Goth Lollipops - Coffin Case Repair

Sometimes a case sees too much...

It's a hard life being a guitar case. Especially once flights become involved.

Over time catches break, tears get patched with gaffer, locks get secured with gaffer. In fact before too long the case can be more gaffer than case.

Again this is the kind of thing that will niggle on tour but isn't always economical to get fixed. But the contents are sentimental and not without value, so definitely worth protecting. And again the case is being stored here so it's a much easier matter to take care of the repairs.

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So once the case is unwrapped and the layers of tape removed to see what's underneath we find a number of nicks and one large tear in the front, a couple of the catches are very absent and where the lid is attached to the bottom it has pulled away the side of the case leaving the whole thing wobbly and unsound.

The first step was to break out the contact adhesive and set to work reattaching the loose flaps of vinyl, working them into place to make the seams as invisible as possible. There was quite a bit of wear on the corners which couldn't be fixed without either a binding or completely recovering. So these exposed edges were glued down to stabilise the tears and the exposed wood given a quick coat of paint to make the damage less visible.

The existing remains of the catches were gently levered away and some brand new components from Penn Elcom were attached in their place.

And then the final step was to take care of the structural issues. The broken edge was straighforward to attach. The reinforcing blocks in the corners gave a decent glue surface and a coupe of brad nails kept it in place while it dried. But the frayed ribbon was likely to stress it again in the future so to make the repair stick it was time for some additions.

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I didn't have any reinforcing brackets to hand and for this case they were not simple right angles. So to keep the case theme going out came the grinder and four coffin shaped brackets were cut out. A small tab at the bottom allowed it to be further anchored to the base of the case. After a bit of beating round a for they followed the case closely and could be painted and screwed in place. The bottom tab being hammered round and secured with another screw.

Everything was feeling much more solid and a longer ribbon could be attached to keep the forces more lateral and reduce the stress on that back piece every time the lid was opened. And with that it was time to give the case one more clean and then construct a way to chip this one up to it's next recording session...

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No Handle On The situation

30 Jul, 2020

First up on the workbench this week a wonderful illustration of the kind of job that just keeps getting put off. This case has become notorious among the band's crew due to it's complete lack of handles on either end. In their place is a wonderfully sharp jagged plastic where the handles previously were. But between tours the case contains the hardware and goes back into storage, shipping it off for repair is uneconomical, but the rest of the case is in good condition. The wheels run smoothly, the straps and buckles don't come open when not asked to and one of the missing handles is still lurking inside so a repair is definitely worthwhile. So from a large sheet of HDPE a couple of pieces cut to fit and then a bending jig was cobbled together. A hodge podge of clamps, wood and the trusty heat gun used to form the end panel so it follows the shape of the case and sits under the lid. This shape is important as it transfers some of the stresses from the handle up into the lid which is secured by the straps on top.