That finish has melted... Epi LPJ

CampbellH

I have an early Epiphone LPJ in Black poly. I think the previous owner must have had some funky hand lotion as the finish on the neck has had a bad reaction, melting around the first few frets from the side of the fretboard right around to the other side. There are few similar marks to the body in usual playing hand locations.
It would look weird to just shave these areas back to the wood alone, and I am going to try and remove all of the poly, except for the headstock face. Serial is on the neck plate.

Has anyone here did this before?
Any pros n cons to watch out for?

Corvus

Sanding is doable with the right papers/grades. A power sander is a big help but hand with blocks works too. Hard foam, rubber or maybe cork blocks - not super rigid wood. You want a bit of give to them.
Start coarse and go down the grades till it's smoothed or removed.

Polyester is hard to shift chemically, it takes a long time. I mostly do it this way but trade paint stripper isn't supposed to be sold to the general public anymore. DIY stripper isn't up to it.
Heat can work but it takes a lot to get to the tipping point, people often scorch wood or worse, split open body joins. Wouldn't try it on a neck.

ICBM

If the finish has gone like that with just something someone could have had on their hands I'm pretty sure it will be polyurethane not polyester. That means you should be able to get it off with paint stripper.

The main thing to watch for is that the wood may be a bit ropey underneath - they often use less cosmetically perfect pieces for black or other solid colours. That might restrict what you can re-do it in.

Corvus

This is true, though urethane/2K is extremely inert as well in normal conditions being used on cars etc. Doesn't care about raw thinners for instance. Both paints being so chemically inert it's curious what actually did the damage, could it be heat or is it definitely hand-shaped.

CampbellH

Thanks. I am lucky that my lass is a pro wood finisher polisher of high end furniture. I lean heavily on her when it comes to this sort of work.

The initial reaction to seeing the guitar was that it was heat with the guitar leaning against a radiator. Only lookin at the neck damage, as it was all around the first few frets. But having similar damage to the body in hand locations, roughly, pointed us more to player damage. Bring use to it best guess.

I have stripped plenty of bodies of this type of finish and getting better at that. It's the first time doing a neck, so this is going to be fun, interesting...

As the finish is damaged on the neck the plan is to use paper initially there. DIY chem stripping is a no go. It is next to useless on just about anything and we don't have the setup to use any chemical that has the teeth.
If or more than likely when we use heat it will be a slow process, tackling small sections with long breaks. 
On finish the initial plan is it will get a solid paint finish. Not black because I am bored to tears with that colour. If the wood is better then expected, then that plan could change.

This is not going to be rushed. I don't expect it getting finished until next winter. Guitar projects are my winter hobby, as spring n summer are for biking and I have started to wind down my hunt for scarred guitars that need saving now. 

GoldenEraGuitars

Pictures would be good.

CampbellH

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Pictures would be good.

Aye.. too late though
My lass was away overnight. I was bored this morning and I found paper easily removed the damage.
Sometimes throwing caution to the wind works..
I am sure a certain lass will be rolling her eyes later lol

CampbellH

No need for any heat. My lass got me some of the high quality sandpaper she uses on her artwork and the finish came off the neck and body fairly easily. Just the finessing now and the body and neck will be completely clear of finish. I was shocked at how quickly this all came away.

Penn

Seen it before. That’s from Anusol. Might want to wash your hands. 

BillDL

Might have been from liquid hand sanitiser.  There were a few batches of it that my employer sourced during the early Covid period (when sources were scarce and companies were mixing all kinds of stuff for sale) that contained something that smelled strongly of acetone mixed in with alcohol and glycerine/glycerol.

CampbellH

BillDL said:

Might have been from liquid hand sanitiser.  There were a few batches of it that my employer sourced during the early Covid period (when sources were scarce and companies were mixing all kinds of stuff for sale) that contained something that smelled strongly of acetone mixed in with alcohol and glycerine/glycerol.

Yeah that sounds about right. I have a big background in chemicals and some of the mixes I read about were ... Creative ...

CampbellH

Penn said:

Seen it before. That’s from Anusol. Might want to wash your hands. 

Thank the gods I didn't do my Gene Simmons impersonation and lick the neck.