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I sprayed a top with rattle can nitro, let it cure and leveled it. Then, during a move it was exposed to very cold temps in the garage. Now it's ALL crazy! Any cure, hope?

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Pat

None that I've heard of short of a complete refinish.
Leave it - adds character.

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

If the finish is thin enough you can try re-amalgamating the finish using butyl cellosolve (retarder), but it is chancy at best.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Thanks gents. Much to consider. No easy answer I guess.....

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Pat

We've had a couple Merrills in with really nasty cold-checking. While the builder has been good about repairs for original owners, these were 2nd and 3rd owner guitars, so not covered by warranty. Although we normally love a little aged, checked lacquer on a 40 or 50 year-old guitar, it's not that attractive on a three year old instrument.

Much like Mr. Ford, we use butyl cellosolve, but for the type of cracks we were dealing with, the cellosolve was applied to the cracks directly using micro pippettes, then after allowing a couple days for drying, we shot two 50/50 coats of thinned nitro with 5% butyl cellosolve added. We believe the problem with the Merrill finish is the use of a lacquer without sufficient plasticizers to handle the movement of a solid wood acoustic instrument, so reshooting the body ( the necks appear to be much more resistant to checking or to have been finished with a different formulation) with a thin butyl cellosolve-rich top coat addressed the issue. The down-side of the process (versus a refinish) was that the instruments showed quite a bit of settling in the crack paths, so required a level sand and buff after 6 months.

After 18 months and some outdoor, low temperature gigs over two winters, no further checking and the finish has aged well after the one follow-on sand/buff.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower