Printable View
This is what I had to start with.
http://i.imgur.com/qLuanPB.jpg.
Not a bad little guitar, she had served me well for many years, but I had been very hard on her.
You can see the corner of the headstock had cracked off thru one of the tuning pegs holes.
There were fret issues, one or two had lifted and chipped the fretboard. These had been glued back in very poorly by me and had lifted again.
There was some other issues with this neck as well, so I ordered a Pitbull neck and waited.
Meanwhile, while I was waiting for the neck to arrive, I started sanded back the body and started filling holes.
http://i.imgur.com/jc2Bkon.jpg
I got out the 2-part body filler and went to town.
I had never used bog before, but I learned that you need to work FAST.
This stuff goes off really quickly and I spent too long mixing, so the first batch went into the bin and I had to mix a second batch.
The guitar originally had the strap button in the weakest part of the whole guitar.
So of course it had pulled out and taken a chunk of the upper horn with it. I had patched it many years ago with matchsticks and wood glue.
That all came out and got filled in with body filler.
I overfilled so that it could be sanded back flat and not leave any divots.
http://i.imgur.com/78bT3Uf.jpg
So after all that sanding and filling I gave the guitar a good look and feel and found some bits I missed.
I got out the black marker so that I wouldn't forget them.
http://i.imgur.com/zZsARfE.jpg
First we had some bruising on the back. Probably from belt buckles.
http://i.imgur.com/hQzZn7I.jpg
Then we had the bottom strap button that had also pulled out. ( I can't remember doing this. It probably happened while I was drunk 20 years ago :? )
And some edge chips.
http://i.imgur.com/1fU7VZX.jpg
The upper horn after filling. It needed a little more, some of the bog had crumbled out while sanding.
Time for some refilling and resanding.
Looks like you are having a lot of fun with this.
Look forward to seeing her completed.
A serious refurb going on there. You've posted a really clear lot of info on what you've found and what you're doing. This should come up a treat!
Looks sick leetbrown!
Looking forward to some more progress pics
Thanks guys.
Definitely a big refurb. The only thing left of the original will be the body.
Those photos were from a week ago. I left it alone during the work week.
Plenty of new photos coming though :)
I actually drilled the bridge post holes yesterday, and cut the headstock today. So there is no turning back now!
I do have a bit of an issue with the bridge post holes:-
1. After drilling the Bridge post holes, I gave it a test fitting and the bridge posts fit but are just a little loose, I can push them in and pull them out by hand ( just)
2. One side was a little lower than the other (1-1.5mm). I figured I would just pack the hole a little, However, when having another look this morning it looks like that small different in depth was enough to break thru to the trem cavity.
I havent done anything to fix this yet, because I figured that after painting the post holes would have narrowed just enough to fit like a glove. And if they hadnt I would probably glue or epoxy them in place.
http://i.imgur.com/wXe04HT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/U5qpSbq.jpg
I thought I would post some comparisons of the two necks.
The necks side by side.
http://i.imgur.com/yZuyeY9.jpg
A bit of an oily mark on the Pitbull neck. Seems to sand off though.
Dimensions, old neck on the left, the Pitbull neck on the right. I was very surpised at how close they are.
http://i.imgur.com/2aXNThd.jpg
I dont have enough clamps of the right size to clamp things down. So I had to screw things down. And tried modding the clamping tables' bench dogs to be clamps.
http://i.imgur.com/fRGUOq3.jpg
It still moved :x so I end up with an aggressive and slightly wonky looking headstock!
http://i.imgur.com/cwK1sJw.jpg
So I clamped some straight stock to the headstock and sanded it until flat.
http://i.imgur.com/R2X8H3l.jpg