Guitar splitting? I'm in despair.

[alfredpotter]

Inbetween coats of paint on a guitar body I'm refinishing; I washed the entire surface with a solution of detergent and water with a clean sponge to eliminate grease. I then became busy with dinner so I decided that I'd apply another coat the day after instead of directly afterwards. I brought the guitar inside and left it to dry.

I came back in the morning to find deep cracks/splits in the wood. Not just the paintjob. Not on the main body of the guitar but where the neck pocket meets the guitar face and also directly along the input jack hole. They are pretty much bumps which have risen up and then split open like fruit.

WHAT IS THIS

I'm thinking of just stripping the body and sanding flat + woodfilling. I can't believe this. Please has anybody had this splitting effect happen to them? What causes it? rapid drying?

[RacerX]

[Cygnus X1]

Perhaps the color coat isn't bonding to the primer?
Did you scuff the primer and clean it properly?
What kind of paint are you using?

[jacksoncsplayer]

Describe detergent, How wet did you get the guitar? what was the water detergent mix ratio?

[CharvelRocker]

I'm going to with my gut instinct and say you got it too wet, and thus softening it, along cooling it, which caused it to expand as it dried, causing the cracks.

[fett]

Where you local-wise? When I lived in California , you could paint just about anytime. Now, I live in WA State and if I can get 5 days in a row of good paimting days if I am lucky. Unless you have a perfect weather you can't win. It sounds like you need a controlled enviorment. And yeah, the wood didn't dry enough to even start painting.

[mm2002]

Without pics, it's hard to tell what happened, but one rule to remember is when painting wood NEVER EVER use anything water based as a cleaner.
Naptha is OK, and there are other products out the made specifically for this purpose.

[sully]

sounds like water damage to me. yikes.

[straycat]

Me too even wet sanding with water will do this.Say you've painted the body and you are doing wet sanding with water if water gets in the pickup ring screw holes for example it can cause the paint to lift and body crack due to the water seeping in the holes.I wet sand with a small amount of mineral spirits.It keeps the sand paper from clogging up and gives a smooth finish.

[delt]

damn... i hope you're not doing a trans finish on that guitar.

Otherwise you can just put some wood filler in the cracks, then use a good dose of primer & sanding before painting, or else the seams will show through the paint.