she's going to rock so Roxy seemed appropriate. I spent another couple of hours cleaning the inside of the box. Just when I think it's clean, I find more epoxy. There are 2 fiberglass patches which are going to stay put. It would be my luck that the entire guitar would crumble if I touch them.

If you look closely, you can see a little line of glue that was blown into the cracks to stabilize the sides, but that's all you see. I'll work on cleats and a couple of wooden struts tomorrow, and I'll address a couple of back cracks.

No cracks are visible outside of the box.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

I've been working on the D-18. Epoxy Roxy still had some surprises up her sleeve (or dovetail).

She had a 1/2" hole in her tail block. Also, the torti wedge was extremely damaged. I took care of 2 birds with one inlay. I made a new wedge, which I glued a piece of torti, courtesy of the oversized, damaged pickguard from the D-28 I'm working on. The wedge was 1/4" deep. Using my inlay tool that I bought from John Hall, at Blues Creek Guitars, I inlaid the wood, which was mahogany. I made sure to run the grain of this inlay, perpendicular to the grain in the end block. I believe that all of the damage to this guitar, was from a drop right on the end. This inlaid wood will prevent the kind of damage from happening again, should she be dropped.

I finished the new top, made of torrified Appalachian red spruce. The client wanted forward shifted braces with scalloping. I made the top to his order. The X brace had a 100° angle, as I shifted the x-brace to 1" from the soundhole.

I installed the new top 2 days ago, and left it clamped until this morning. I decided to use HHG for all repairs. I installed the new fretboard on the neck. I still have to inlay fret markers.

I got the purfling and binding installed on the front. It was so much easier using the router binding cutter set that I bought from John Hall, at Blues Creek Guitars (Thank you John!). The channels were perfect.

I wish the dovetail and pocket were as easy to deal with. The neck pocket sides were full of a mixture of sawdust and epoxy. This stuff was like chipping rocks. I found out the reason for all of this epoxy. Someone had chiseled out so much wood in the sides of the pocket, that they went beyond the guitar sides by a full 2mm +. On each side, half way down, there was an ovethang of thin guitar sides. If I would have broken this, the neck would not have covered the opening.

I cleaned the rock hard spooge out, then glued pieces of mahogany to the sides, to replace the lost wood. I will sand the new wood to even it with the remaining pocket sides tomorrow. Fortunately, I didn't damage the side wood. I also cleaned the dovetail of remaining epoxy, silicone, and whatever else they used.

The guitar is now entirely cleaned up.
I sanded the fretboard even with the sides of the neck Tomorrow, French polishing will start.
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Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
ColestineGuitar
Posts: 135
Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:30 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by ColestineGuitar »

Now THAT's entertainment. I'll enjoy seeing the finished project. Epoxy Roxy rides again!
Slowest builder on the forum. These things take time. Apparently.
MaineGeezer
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Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:14 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by MaineGeezer »

It is worth going back to the beginning of this topic to refresh one's memory (or to see for the first time, if you started reading this someplace in the middle) just how bad this guitar was. Diane,you have done an amazing job.
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
tippie53
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Location: Hegins, Pa
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Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by tippie53 »

it is amazing what people do to their guitars isn't it .
John Hall
Blues Creek Guitars Inc
Authorized CF Martin Repair Center
president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com
Diane Kauffmds
Posts: 3246
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:13 pm

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Diane Kauffmds »

It sure is. This guitar is refinished. I have to glue the neck. I wanted the humidity problem resolved first. I'll be posting finished photos soon.
Diane Kauffmann
Country Roads Guitars
countryroadsguitars@gmail.com
Mal-2
Posts: 104
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:56 am

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Mal-2 »

tippie53 wrote:it is amazing what people do to their guitars isn't it .
People get desperate when told it would cost more to repair a guitar than to replace it -- so replace it they do, and then have a ham-fisted attempt at making the broken one playable.

This is hardly unique to guitars, though.
Darryl Young
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Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2010 6:44 pm
Location: Arkansas

Re: Undoing Awful Repairs on a 1954 Martin D-18

Post by Darryl Young »

Wlw, wonderful job repairing the botched repairs.
Slacker......
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