Dinged, finished spruce top - Can I steam it?

[Chuck Tweedy]

Thanks Mario - I'm giving it time to sit like you said.
No use rushing something that should be a working instrument for many years to come from here on out.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Okay, been 2 weeks.
Had plenty to do in the shop for the past 2 weeks, but yesterday I was able to return to the dinged guitar.
As Mario predicted, the ding has shrunk back in a bit. No big deal, it is not shallow enough to fill with finish.
Not pictured, I sanded the local area of the "scar" with 800 paper. That seemed to be all it needed to make everything homogeneous.
So - seen below - I started by masking off the area and spraying a wet patch of lacquer with my trusty old Paasche airbrush. Took no time at all
I just removed the mask and left it to dry.
Since it has dried back, I can see the old depression, and I'm paining a line of lacquer down the valley. 4 coats total so far in the past 2 days.

Masked and sprayed

[Jason Rodgers]

Aces! I admire your patience. And I'll throw in another comment on the photography. That second picture really captures the tiniest dip remaining in the finish.

[Chuck Tweedy]

After spraying with the airbrush, I painted lacquer down the valley a few times to fill it up.
It's sat for 2 weeks, and I used a single edge razor to scrape it flush.
Sanded through the grits up to 2500.
And buffed it out.
It is pretty much an invisible repair - which I thought was impossible in this situation. It took a month to do, but the results are worth all the waiting.
And, actually I didn't wait for much. After the ding was steamed out, I've fit the neck, glued down the bridge, and pretty much completely finished the instrument. Luckily the repair was in a spot where I could buff it out as a complete instrument.

[Chuck Tweedy]

And done.

[Steve Senseney]

Beautiful repair!!

[Mark Swanson]

Good job Chuck!

[Chuck Tweedy]

Thanks guys. Nobody is happier than me that this all worked out.
Just wanted to report back the final result.

[Mario Proulx]

Success!

[Michael Lewis]

Nice, Chuck. Congratulations. Look again in about six months. It will probably show a little bit by then but I think you got the best of the situation.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Yes, I expect that spot will show some sort of witness lines in time. Probably around the triangle I masked off, and the dip itself a bit.
Hopefully this will be in the hands of someone else in 6 months. I don't know exactly how to warn them:
"Er ... Uh ... If this develops an ugly spot right ... there. Let me know."
Or just generically let them know that I'll fix any issues if they arise.

[Michael Lewis]

You tell the nice folks that it is a genuine hand made in America masterpiece. Whaddya want, machine made??? Some of the best wood even comes with "issues" so we just use it and go on.

[Barry Daniels]

Not bad for a dude from California.

[Chuck Tweedy]

Thanks Barry, that's real big of you.
But - of course - everything is bigger in Texas.

[Arnt Rian]

Nice work! Hopefully, if the repair starts showing in a few months, the guitar will already have a few more dings and scratches from being played so much because it is such a wonderful sounding instrument, its not going to matter that much, right? That's what I keep telling myself when stuff like this happens, anyways