RG8 Paint Repair tips?

[Zehailiu]

Hi y'all, I just got a guitar after some years of focusing on other things in life. An old RG8.

I've been interested in starting to learn some luthiery skills over time and building in up to eventually craft my own guitars from scratch, so this dented RG8 seemed like a good place to start.
My idea is to first play around with fixing the finish, later refinishing, and then modding the neck and bodys and other bigger stuff.

So first thing I want to experiment with is fixing paint chips. They're pretty deep, some of the wood is a bit mushed up and splintered in that front dent. The paint around in is also fractured and lifted.

The chip on the back is weird because it's showing some kind of green/blue color instead of the bare wood. What is that? Some kind of sealer or base?

I don't have much wood working experience at all, mostly just watched some youtube videos.
I saw some people use superglue and wood dust to fill a dent, then more superglue that gets shaved, sanded, then polished to patch the clear coat.
If you have some advice, or a video or some tutorial where I can learn up things, I'd appreciate that!

 

[StringPluckery]

From my experience with refinishing the cheaper painted bodies, that green/blue color seems to be where a filler was used to build up/level out a spot before finish is applied. I did an RG8 body a few years ago that was pretty spackled all over with it. No harm when its being covered with a an opaque finish.

I'm not a fan of painting. The only fun part for me is spraying the color on a fresh surface. Refinishing or repairing paint is at the bottom of the fun barrel for me.

 

[Zehailiu]

Wow, didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know.

I'm just using this as a chance to learn whatever I can about guitar building and repairing. When i'm more comfortable with it I'll probably move on to other things like headless conversion.

Do you know if that green stuff is usually in thin layers or patches, and can they be sanded off if I want to remove the original paint and refinish in something more transparent?

 

[aesthyrian]

I cant really tell how deep those dents are but I would just grab a duplicolor paint pen, paint the dents, then fill and level with super glue, wet sand and polish to match the rest of the finish. If done well it won't be very noticeable.

This video covers the basic concept

 

[Shawn]

I had a similar thing with my RG8WH a couple years ago and luckily it was on the back bottom near input jack....I had dropped it on my coffee table as it slipped out of my hand holding the neck just enough to chip it about the size of a nickel. I was able to grab the chips and superglue it back and then had a local guy touch it up, wet sand and polish and it came out great.