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A friend asked me to have a look at his 70s Suzuki W65D

Its badly in need of some TLC but he's not interested in a complete renovation job , but merely to get it in playing condition and touch up a few chips--dents

I'm enclosing a pic of the first thing I notice on the top of a inch or more long scrape/dent

Its not a crack so its not gone through the top.

I was wondering if anyone has an opinion on how best to fill it without having to re spray the whole top

Sorry for bad phone pic--I will get my camera back soon
Thanks
Rusty

do you know what the finish is ? Lacquer ? Poly ?
In most cases that crack won't hurt the playability , so what else is wrong with the guitar.

It helps to know the finish you are dealing with , are the chipped and scratched deep enough to get into the wood?
Nitro is an easy repair but will take some time , if you can get the dirt out and see the bottom , you can drop fill and allow cure time. In a pinch and if the wood is not exposed you can drop fill with CA ( not my favorite ) but a cheaper alternative.
Lacquer will take a few weeks to cure and if you don't the finish will shrink and it will sink into the original voids. Poly you may need to use CA.

tippie53 wrote:do you know what the finish is ? Lacquer ? Poly ?
In most cases that crack won't hurt the playability , so what else is wrong with the guitar.

It helps to know the finish you are dealing with , are the chipped and scratched deep enough to get into the wood?
Nitro is an easy repair but will take some time , if you can get the dirt out and see the bottom , you can drop fill and allow cure time. In a pinch and if the wood is not exposed you can drop fill with CA ( not my favorite ) but a cheaper alternative.
Lacquer will take a few weeks to cure and if you don't the finish will shrink and it will sink into the original voids. Poly you may need to use CA.

Heres a few more pics of what I think is a 80s Japan made Kisa Suzuki. The marks have no effect on playability but he wants them filled nonetheless so I said I would try.

The long scrape is about 1 1/2 long and has just barely gone through the finish to the wood -but not in a bad way. Its around the width of a finger nail or a little more. The other dents are more or less in the finish. I also want to polish up the bridge in the pic--what would you recomend ?
I still cant say what the finish is as I'm fairly new here and not familiar with poly or nitro but I would think that CA should work as long as I can sand it level and apply some kind of finish --. All I have here is french polish shellac and sanding sealer and a bit of tung oil. Would any of these work ?

Anyone with experience of filling these kinda marks on a top ?
Should I spray some activator into it first and then CA glue. Would that then sand down and what would i use to apply some kind of finish ?

Any suggestions welcome and thanks for all your help in the past
Rusty

NO
first find out what finish is used. Nitro you can drop fill , if you use CA you have to let it cure. Adding activator will often cause more finish damage as it is mostly acetone and this may react if you have lacquer. Also activator may cause the CA to bubble up.
I would
1st
clean the guitar well with a soft brush
2 nd
wipe clean with naphtha
3rd drop fill let cure lacquer takes a few days
CA takes a good hour
level sand and buff

Rusty,
check out the procedure here http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0161.html

Thanks for the tips so far guys, I checked the stew mac procedure but they show a repair on a headstock--I couldn't find a body repair anywhere

I now think the finish is Nitro--its not shiny enough or hard enough to be poly.

Now i'm wondering about this, and please dont laugh!! Could I apply a little clear lacquer to these indentations such as clear nail varnish ? Would that fill out the dents and what would the finish be like?

Silly suggestion or not ?

Rusty

yes you can do that
you will still need to level sand and hand polish

Zen wrote:Thanks for the tips so far guys, I checked the stew mac procedure but they show a repair on a headstock--I couldn't find a body repair anywhere

Rusty

The technique can be used anywhere, not just on the headstock. It's just an example of how you'll want to level and buff out your touch-ups.

darren wrote:

Zen wrote:Thanks for the tips so far guys, I checked the stew mac procedure but they show a repair on a headstock--I couldn't find a body repair anywhere

Rusty

The technique can be used anywhere, not just on the headstock. It's just an example of how you'll want to level and buff out your touch-ups.

Thanks Darren and John

If I go the stew mac way with Ca glue would I need an accelerater for the Ca

I never knew there was such a thing until recently and its very hard to get here in Europe because of airlines not transporting certain accelerents etc . I believe some people use baking soda ?