The Clueless German got herself a GR-1SF kit

[Simon Barden]

Looking at those windshield wiper pullers, unless it's very different to the ones' I've seen, they won't work as there's nothing for the central pin to push against.

I'd search for "Elmer guitar knob and bushing puller" if you can get one locally in Germany. They are available at a couple of places in the UK, or certainly on eBay if you can wait for shipping from the US or China if you can't find them anywhere else. It's about the cheapest commercially-made puller I know that will work (I have one). The 'Schatten guitar knob and bushing puller" is almost identical but a bit more expensive. However, it is a useful tool if you are going to make or modify more guitars.

Jim's puller could work, but you are reliant of the splines on the side of the bushing stopping the bushing from rotating. As the splines are at the top of the bushing, you don't want the bushing rotating and the splines widening the hole so it's loose when you re-insert the bushing. Ideally you'd really need to have a cut-out in the side of the wooden block big enough to fit some thin-nose pliers in (you'll need an assistant to do this) to grip the bushing to prevent any turning whilst the bushing is being pulled upwards.

You may find the hole isn't deep enough for the bushing or it's full of finish and smaller than it should be. I had to get an 11.5mm drill to slightly enlarge/clean out and deepen the bridge holes on the GSJ as the bushings for the replacement bridge I used were about 3mm deeper than the kit ones and the existing hole was slightly too short. That 11.5mm hole still gave enough grip for the bushings to hold firmly whilst being easy to insert.

[Simon Barden]

Have you got any MicroMesh pads or sheets? I find those useful for tacking small areas with a scratch on. You can use them dry, and it doesn't take long to sand away a scratch with a 1500 pad and then work up until you've got a near-shine with the 12000 grit pad. You'll know about halfway through whether you can still see any scratch remaining. If so, go back to the coarsest grit and start again.

But I've been thinking that some of your scratches may possibly be in the wood itself under the clearcoat. So hold the scratch up to a light at a shallow angle to see if the surface is scratched, or whether it's smooth and the scratch is underneath on the wood, which would be why polishing isn't removing it.

[JimC]

Jim's puller could work, but you are reliant of the splines on the side of the bushing stopping the bushing from rotating.

That's why the bolt needs to be kept from turning. If the bolt doesn't turn there shouldn't be any significant turning force on the bush.

That Elmer puller looks fine to me - works in exactly the same way, and does have the advantage of coming with a selection of bolts with different threads, so no messing around finding the right bolt. The contact base might be a bit narrow for my taste, need to be rather wary with new finish.

[Simon Barden]

It was fine on all the guitars I’ve used it on, but yes, you could put it in a wider base (some MDF with a hole in it) if the finish is fresh. But with the arched top, it won’t touch in many places.

Maybe you could sketch up your puller design, Jim, as a picture would make things clearer (I’m struggling with it and I know what’s supposed to happen).

[JimC]

Does that help?

[Simon Barden]

It helps me at least! Thanks.

[Simon Barden]

The long bolt should be a standard M8 thread. That's the norm for metric/Chinese/standard kit bridge bushing threads.

[ThatCluelessGerman]

Guys, thanks so much for your help and for kindly ignoring my swearing :-)

I got one of the bushings out by gently wiggling it out a while, but the other one is not budging. So I'm waiting for the wiper puller to show up to test and/or modify, and if this won't work, I'll build the tool that Jim drew - thanks so much for this btw!

I was pretty cautious not to get any finish into the bridge holes, it looks like the holes were just drilled the wrong size. The bushings barely even fit in. Next time, I won't try to hammer them if I see it's a too tight fit.
I used a rounded file to carefully expand the holes. So one bridge bushing is now in and looking good, but the other one is not out yet.

Also, I think I solved the "riddle" of the scratches and the "blooming"... I switched poly's in between, and it looks like these are places where I sanded through into the layer of the other poly. Now, these are BOTH Minwax gloss poly - my inital can of fast drying polyurethane was empty someway along the way, so until the new one was here, I used Minwax wipe on poly in between. I was actually pretty sure it's the same thing, just differing how much it was thinned down - but, apparently not?
It's now very visible on the headstock, where I used the wipe on poly to "bury" the headstock MOP sticker, and then finished it off with the new can of fast drying polyurethane.
Another possibility is of course the temperature, it was incredibly hot for 2 weeks when I did most of the poly. I don't know if this made it dry too fast so it's not properly bonding to the next layer, or if this is not a concern.

However, it appears as if the scratches are IN the poly, but then covered with new poly which filled the scratches, but left a visible difference between the layers. Hard to describe but that almost looks like it's true.

I think if there is anything I've learnt from this build, then it's to NEVER switch clear coat in between, EVEN if it's supposed to be the same stuff.

[JimC]

Good luck. If you do need to source a bolt for the bushing note that M8 threads come in coarse and fine pitch, and you need the right one. I'd be surprised if it were fine pitch though, IME at M8 its unusual outside of specialist engineering applications.

[Simon Barden]

I've just used standard M8 bolts you get from the main DIY stores or Amazon.