X-79 Finish

GAD

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Almost every X-79 I see for sale has the finish chipped off in big chunks, usually on the neck. Did they use automotive pain on these to be extra sparkly or something?

It's bad enough that the goody headstocks break all the time, but can this type of thing be fixed?


s-l1600.jpg
 

adorshki

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Almost every X-79 I see for sale has the finish chipped off in big chunks, usually on the neck. Did they use automotive paint on these to be extra sparkly or something?
Actually at the time most automotive paint was NC lacquer too.
(California had gone acrylic in '74 IIRC)
It was one of its first uses and virtually created the whole spray gun industry in support of its application.
And Ford was forced to offer more colors besides black, black, or black.
:biggrin-new:
It's bad enough that the goody headstocks break all the time, but can this type of thing be fixed?
s-l1600.jpg

In the generic sense that NCL's easily patched, sure, but color-matching might be a PITA.
And the wood might be so impregnated with contaminants (skin oils) by now that adhesion might be problem, which leads us to:
The first thing that occurred to me was a comment from Hans long ago about how finish adhesion was problem on some acoustic necks from the '70's (or was it early '80's?) because they were using padauk which is particularly oily and thus the finish didn't adhere well.
Otherwise I'm thinking it must be a problem with the typical owner of the instrument, sloppy handling, and when a chip occurs it just keeps getting larger as the edges get chipped away?

So what's the neck wood, do you know?
 
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GAD

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Good info thanks!

Haven't researched these yet so don't know about woods yet.
 

kakerlak

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A couple things -- I've seen a lot of Guilds from '60s-'70s where the finish seems to chip/lift off the necks in little pea-sized spots. Not sure if it's some sort of prep issue or what. Also, candy apple red is problematic and that guitar seems to have those color-specific symptoms.

Plenty of Fenders with the same issue where the finish starts to bubble up in little spots and then chip away once lifted. Not sure what causes it, but CAR does it. These are all random pics I snagged off Reverb of CAR Fenders, each one a different guitar:

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GuildFS4612CE

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Looks like the same finish, often referred to as 'orange peel', that used to appear on cheap car paint jobs by a company whose name I shall not mention...
 

kakerlak

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Looks like the same finish, often referred to as 'orange peel', that used to appear on cheap car paint jobs by a company whose name I shall not mention...

This isn't orange peel (lumpy finish that needs wet-sanded smooth) -- I'm positive the Guild and each of those '80s Fenders were originally nice, smooth factory finishes. It's some sort of reaction/corrosion b/w layers of finiah and/or the wood/sealer underneath. I remember buying a really pristine '80s/'90s '62 Strat reissue back in the '90s out of the newspaper. It was in the evening and didn't notice a few tiny little bubbles starting here and there until getting it into better light the next day. Sold it within a week before it got worse, lol.
 

adorshki

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A couple things -- I've seen a lot of Guilds from '60s-'70s where the finish seems to chip/lift off the necks in little pea-sized spots. Not sure if it's some sort of prep issue or what.
When it comes to cars it's almost invariably the problem, surface contamination from poor prep.
Have heard it said metallic colors are difficult to spray evenly which leads me to wonder if there may also have been issues with the paint getting properly mixed when metallic type pigments were used.
Maybe it should have been shaken more to ensure proper blending of solvents and solids or had a different dilution than "normal" colors for spraying ?
Or if there might have been something in the metallic part of the pigments that affected the long-term curing, causing the bubbling?
Is it particularly characteristic of the CAR?
And GAD, does it seem to be a problem in different colors of X-79's?
 

GAD

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And GAD, does it seem to be a problem in different colors of X-79's?

That's a great question. I think the candy apple red is the most common one I see and that's where I see the issue. Looking at some pics online of black ones I don't notice it.

I imagine these guitars aren't the most robust things out there and the goofy headstocks often have broken horns. Being 80's hair-band centric I imagine they were thrown around a bit, too.

Maybe hairspray is bad for the finish...
 

adorshki

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That's a great question. I think the candy apple red is the most common one I see and that's where I see the issue. Looking at some pics online of black ones I don't notice it.

I imagine these guitars aren't the most robust things out there and the goofy headstocks often have broken horns. Being 80's hair-band centric I imagine they were thrown around a bit, too.

Maybe hairspray is bad for the finish...
Well, it is NCL, no s--t!!
So it'd have solvents in it, LOL!
But I'm sure Kakerlak's right about it being a reaction between the finish and the sealer or maybe something peculiar to the pigments in that color.
Orange peel's' usually from not being allowed to dry properly between coats. A rush job.
And Scheib's still got some orphaned franchises going out here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Scheib
But I'd try to see if Fender has any repair-sized paint samples for a start.
 

GAD

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Well, I bought it so I can do all sorts of testing and in-depth analysis on it at my leisure.
 
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