Superglue spillage FML

Bod

Late last night my boy brought his guitar (a Dean ML) to me to help seal a tiny lift of the finish around the rear trem cavity to stop it spreading further.  No problem I thought, I've got a bottle of low viscosity superglue that'll do the job nicely by wicking underneath it with a tiny dot.  I took the lid off, completely unaware that it had stuck to the nozzle, and what I'd actually done was completely open the bottle. I proceeded to then pour half the bottle over the rear of the guitar.

Most of it has gone over the back, but some trickled through to the front resulting in a 10cm run on the top.  The high E fine tuner on the Floyd also took a hit and glued up, but I was able to get it out eventually with pliers - replacement now on order.

I'm hopeful that I can carefully sand the smeary mess on the rear with fine sandpaper/micromesh and then T-Cut any fine scratches out.  I've also ordered some CA remover, but not sure how that would affect the finish.

Anybody else been an monumental idiot and done similar and have any tips for removal?

WezV

Scrape don't sand.  The glue will be harder than finish, so sanding wont work


Use a razor or stanley knife blade as a scraper.  You can put tape on both sides to help prevent further damage either side of the run untill its vlose to the surface.

Once its just about level, if you are nervous about going too far with the scraper, you can sand in a very particular way.   Take a thin strip of sandpaper and press it again the run with your finger, pull the sandpaper through.   This ensures you only sand the right spot, not the softer finish either aide.

Then once fully level, wet sand and buff the whole area.


Could be worse.   I once had to do this on the top of a rare 335 where someone had superglued the strap button in and left a run all the way to the bridge

digitalkettle

I spilt some superglue on a Suhr I used to own. Gutted, I got into an exchange of emails with John Suhr where he advised me to use acetone as the poly finish would be impervious to it. I immediately went for the missus' nail polish remover which didn't do a thing (although it smelt nice). I informed JS of my failure and he told me to stop messing around, get hold of some proper acetone, and have at it (I paraphrase)...a couple of minutes of rubbing and the finish was as good as new.

That's just personal experience where I got lucky...I imagine @WezV has performed his suggestion 'once or twice' and it's much more eco-friendly

Bod

Thanks folks.  I discounted acetone as I thought it might make the poly finish cloudy, which has happened before on plastics when I've attempted to remove a sticker residue from something.

When you say proper acetone, what do you mean?  I know lots of nail polish remover no longer contains acetone, but I do have some that does...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BT9LMXM - this is the remover I've ordered.  No harm in having it in my toolkit even if I decide not to use it.

digitalkettle

Bod said:

Thanks folks.  I discounted acetone as I thought it might make the poly finish cloudy, which has happened before on plastics when I've attempted to remove a sticker residue from something.

When you say proper acetone, what do you mean?  I know lots of nail polish remover no longer contains acetone, but I do have some that does...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BT9LMXM - this is the remover I've ordered.  No harm in having it in my toolkit even if I decide not to use it.

I was hesitant but I took advice from the guy who knows his finish the best...there are probably many flavours of poly (?)

Just dug up an email from 2008 where I bought 'Pure Acetone 250ml' from Ebay...I remember it coming in plastic bottle that, reassuringly, wouldn't have looked out of place in a lab

WezV

Acetone is fine if you know what the finish is... just do a decent test in a hidden area like a cavity first, give it some time to make sure it isn;t having any effect. 

Obviously it shouldn't be used on Nitro, but it might be fine on an ML

Bod

Great stuff.  Thanks both -wiz's all round!  I shall cogitate for a while on the options.  An acetone test in a hidden spot is probably where I'll start, but will report back.

Gizmo

you may want to try some De-bonder before you start cracking out the razor and acetone

https://www.toolstation.com/super-glue-de-bonder/p81913

Again try it on a hidden area first,but i have used this stuff on a Poly finished Showmaster to remove CA without issues, dab on wait 30 seconds wipe off and the CA goes with it. GL

rossi

Acetone is the stuff .I often use it to retrieve my fingers  aftrer sticking to model car parts.,The poly paint  mentioned is 2K urethene paint 

DONT USE ON NITRO as others have said

Bod

Acetone did the trick, followed by T-cut and polish!

I went from this.



To this.


Thanks for your help and advice.  Gotta love this place and those that frequent it!  Well, most of them anyway.

Bod

The front.

digitalkettle

Nice work!

Offset

Wow!

polotska

Nice work! I’ve also had good luck with acetone. I gather that nitromethane (like the Superglue De-Bonder mentioned above) works well too but I’ve not tried it.

Kittyfrisk

Excellent news, well done & thanks for reporting on the results  
The acetone also seems to have managed to restore the missing high 'E' string locking screw too 

ElectricXII

Nice work. I bet your boy's pleased. Your future care home has no doubt been upgraded back to what it was going to be.