Nitro Finishes: Is there a way to de-yellow?

[cursesfoiled]

Yes, most people like the yellowing of nitro. I don't want to argue that.

But in the case of olympic white, with age it can go from blue-ish white, to butter, to banana.

For AVRI's in particular, is there a solution to clarify it again? Or a compound that can just rub the nitro off and keep the paint intact to avoid completely refinishing?

[Longwheelbass]

Sorry bud...you have a nitro Oly White AVRI it's gonna go yellow due to certain elements in the make up of nitro that react with UV light. The clearcoat will yellow, even the white will too. You'd have to strip the lot and repaint it with a poly Oly White to retain that color. Poly finishes will eventually start yellowing, but about 30 years down the track...

[the older brother]

I know that there are vintage OLY fenders out there that lack the clearcoat and still after 40-something years look pretty white. I think some on the board have OLY's without clear (vintage and refins). So gently trying to remove as much of the clearcoat as possible COULD be a solution. This is fairly hard to do though and you risk sanding through - especially on edges/cutouts.

[-2N3904-]

Poly finishes will eventually start yellowing, but about 30 years down the track...

it can happen alot sooner than that. I've seen under jagstangs pickguards that are less than 10 years old and you can see an obvious yellowing of the sonic blue next to the unexposed blue under the pickguard.

[Longwheelbass]

Damn plastic paints...gettin cheaper by the minute!

[Orang Goreng]

I know that there are vintage OLY fenders out there that lack the clearcoat and still after 40-something years look pretty white. I think some on the board have OLY's without clear (vintage and refins). So gently trying to remove as much of the clearcoat as possible COULD be a solution. This is fairly hard to do though and you risk sanding through - especially on edges/cutouts.

I think it also depends on the pain formula used back then. A lot of the Fender solid colours weren't nitro, but acrylic. From what I get fromhere, that was based more on what was available any time a new paint batch was bought, than on anything systematic. I'm guessing the ones that stay white not only had no clear coat, but were painted in acrylic to begin with.

[mcconnachiea]

You should have put suncream on it

[the older brother]

the pain formula

This one goes into the bandnames thread! 8

[Orang Goreng]

[cursesfoiled]

About acrylics on old Fenders:

In 1956 DuPont started using acrylic binders in their lacquer. This solved the yellowing problem, and to a large extent, the color retention problem too (acrylic is more UV resistant than celluloid). Also, since acrylic binders have better elasticity, the checking problem disappeared too. The only down side to acrylic lacquer is, to some, a myth. That is it never dries as hard as nitrocellulose lacquer (hence no checking problems). And since it doesn't dry as hard, it doesn't buff and shine as well (many, mostly in the paint industry, dispute this, but as a painter I agree). Any old-time car painter will argue this to the death.

+1 for Pain Formula

Anyhow, what is Fender using now on AVRI's? Isn't there supposed to be poly under their nitro coats?

[-2N3904-]

That's what we're told!

I think its been verified but i'm not 100%.

[mynameisjonas]

Poly finishes will eventually start yellowing, but about 30 years down the track...

it can happen alot sooner than that. I've seen under jagstangs pickguards that are less than 10 years old and you can see an obvious yellowing of the sonic blue next to the unexposed blue under the pickguard.

yeah, my old bandmate bought a OLY CIJ jag sometime in 2000 or so, and a few years ago when i did some work on it, there was a slight, but definitely noticable tan line from the guard.