A new finish question

[Frank Weston]

Robert,

In finishing, there is no such thing as "look pretty in a hurry".  Simply
spraying over old paint, scratches and nicks will just yield well painted
scratches and nicks.  Proper preparation of the surface that is being
finished is an absolute requirement.  If it is not economically feasible to
invest the time to prepare the old finish properly, I would just clean the
piano up as well as possible, and forget repainting.

Frank Weston

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Goodale <rrg@nevada.edu>
To: pianotech@ptg.org <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 1:23 AM
Subject: A new finish question


>Howdy all,
>
>I have a 20 year old Kawai UST-7 that I am interested in selling.
>Before I do, however, I would like to pretty it up.  It has multiple
>small scratches and other various marks which I will fill in/rub out,
>etc, (former school piano).  The original finish does not appear to be
>lacquer nor polyester.  I am suspecting some sort of polyurethane
>hybrid.  It is somewhat harder than lacquer but not as hard as poly.
>(Don, perhaps you could take a guess at what this is?)
>
>I thought it might be a worth while experiment to put a coat of
>polyurethane on it followed by sanding and then rubbing down with
>rotten stone to a satin finish.  I have never done anything like this
>on a piano before but it seems like it might work here.   Another
>reason I thought this could be good is because the thick filling
>properties of polyeurthane would probably fill and/or hide many of the
>blemishes.  This is of course assuming that the present finish,
>whatever it may be, will accept a fresh urathane finish on top.
>Obviously the only way to test this is to apply a coat to a small spot
>somewhere.
>
>Does anyone have an opinion on this or has used polyurethane on a
>piano before?  Note:  This is a used studio piano that I want to make
>look pretty in a hurry.  I DO NOT want to strip down and refinish it!
>
>Thanks,
>
>Rob Goodale, RPT
>Las Vegas, NV
>