Hello OFC!
Sure has been a blast following Dan's progress and completion of Harry Chapin's 1613-4 this summer. It was really cool to read/hear Jen's message/song too. Thanks for the inspiration Dan! It's been a hot busy summer over here in the Far East, and the repair projects keep rolling in! This one is from California. My son's pastor, Pastor John's '04 or '05 Celebrity Standard CS247-8T. These were available over here in Asia until 2000 or so I think as the Celebrity Deluxe blue label, but for some reason the label was changed to white and the the model was called a Standard instead of a Deluxe. Essentially the same guitar as the slightly older Mid Depth Bowl CC247 (like my converted bolt-on neck GS) except with the newer OP30 Pre-amp.

I really like this "8T" Turquoise Burst!

This one was dropped and the top was severed from the bowl. The catastrophic failure caused the top paint to crack. Some of the brittle binding cracked as well.

The tail block has been 90% severed from the top and is completely severed from the bowl. Will need to get some adhesives under the block and the top as well as between the block and the bowl. The kerfing has also loosened around the tail block. Was hoping to glue one piece at a time, but to maintain proper positioning of the pieces and to ensure proper clamping, it looks like I'll need to glue and clamp all areas at once.

The goal of this repair is not to achieve cosmetic perfection, but to restore structural integrity and playability. Gotta turn to Hysol 9462 for this kind of high stress application. Along with the special adhesive, I'll be using simple tools and rubber bands to clamp the pieces and adhere them properly. The small spatula will help me to get the powerful adhesive into all of the tight little areas. Fortunately, there is plenty of working time when using Hysol 9462.

Of course, performing several dry runs to ensure proper clamping strategy is a must. After several attempts, I settled on a formation like this:

It was important for the extension bars to angle downward toward the tail block. When Dan rebuilt Harry Chapin's 1613-4, he spoke about the monocoque structure that is created by the bowl and the top. It was really cool to learn that he was able to correct a neck angle problem by messing with the neck/bowl positioning. Well, once that monocoque structure is compromised, the alignment (or misalignment) of the top and bowl become very obvious. Because of this, there needs to be forces working to push the bowl outward as well as pull the bowl out ward. The dry runs helped to identify those areas that need more push than pull and vice versa to ensure the bowl and top were positioned properly when gluing. The Hysol was prepared, mixed and applied. To re-create the original monocoque structure, I needed to rubber band fairly extensively...

The rubber bands created a strong inward push. The extension bars are placed inside the bowl to create an opposing outward push which enables me to position the bowl and top appropriately. The toothpicks are positioned to provide focused force along the binding seam to keep the bowl from jutting outward.

It was really difficult to get enough adhesives into the various compromised areas making the work a bit sloppy. Fortunately, a little cleaning will relieve the area of excessive adhesives. Finally, layed the bowl upside down on a flat surface and added about 10 pounds of weight to ensure the top didn't buldge out.

After 24 hours, the rubberbands were removed and was really glad to find a minimal amount of adhesive flashing.

I'll wait another 24 hours then clean-up the flashing, and finally continue with some minimal cosmetic restoration. Thanks for allowing me to share BFLG!

To really do a good job, this guitar's neck needs to come off; and the binding should be completely replaced. However, since time was a factor for this project, quick fixes and ho-hum cosmetics could not be avoided. One section of binding broke off and the piece was lost; so I made a sloppy filler to cover the obvious. The entire butt of the guitar had Filling Resin flashing. This stuff will be scraped, wet sanded (1000grit sand paper), polished (automotive waxing compund and polish) and buffed.

Finally, the inside was cleaned-up with flat black paint to cover wittish/tanish colored Hysol 9462. Strung her up with EJ-26s (OMA included these with Vincent. I never use Custom Lights; so, thought they'd just sit around and rot-away. Really glad I kept them. More importantly - Thanks OMA!) for final adjustments and re-assembly.

Took her for a spin to make sure the primary objective of achieving structural integrity was restored. Very glad to say that the Primary Objective has been achieved! Here she is together with my CC247-GS (w/ bolt-on neck conversion).

My CC247-GS is wearing 1919E regular gauge Adamas strings so a comparison would not be appropriate, but the CS247-8T sounds and plays quite nicely. I must say, I do prefer the OP24+ over the OP30 (which has an on-board tuner), but they both sound about the same, just a knob, button and slider configuration preference.

Whew, made it just-in-time! Planning to use the same method of patching up Vincent's finish checking; so this was really good practice for me! Thanks for letting me share BFLG!