halfords car paint?

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 9:25 pm

Is Halfords car touch up paint any good for patching up a large chip (about the size of a 50p piece) in a guitars finish? The tele custom ii that I bought looks like itâ€™s been dropped on itâ€™s edge and itâ€™s not worn in looking it just looks like itâ€™s been hit with a hammer.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 3:03 am

Is that aerosol? Clearly I am not the one to answer this. If it's acrylic paint going on poly, you may be okay. The trick is to sand a little, use primer, paint, and clears to match. On the cheap, just sand and color. Cheaper still, hit it again.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:01 pm

no, it's a tiny tube with a brush

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:54 pm

If it's the same colour, and you don't mind still being able to see that there was a chip there, then it's ok. However, it probably isn't the same colour and Halfords colour matching service isn't great even if you have a paint code.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:52 pm

colour matching is fine as its black, already did the repair itâ€™ll be hard to spot once its been sanded and polished...

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:32 pm

Right sanding and polishing over... I didnâ€™t realise the colour on these was sprayed thinly over a clear coat. While I was sanding the patch up back I accidently removed some of the surrounding black over coat. Which I think looks pretty cool, I wasnâ€™t keen on having a massive chunk missing from the finish but this just looks worn in rather than fucked.

So as a result the patch up now looks totally blended in with the worn in look of the surrounding finish. I might go for the same effect on the front of the guitar where your arm rubs while strumming to make it look like itâ€™s seen some rock action...

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desertan · Post by **desertan** » Mon Mar 28, 2011 5:26 pm

With all due respect, I think that you've made it look worse, if your intention was to fix the chips.

Black is dead easy to repair, and you can still get it looking good if the need should arise--if it was virtually any other color, you'd have a problem on your hands.

Next time around, you should use a spray bomb of black lacquer. Be sure you lightly sand the area you want to spray, with #800 or #1000 paper, wet. remove any wax that may be on the guitar with an appropriate wax and grease remover--lighter fluid works well.

Mask off the area you want to protect (in this case, run the tape along the centerline of the edge radius on both sides and cover front, back and neck with paper or a plastic trash bag, taped in place) and leave the edge unmasked so you have some "runout".

Shake the spray can well, then immerse it in some warm water--40C is what you want. Let it come up to temperature, shake it again for 30 seconds or so, then spray a number of light coats over the area you want to cover. Black should take four or even more coats.

After it's dried (overnight is best), unmask and polish with some FINE T-Cut. Hit it with some wax and it should look much better.