HTS Solid Colour Match

Chips / dings / scratches, these things happen all the time. One of the trickier types of repairs is matching a solid colour, its very common to mix a stain and some clear lacquer but matching a solid colour takes a little bit more time and thought.

In this instance the guitar has taken a small knock, this is the process I follow to match the colour back in.

Time to repair approx 2 hrs over 4 days (paint drying times)

These are your three primary colours, as we are mixing a solid colour we use pigments not stains.

Taking a small drop of each pigment, I add them to a flat piece of paper.

Cream is basically a version of yellow, so I start my mix with a hint of yellow on a spatula.

Mix that through the white base colour, still way too white.

Adding a small minute amount of red, I am going to shift that yellow towards an orange colour, cream is on that way to orange.

Bit of red has turned it an off yellow now.

Need more yellow to deepen the colour.

Our colour now is getting close.

First job is to smooth all the damaged areas out, feather sand the borders of the chip.

Once clean sanded, we shellac any exposed wood.

I start with 20mls of solid white base colour.

Laying it over the original paint, its a fraction dark still, but we need to see the dried colour not the wet colour.