spot touching metal flake paint

[diablo175]

Just curious- is possible to spot repair small dings (down to the wood in one case) in a metal flake paint job?

[Steve Haynie]

There is a possibility that you can find tubes touch up paint at an auto parts store that sells automotive paint. Getting the correct color is going to be difficult unless you want to buy a quart, and that is going to cost bigger bucks than it is worth for a small touch up. To get the color to look right you will have to spray a slightly ambered clear coat to keep the touch ups from looking too bright. Let it go for right now. That edge wear looks normal.

[backinit]

Fingernail polish?

[Jimbilly]

I've got a collection of fingernail polish I use for touch-ups, but I don't think I'd try it on a guitar like that. On a valuable/rare guitar, a repair you can spot is going to hurt the value more than a ding, - matching would be really tough. Stop by KMart, Target etc and buy $10 worth of bottles, do some test spots on a cardboard square, maybe you'll get lucky.

I've used black fingernail polish on black guitars numerous times, -I think it was Serial that suggested it long ago. It wet sands and polishes out, and the ding completely disappears.

[cmatthes]

I actually used some nail polish to touch up an old Hamer bass. The color matched almost perfectly. After a wetsand and from 5-6 in. away, I doubt it'll be visible at all.

I have actually seen some purple sparkle nail polish before - not sure how close you'll get, but definitely worth looking it over.

[Punkavenger]

The color match and application will have to be almost perfect however or it will look like crap

[diablo175]

The color match and application will have to be almost perfect however or it will look like crap

Appreciate all the input. Maybe it's relevant to state that while I am aware of the collectible/somewhat rare status of the Cali LE, I really am not a collector and thus not interested in it's value as a collectors item or investment. Just a player who's more about minimizing the the aesthetic imperfections.

[Hbom]

These folks have some metalics in a can. Maybe LakePlacid with a tinted coat over B4 you clear coat.

But best guess is it would just muck things up.

http://home.flash.net/~guitars/products.html#aerosols

I'd just play the H out of it.

[Punkavenger]

The color match and application will have to be almost perfect however or it will look like crap

Appreciate all the input. Maybe it's relevant to state that while I am aware of the collectible/somewhat rare status of the Cali LE, I really am not a collector and thus not interested in it's value as a collectors item or investment. Just a player who's more about minimizing the the aesthetic imperfections.

Yeah I understand that ... touching up with the wrong color paint, even if its some sort of metallic purple, if its not dead on it will actually look worse than the chips and dings

IMHO of course