Trouble spots on my clear coat. Help....

[Artisan]

Hello,

I have a couple of guitars that have trouble spots on the clear coat finish.

1) My 1998 ES-135 is almost perfect. The guy I bought it from babied it. He is a carpenter, and I believe he touched the guitar with some chemical or paint remover and left a finger print on the back near the bottom. The print seems to have eaten into the clear coat and you can feel it. I tried the polishing cream that comes in the Gibson Restoration kits, but its way too mild. I was thinking this might need to be lightly sanded and buffed to remove it completely, but I'd like to try something a little stronger before I resort to that. Any advice?

2) I recently bought a 2005 ES-137. This was a player guitar and must say the guy who had it did not respect it. I felt I needed to rescue it so I bought it. It looks like the idiot put 2 stickers one front and one back. They both left parallel lines/marks in the finish and on the back it seems to have raised the nitro and caused a patch of air bubbles. I compounded the finish a few times to try to get to the problem. It successfully removed the sticker marks from the front although I discovered the finish got pulled off in a thin strip in the front. Luckily it's right on a place where the maple flame is. I oiled it up and it really doesn't show. The back is another story. The finish definitely raised and the parallel marks are still there. But it only shows in the light. The bubble area is horrendous. It looks like it will need to be sanded. I am afraid I will not be able to match the finish. It's a light caramel burst on flamed maple and it's spectacular. I really want to restore it. What do I do?

Please help...

 

[BrandonLee]

you could try buffing it with cut&polish..but if you put up a few detailed pictures im sure one of the more experienced guys on here(gator payne,bcrgreg,h.e.l shane) will be able to jump in with better advice

 

[Artisan]

I finally worked up the courage to bring my 137 to a Luthier to repair the finish.
He told me the top can be buffed and would be fine but he was worried about the back.
At first glance he told me it was fixable but he was worried that he might have to remove part of the clear coat and was afraid it might be trouble. He suggested I don't touch it at the risk of ruining it. I hesitated but had to agree with him. I asked him if there was a way he could confirm how deep the problem was. He had a couple of ideas so I left it there and told him to change the strings and adjust the intonation while he was at it.

He gave me a call on Monday and told me he had a surprise. I figured he must have buffed the top to make me happy. When I got there I took a good look at the top was very happy with the outcome. I flipped it over and took a look at the back expecting to be disappointed. Somehow he managed to repair most if not all of the damaged finish coat. He told me that he took a close look and determined that what caused the damage was a chemical reaction with the glue on the the sticker that the previous owner put.

He was able to remove some of the clear coat with a medium compound without going to far and then buffed it with a light compound and polished it, all by hand. It came out beautiful....

I will take pics and post them.