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Hey all,

Well I did it this time... So as I was shooting finish on the 3 guitars I am working on, I noticed little pin holes here and there. My thought was I will put all of the coats finish I wanted on them and then to a drop fill them all when I was done finishing. I know this already doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I guess my rational was that I didn't want to wait the day or so to recoat. I got really busy once I got all of the guitars final coated, so I let them hang for a 3 weeks and forgot to drop fill. Once I started to see an opening is my schedule coming up I started to drop fill. Well, now I am buffing the guitars finally and the spots where I drop filled are obviously showing because the finish is fresher than the original coats. My question is if I still buff them out and come back in a few weeks and buff the funny looking areas again will they go away?

Rob

What's your finish?

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Oops mohawk's instrument nitrocellulose lacquar

Any thoughts?

Finishing is fraught with errors, most of which they don't tell you about. We have all been there.

For the drop fill to work successfully, it needs to be done as early in the build coats as possible. Your best option now is to go back and level with some very fine grit sandpaper and a small corian block - a month dry time is critical, no more and no less ideally.

Drop fills are not a final finish, they need to be top coated to really go away. Otherwise they will leave little rings, and if you sanded/scraped before they were really cured out they will also leave a small dimple. Nitro is the most forgiving for drop fills since it will melt into the existing finish and then when top-coated will got away pretty much altogether.

- do your drop fills till they are proud of the finish when dry.
- let them cure out for at least a week. Really!
- Then scrape/sand true to the finish
- spray another top coat, this can just be a flash coat if you have enough finish on already.

I try to do any drop fills before my last two coats, that gets them well integrated into the finish.

Alan D.

The problem is refraction of light between the layers. Sand back as far as possible without getting into your sealer and blend in a large area, or do a complete respray. I know it's a pain in the butt....

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince