TRC Touch - Up

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:25 pm

Paul,

I carefully removed the TRC on my V64 to adjust the truss rods and lo and behold a very small portion of the white paint came off. The affected portion is smaller than the size of a match head. It's just above the top screw that holds the TRC in place.

What is the best method and what materials do I need to fix that issue?

Thank you in advance for providing your knowledge and expertise in this area.

BTW, I can't just leave it because it is going to bother me every time I pick my guitar up.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:28 pm

A bit of latex house or interior paint is what I'd use. Dab it on with a brush and allow to dry a few hours.

The reason I say latex is that, if for some reason it doesn't match (there are ten jillion shades of white!), you can wipe it off with some water or Windex and tint the paint and try again, without disturbing the TRC's white paint, which is lacquer-based.

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:38 pm

Thank you sir. I am just off to my work shop to get the items that I need. I'll report back when the job is complete.

teb · Post by **teb** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:10 pm

Plus, once you find the proper shade of white, you can paint your walls to perfectly match your Ric!

paulv63 · Post by **paulv63** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:19 pm

I found that "White Out" also works seamlessly!

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:32 pm

Paul(M),

I had briefly considered "White Out" before I posted my question. I did not try it because I was not sure if it would cause a chemical reaction with the existing paint.

I don't have any white latex in the house so I was going to make a trip to the paint store in the morning.

Let's see what Curmudge says about "White Out".

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:46 pm

White out uses butyl cellusolve and toluene as solvents. I didn't recommend this because of the variety of different whites on Rick TRCs. They may have used the same paint (doubtful) all these years, but still the acrylic and the paints yellow at different rates. If the White out doesn't match, there's no way to get it off without hurting the original white paint in the process.

With latex paint, no worries. Wipe off, try again.

There is a water-based white-out, but you'd have to be familiar with the difference in the smells between toluene and water-based. Unless it says so on the label; I can't recall if it does.

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:59 pm

Thanks PW,

I will make my trip to the paint store as planned. We have one locally that boasts that they can match any color strip that you bring in using their computer controlled process. That should be worth a laugh or two.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 7:45 pm

I've not had much success with these. But have them match the BACK of the TRC, not through the Perspex on the front.

winston · Post by **winston** » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:33 pm

Will do.

rogerf · Post by **rogerf** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:02 am

I used Testors gloss white model paint to touch up a spot on one of my TRC and it matched perfectly.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:17 am

There are probably hundreds of white paints which, buy chance, will match TRCs made in a specific year or run, aged a certain way, on certain guitars.

Testor's is another oil-based enamel. It will wipe off with some mineral spirits. Mineral spirits will not hurt newer plexi TRCs but I would not use them on an older plexi TRC, because you might dissolve some of the older paint.

I'm still a fan of water-based latex for this purpose.

steve_hershberger · Post by **steve_hershberger** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:41 am

Not exactly a TRC touch up question - more along the lines of preservation.

The previous owner of my 360/12v64 took off the TRC at least once and a rather large section of the painted logo was stuck on the headstock - fairly obliterating the center of the "b" in "Rickenbacker." It's maybe 3/8" long x 1/4" high.

It still looks somewhat OK with the TRC in place, but there's a scratched looking outline around that area that shows through the plex. From a distance it looks fine, but I still want to fix it.

So one of these days I'm going to send it to Ric for a trade in. But I definitely want to prevent this from happening again.

So, would it be OK to use some kind of clear lacquer and/or wax on the back of painted TRC? I just want to prevent the TRC paint from sticking to the headstock again.

Also, are the edges of these "clear" TRC's supposed to be painted white or should they be clear? Mine is painted but I think it'd look better sanded and polished.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:02 am

My way to prevent this from happening again would be to cut a piece of waxed paper about 1/16" smaller than the TRC on all sides, and put it under the TRC. Let the TRC hold it in place. You can trim the paper around the holes; don't bother trying to cut tiny little holes in waxed paper. That's cruel and unusual punishment.

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:21 pm

Steve,

The edges on my V64 TRC are painted white.

Well I am having fun matching the colour. My local paint store with the colour matching equipment could not do it. Their colour spectrum analyzer or whatever they call their gizmo, failed the test. After my close only counts in horsehoes and hand grenades comment they lost interest. LOL

Back to the drawing board I suppose.