Repair And Restoration
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Blending in a neck break repair.
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Blending in a neck break repair.
I’m looking for advice and feedback on this touch up. It’s my second one of these carbon fiber fabric repairs, my first turned out much better. I used the powdered pigments to match the color of the original wood, which was exposed along the margins of my repair, then I used glass slides to match the color of the lacquer. I then used The Mohawk brush tip marker, which I don’t think I’ll use again because I couldn’t get straight lines. The graining pen along a straight edge worked much better the prior one. My main concern is where the new color and the old cover overlap at the transitions. Does anybody have advice, or what would you have done differently? Seems impossible to paint up to a color coat that doesn’t fade in gradually. What tint should I have added or left out to get the color more spot on? Thanks looths.
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17 Replies
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First things first. Light and camera angles. I’ve seen more than a few pictures of these repairs now and some of them are quite impressive, however, there are some things to be known about pictures. You can find a good angle to shoot just about any finish repair. Avoid the temptation to judge your repair based on other peoples pictures.
Second, some advice based on some guessing. There are 3 different colors here which are tricking your brain through the power of impressionistic art to make you misread your base color. The three colors are super light yellow-brown (the background that didn’t take up much pore filler and was probably dyed), light red brown (where the shallow pores picked up more filler), and dark, almost black-brown (where the deep grainlines were filled and picked up the most color).
Close up on the project you see these distinct colors, from a distance (as Amy Grant would say), you see the colors merge to form a color very much like the one you used.
The key to making this look better (from one angle at least) is to start over and hit those three colors and make sure you don’t obscure the light yellow-brown.
Now, unless this is a super valuable guitar, or you have a surplus of time to fart around squinting and huffing fumes, this is a pretty nice repair and one I’d call done in the right price range.
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Thank you for those insights and your time Ian! I wasn’t able to attach these in the original post, but they show natural wood along the margins, My attempt at the color of the natural wood then the color coat<div>
From what you’re saying, I should have added some light brown in picture number two?
Also, do you have any advice on where the two color coats overlapped and created a darker area?
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How did you lock in your color before clear coat ? It kinda looks like the solvents flowed out some of your color work. I’d also say, you’re still just a skosh red and a skosh dark on your base coat.
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One thing that can happen on the edges is that your solvents can penetrated the edge of the lacquer and rewet those colors of the original finish. You might try leaving that in the sun for a day or two and see if it mellows the edges out.
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Very interesting, thanks. I locked in the color with lacquer, so I can see how what you’re saying is a definite possibility. I appreciate the notes on color. I guess I should have added a little bit of green to the base coat. I used burnt sienna raw umber and a little champagne.
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So, This doesn’t strike you as a color coat airbrush technique issue? I have watched your video airbrushes.
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It depends. DId you airbush on evenly ? If you did, then yes, sorta. Evenly applied color isn’t going to give the splotchy look of pore filler. Just like you mimic grain lines with the dark lines produced by the graning pen, you need to splotch on the color with the airbrush to simulate the light and dark areas.
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But it still bears repeating. You’re never not going to have bad angles. There’s no chatoyance, and a pigment base coat with a dye toner layer will never have the same look at pore filler. You might have better luck abrading and cutting in grain lines and then using pore filler over the base coat. I’ve never tried that though, so file it under experimental.
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You’re the man Ian, thanks for your time.
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I’ll chime in too. From watching Ian’s videos I learned to build color from the lightest visible color on the guitar. Here I used amber toner from a can. Then I build up the other colors using the he direct-apply method, bit by bit, with Blendal powder stains. That’s how I blend the edges. Not by spraying color.
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Do you know which specific videos address color building? I am a Pro member and have access to the Ding Kings stuff, but haven’t found this specific video. Thanks!
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I haven’t seen a video on color building using dry powder stain directly applied to the guitar surface in the manner I do it. Maybe someone has made one. I’m not sure…
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Another process photo of gradually adding color. I use the graining pen on top of the base amber. My graining technique sucks so I’ll keep working on that.
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Lastly
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I think if you had started with an amber base and built the edges with powder stain directly applied, you might have gotten more of what you were going for. All that said, I think your work here was pretty excellent and I would have no problem calling that “done!”
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One last thing: I use a lot of diffferent colors, like 5-10 different kinds. After a while your eye tells you what needs to be added in the next layer.
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Thanks Alan! Not sure how I missed this thread until now.
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