Best way to paint over a ding

Skeeter

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Jan 12, 2013
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Hi, I recently dinged the headstock on one of my PRS against the wall. It’s pretty small, and fortunately mostly on the back, where it is just painted black, like the neck:

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With the wood exposed, I’d like to just cover it up with something black, like a sharpie. But since the finish is shiny, I was wondering if you guys have a real specific DYI that you recommend for your V12 finish - like nail polish or something?

Please let me know what you think would work best. Thanks!
 
I just used a red Sharpie and some clear nail polish. Mine was deep, so it was about 5 coats of nail polish.
 
I'd hit it with black Sharpie and be done, personally.

I've done the nail polish thing too and it works okay. It won't be seamless unless you want to try your hand at sanding, but at least it seals things back up.
 
With black nail polish being a thing these days, I might be tempted to give that a careful try. I’m sure the Sharpie trick will also cover it.
 
As the guys have said, use a sharpie to stain the wood. Or you can tint low viscosity super glue and layer it up.

It’s been used successfully for these types of repairs.
 
Sharpie to my eyes always has a not solid black look when applied to wood, almost an odd purplish tint to it. I once got a pretty nasty ding on the front of a Dean Hardtail guitar that is black and used black model car paint to fill it in. Testers gloss black enamel. I didnt build up the height of it so the indent was still there but the black gloss matched exactly to the guitar's paint. If the finish is nitro though not sure if putting enamel onto it will cause any issues. If not that's how I would approach it.
 
My 'guitar work/repair' drawer has a half dozen bottles of nail polish; kinda my go to for little dings. That one's a bit more than just a ding, but that's prolly what I'd do. Multiple coats letting it dry in between and try not to overlap the intact finish.
 
I am of the thought that dings are good future stories, like scars and battle wounds which add to the history of the guitar. Let the ding shine and add more as you rock out.
 
I can't see the pic, but one option could be black dye. You can get Rit fabric dye from Walmart in black. It's works similar to analine dye. You can touch up finish with CA glue. There are tons of videos on YouTube for doing CA touch-ups. Here are links to touch-up videos from who I consider to be two of the best Luthiers with YouTube videos:


 
I used 30 layers of black nail polish to build up a large, down to the wood chunk of missing finish on a Steinberger Spirit once, worked great and matched perfect. Those guitars have about 1\4 thick finish, can't believe those guitars work so well.

Second (or whatever number this is) for the black nail polish.
 
Is that it in your avatar?
VERY cool.
Yeah over the years it's gone through a lot.
The neck profile is re carved and its bare wood with gunstock oil, the giant heel has been carved back to meet the body. Forearm binding carved down and the entire back is a huge belly contour that's been chambered and plugged for weight relief. It the neck and middle pickup routes were filled with epoxy.

Should have it up and running in about a week when the finish cures.
 
Yeah over the years it's gone through a lot.
The neck profile is re carved and its bare wood with gunstock oil, the giant heel has been carved back to meet the body. Forearm binding carved down and the entire back is a huge belly contour that's been chambered and plugged for weight relief. It the neck and middle pickup routes were filled with epoxy.

Should have it up and running in about a week when the finish cures.
Fawk yeah!
 
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