I had a disaster that I repaired structurally with great success:
That is a lousy after picture and it still had some minor cosmetic issues at the time, but I have since done a couple of sand/paint cycles and now you can't see or feel the repair. I made custom cauls for clamping and used hide glue, so I feel really good about the structural integrity. I have played it several times and it has been sitting in a stand at full tension most of the time. Anyway, what you can see is the new paint. I got some black lacquer in hopes I could get a good shine on it to match the existing finish, but it doesn't. I should have known better because I satinized the neck with 0000 steel wool and the powder I got was not black; there is quite a bit of finish over the factory paint.
The problem area is the front of the peghead from just below the tuners to just above the nut. You can pretty much see my tape lines because the finish is much flatter in that area. The neck has a similar issue, but because I did satinize it previously it blends a lot better (and is just less noticeable in general).
So what should I do now? My thought is to sand and buff the new paint as smooth as I can, then put a couple of coats of dewaxed shellac down with a few coats of clear lacquer over that. Would that work? Do I need to remove finish from the full peghead face to make it blend?
