Hey Folks, touched on this Bass briefly a while ago here.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6748.
I did promise a write up , so here it is.
Bass was in very sad condish when I got her, as you will no doubt gather from the pics.
Also, when I plugged her in, no workies.
Okay, so i'll start with the finish repairs.
I've been experimenting a bit lately using polyester resin in place of cyanoacrylate for drop filling.
Main reason being problems associated with tinting the cyano.
Deep fills are also a pain with the cyano as so much of it evaporates in the drying process.
Polyester resin colors easily with the use of pigments, mix & match.
As far as I know the original finishes are polyester, so no prob there.
Anyhow, I figured this baby was a good candidate for the treatment.
Black is one of the easiest colors to touch up, but it is also one of the hardest, I'll explain.
Repairs on Black finishes, no matter how average, look good from six feet away.
But, the closer you get the worse they look, for a few reasons.
Firstly, theres' black & theres' black and then again theres black.
What I'm getting at, is, if you compare a whole heap of black objects side by side you quickly come to realise the differences in the shade & depth of their finishes.
Some blacks are a kind of dark browny black & others are almost a dark bluey black, & everywhere in between
What once looked the same is now quite different.
How this complicates black finish touch ups is now apparent.
Further compounded by the super reflective glossyness (is that a word)of the finish.
So, in summary, you want to try for a repair that is undetectable from 2 feet away.
Here's what i have done here.
Firstly you need to prepare the damaged area.
When a black finish gets impact damage it shatters.
The shattererd finish looks white.
If you were to fill over this with clear cyano, it would be filled sure, but still very visable.
The polyester repair mix when prepared, although pigmented is still translucent.
This factor makes the next step quite important.
What you need to do is get a pointed blade & remove all of the shattered finish
, as you can see below.