1964 D-40 back refinish- before and after, tru-oil

[jfilm]

Well finally at or near the finish line so to speak on this project. I posted a while back in the tech area about my D-40, which someone in the past had made a mess of. Took a while, and it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. I ended up using a less toxic paint stripper to get the finish off, which took several applications, because I didn't want to risk destroying the old binding. The long back crack, which was not closing with humidity treatments, I repaired by using mahogany veneer splints. Finally, used very thin layers of tru-oil (this is 24 coats, nothing else done). Color doesn't match the sides, but I don't mind. It's nice to see the wood grain.

 

[richardp69]

You do good work sir. Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[GGJaguar]

Wow, I think it came out great! Kudos!

 

[walrus]

Wow! Great work!

walrus

 

[catan]

That looks great i might need your tips. I need to finish some badly done repairs

 

[cupric]

What a difference! Great work! Looks beautiful!

 

[Stuball48]

If you are not a luthier, you may have missed your calling. A job well done and one a luthier would proudly take credit for.

 

[jfilm]

Thanks all, it was a great learning experience and bonding experience with this guitar. @ Catan, would be happy to share tips with this particular job, especially using tru-oil. One tip to start is to post your project in the tech area, lots of experienced folks will weigh in. Wouldn't have started this project without the advice and encouragement of LTG'ers to take the plunge, and glad I did.

 

[GardMan]

Looks great!

 

[catan]

Thanks all, it was a great learning experience and bonding experience with this guitar. @ Catan, would be happy to share tips with this particular job, especially using tru-oil. One tip to start is to post your project in the tech area, lots of experienced folks will weigh in. Wouldn't have started this project without the advice and encouragement of LTG'ers to take the plunge, and glad I did.

Thanks for the tip. Will do. I refinished a bass and a guitar and some furniture with tru oil i like the stuff a lot.

So hard to get the smell out of your hands tho.

 

[wileypickett]

Nice job filling the crack with the splints. When all the hydration in the world won’t close things up, that’s your best option.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Amazing work!
A ‘64 D40. That must sound sublime.

 

[kalper]

Impressive!

 

[Guildedagain]

Super job, killer Mahogany!

 

[jfilm]

Thanks for the tip. Will do. I refinished a bass and a guitar and some furniture with tru oil i like the stuff a lot.

So hard to get the smell out of your hands tho.

Yeah, in my research I found that some people apply it with their fingers (I think the directions on the bottle say to do it), but I went with a small bit of scrap cloth wrapped around a crunched up 1/4 sheet of paper towel- worked pretty well to do very thin coats. Gets tacky pretty fast, and I think I stretched the coats really thin using the cloth pad- basically two dabs off the bottle with the pad did a coat for the whole back.

 

[catan]

i found that with fingers i could apply a little thicker coats more evenly. Because my hands dont soak up like cloth and the oil kind of "self levels". to be honest i am much lazier than you, i would not apply more than 5 coats just based on my time at hand. I've always applied to thirsty wood so it always seemed to suck up the oil a lot at first so i used a lot on my fingers, then applied final finishes with cloth.

that being said, i do not get a mirror shine with my methods. I get a more "oil rubbed" look, still open pores and dents easily

 

[jfilm]

i found that with fingers i could apply a little thicker coats more evenly. Because my hands dont soak up like cloth and the oil kind of "self levels". to be honest i am much lazier than you, i would not apply more than 5 coats just based on my time at hand. I've always applied to thirsty wood so it always seemed to suck up the oil a lot at first so i used a lot on my fingers, then applied final finishes with cloth.

that being said, i do not get a mirror shine with my methods. I get a more "oil rubbed" look, still open pores and dents easily

I did something similar - on the first coat I used 600 grit sandpaper on a small wood block, and that used a lot more oil and took forever to apply - the wood really soaked it up and I had to go back to the bottle frequently for more oil. I did it that way to try to pore fill for the first coat. After that, the cloth made it go much, much faster. I did 3 coats a day with about 3 hours between them, probably spent 10 minutes or so per coat.

 

[catan]

Gotcha just a quick wipe. Very nice!

 

[evenkeel]

Well finally at or near the finish line so to speak on this project. I posted a while back in the tech area about my D-40, which someone in the past had made a mess of. Took a while, and it's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it. I ended up using a less toxic paint stripper to get the finish off, which took several applications, because I didn't want to risk destroying the old binding. The long back crack, which was not closing with humidity treatments, I repaired by using mahogany veneer splints. Finally, used very thin layers of tru-oil (this is 24 coats, nothing else done). Color doesn't match the sides, but I don't mind. It's nice to see the wood grain.

Very nice work. Looks terrific.

 

[davismanLV]

Great job!! What an improvement!!! Thanks for showing us this repair!! i like it!!