Metropoulos Forum

Aaackkk! The other night, my perfectly flawless Strat with a AAAAA Flame top slid off the couch and hit the leg of my coffee table leaving a dent on the edge of the body. (who cares about the coffee table!!)

Anyway, has anyone ever attempted to steam out a dent? Any tips for doing it?

thanks.

Is the wood dented or just the clear finish?

The wood is dented. The ding is about 1/4 to 3/8 long and maybe 3/16" wide. Supposedly, if you use steam, you can expand the wood outward as the wood fibers absorb the moisture.

From what I know, you can take a wet cloth, put it over the dent and hold a hot clothes iron on it for a few seconds to get steam into the area. I guess you repeat this several times until the wood swells back into shape and then it dries out again over time.

I've just never tried it.

I'd say the risk of damage is not worth the possible fix. Just take it as a character mark, and love it for what it is. Hey, maybe someday they'll make a relic of your strat, complete with the infamous "Couch Wound."

For the steam to work, I believe you'll have to spot remove the finish @ the dent. Then IF it works, you'll have to try and match the finish back as best as possible.
I've seen gunstocks where the technique worked, but the Smith did a complete refinish on the stock, which takes the feathering/matching right out of the equation.

I'm inclined to agree with you guys. Messin' with it might just make things worse.

The first "scar" on a guitar is always a bummer.

Thanks.

Have you seen how beat up some artists' guitars are? Wow.

Steaming sounds like something best left to a pro. If any moisture were left in the wood and got trapped under fresh sealant it might look worse. If the actual staining in the wood isn't rubbed, perhaps you could find some of that clear liquid stuff to fill the dent in. After some light smoothing and buffing it might actually decent. And you could always use the rest of the liquid to repair your chipped windshield.

Sturmur wrote:Have you seen how beat up some artists' guitars are? Wow.

I like how there are companies that will "age" your guitar now. All they are doing is beating the shit out of the bodies with sandpaper and a lot of cussing. I have lots of dents on my LP, and somehow they get cooler they more you get.

Case in point. My best friend paid big bucks for a '57 or '59 reissue gold top Les Paul. Pretty guitar. Two years later, it looks like crap. Doesn't bother him in the least when his belt buckle and buttons scratch the piss out of it. When two of his chrome tuning machine heads broke what do you think he did? Replaced them with gold colored ones! Tacky!

yeah, that sux man, but that steaming shit sounds like snake oil to me.
its not as bad as the guy who got attacked by two monkeys on tv and they bit all his fingers off and tore off his nuts! things could always be worse!
mike

myker wrote:yeah, that sux man, but that steaming shit sounds like snake oil to me.
its not as bad as the guy who got attacked by two monkeys on tv and they bit all his fingers off and tore off his nuts! things could always be worse!
mike

I've heard of the steaming trick, but I'd leave it to a pro.

But thanks for putting everything into perspective for us, Mike.

Steaming out dents works. The finish has to be removed in the area of the dent. I'll soak some water into the wood and use the barrel of a soldering iron with a damp rag to puff the wood back out.

Snake oil? Never tried that...maybe it works better than water
Seriously tho....ever see a tree get hit by lightning? Same thing....extreme case. Water in the wood expands as it is heated and turns to steam and the resulting pressure displaces the wood.