Black Paint Repair

[Thomas Wentzel]

Greetings all, I've usually shied away from finish repair, since I don't have the essential tools nor the skill set required to do a decent job on a vintage guitar of any value.
Recently, I've acquired a '30s jumbo acoustic flat top by the Oscar Schmidt Co., branded 'Keystone State' (Weymann). It came with some old repairs one of which is a poorly planned and executed back crack repair (solid birch back). The crack was just slathered with what appears to be epoxy, and let to dry. I would like to give the back a much more presentable appearance.

I've managed to scrape most of the epoxy off, and am now considering doing the paint work myself .. I think, because black is easier to work with than a translucent finish. Being a minimalist, I don't want to refin the entire back. So anyone with experience with this?

My question is can anyone with experience outline a procedure for this job? I don't have spray equipment but could source paint in spray cans. I have micro-mesh sanding/buffing materials, including a large arbor buffer.

Check the pic .. it looks worse that in real life The pic is the early part of scraping. I have the bulk of the epoxy removed now with a scraper...some bare wood exposed.

Thanks .. Tom

[Barry Daniels]

That is a mess. There is no way I would try a patch job. I would take the entire back down to bare wood and refinish it.

[Thomas Wentzel]

Thanks, Barry, it might come to that .. probably easier in the bigger picture. Here's where I'm at... the crack is raised a bit higher than the rest of the top, so my scraper took that down a bit. Still about an inch of thin epoxy on each side of the bare spot.

[Barry Daniels]

That photo certainly looks better. You may be able to do a spot repair with the right materials and skills. I would assume that the original finish is nitro lacquer but you should confirm that. If so, then use some black lacquer and feather it in.