Body crack repair...

[jl2556]

Let me start by saying that I know I could buy another body that

would need less work but my goal is to learn to do body repairs

I'm doing a refinish on an old ex rg body. It's my 2nd refinish.
I found a 3-4in long crack through the electronics cavity.It's about the width
of a 3rd string. I can see daylight through it!! Will epoxy work to fill it? I don't want to use anything that expands when it dries as to make the crack bigger.. Also, there is trem cavity damage on the outline of the cavity. What's the best repair method??

[losgatosrg350dx]

Originally Posted by jl2556

Let me start by saying that I know I could buy another body that
would need less work but my goal is to learn to do body repairs

I'm doing a refinish on an old ex rg body. It's my 2nd refinish.
I found a 3-4in long crack through the electronics cavity.It's about the width
of a 3rd string. I can see daylight through it!! Will epoxy work to fill it? I don't want to use anything that expands when it dries as to make the crack bigger.. Also, there is trem cavity damage on the outline of the cavity. What's the best repair method??

do you have pics..??

sometimes you can tottaly cur a section of the guitar off plane it, and glue on another slab....remember a propery glued joint has tons of strength and wont kill any tone persay.....im guessing how u described it...if possible, cut a line across the entire section of the guitar and chissel it out strait, then get some spare stock of the same wood the guitar is...and glue in like wedges if u can imagine what i mean....i mean i would do it eaither way, but id love to see some pics cuz my imagination sometimes makes it more complicated than it is :-)

i saw a article on the net a couple years back about a guy who blew off the entire lower cavity, like from the back to the front, to the lower horn, and just clued up a new peice of stock, an then dremmeled it out.....


just a idea

[David McCarroll]

without photos it's pretty impossible to tell exactly what the problem is, but almost any crack in a guitar can be repaired with Fullers Titebond and the proper application of clamps....

[ryanb]

Titebond.

Work the titebond down into the crack and let it set up (clamp if necessary). For small cracks, you can dilute the titebond slightly (don't overdo it) with water to allow it to get in easier -- but your crack sounds big enough that you probably don't need to thin it. You can also use compressed air or a syringe to push the glue into the joint, or just work away at slowly working it in.

[albee1952]

Sounds like a lot of work for junk to me. No offense is intended here but the EX line is absolutely the bottom of the Ibanez barrel and IMHO not worth the effort. If this is a 22 fret setup, you could use any str@t replacement body and likely have a better ax when you are done with it. An EX is not an RG (despite what some *bay sellers think) and spending time fixing something cheap and tired.....well, for sure its a good learning process, but I would rather spend the time turning it into something better(if you love the neck that is).