Hi Ozzie, just caught up as I have been busy doing a few other things lately.

Yeah, tend to agree that the black bit didn't work out as planned and your standard nudie natural may be the way to go. If mine I would try and achieve a deep cherry red colour. Like your idea for doing something different on the scratch plate. If I ever get around to doing one of these my thoughts were to cut a scratch plate from humble thin plywood and stain that as top layer of ply is usually very light.

Mind you, if you did a twin of your T-Bird that would also look good too.