So... I won an auction for a 1990 Elite 1868; but because of my own careless biding, I ended up paying more than I had bargained for. The 1868 arrived today with a multitude of issues. I'm hoping that sharing here, might garner some discussion and much needed advice (for me) from the experienced BFLG members. I'm also hoping that documenting this might help others dealing with similar issues. Of course, sending the guitar to the Mini-Mother would be the most wise and obvious choice, but I know the repairs alone would cost more than the guitar not to mention round trip shipping costs from Japan to New Hartford! So...I took off all the hardware to get started...

This 1868 was dropped some years ago, splitting the bowl from the top. The previous owner attempted to epoxy the top and bowl back together on several occassions leaving an enormous amount of epoxy build up all over the place. I cleaned up the old epoxy build up first, and it looks like I've got my work cut out for me...

Eventually, the previous owner just stuck this poor thing in her case and left it there for several years. It looks like the string tension has permanently changed the shape of the top. It takes quite a bit of force to push the top back down into position. I'm thinking Z-Poxy will get the adhesive job done, but I'm wondering if I need to flatten the top back down somehow before glueing?

Another big challenge is the chipped clear coat near the edge of the binding. Once I glue the top back down, I'm going to have to find a way to fill in these cracks. I think thin ZAP CA's capillary action will fill-in the areas of the clear coat that is pulling away from the top, but I think I'm going to need to add some kind of polyurethane filler to fill-up the gapping cracks and holes. A lot of sanding and filling to keep it smooth. It's really interesting how the original clear coat has yellowed like vintage instruments often do. That will obviously be impossible to match.

Years of neglect in the case made the foam on the manhole cover brittle so I just removed it. I'll need to cut out some foam with the right density to get the manhole cover back into shape...

One of the really surprising things about this guitar was the seemingly sloppy woodworking inside the guitar. You can see the rough "file-like" grooves in the bracing. I'm wondering if at some point this guitar went through some extensive repairs and the bracing needed to be replaced. It seems odd to me that something like this would come out of the New Hartford factory.

Here's another apparent woodwork flaw. It looks like the epaulet holes were cut right into the edges of the bracing, strange...

Notice the messy wiring hole cut into the left side of the bridge slot. It looks like it was manually performed. The soundboard's black paint is showing in portions of the bridge saddle slot. No doubt an attempt to lower the action of the guitar as the top pulled further and further away from the bowl. An attempt to route the bottom of the bridge saddle slot probably failed leaving an uneven surface. I'm debating whether or not to install a new bridge (if they are even available) or not. I can't even imagine how I would go about clamping something like this!

A small piece of the epaulet cracked off, and was poorly glued back into place. It looks like I'll be able to remove, clean and re-install this piece. That should be relatively easy. Whew...

The inside of the guitar looks to be in good order, but I noticed that the spruce seems to be covered with some other layer near the epaulets? Notice the change in wood grain...or is that a change in sanding stroke...or something? What is that?

Here's another shot of the gapping mouth. Keep in mind that the strings are removed! I'm going to need to think through each of these repairs carefully before I get started, and just progress slowly. Is this 1868 beyond hope, or is there still a chance that I might here her sing again? Any advice and/or suggestions from the OFC would be most appreciated and welcome. Thanks!

I think I'll leave her this way until the G10 material arrives. Loctite Hysol 9462 is sold in Japan, but because of its "industrial" designation, they will sell it to businesses and licensed individuals only! I'll need to order it from the States! Anyway, thanks for all the valuable BFLG input! I really appreciate it! Now to source, order and wait for the materials to arrive...patience is a good thing...

The rubber bands kind of give my Elite an Eddie Van Halen-ish flair!

The mixer nozzles aren't necessary unless you're intending to lay out a long bead of adhesive. If you do decide to get some mixer nozzles, make sure they're the long nozzles as the short nozzles don't adequately mix the two parts of the epoxy.

I had a day off today, and made some progress on disassembling my 1868 Elite... found some interesting things as I progressed.

I love these bolt on necks. This one came off clean and easy, BUT...notice the masking tape, strange. The top has markings on it that said 1868-5. The soundboard was much thicker than I expected, about 3mm! I also noticed that there is another layer of wood under the spruce. Are all Elite's made that way?

Lots of glue under the neck, and on the body where the fingerboard meets the soundboard, but I should be able to clean this up and get it to adhere to the top when I reassemble her.

Whoever worked on this guitar messed up the bridge pretty badly...routed right through the bridge and...

Lots of epoxy to fill in the over routed bridge saddle slot. The router went through the black paint and into the spruce top in some spots...cringe factor! But, JB at the Mini Mother sent me a new walnut bridge saddle (he is just the nicest guy), so if I fill in the over routed area with epoxy or CA glue, I should be able to just glue the new bridge into place with out much fuss! 

The top came off really clean too! The epoxy has become very brittle over the years making removal a slow, but simple task. I might even be able to re-use it...only...

Now that the top is completely off of the bowl, the whole thing is concave! Weird! I was also wondering about an extra layer of wood that is apparently under the epaulets as shown in the next picture.

Are the Elite soundboards laminated under the epaulet area? The wood was very soft and I had to work really slowly to get this part off clean. You can tell by the change in the wood grain and color. Is this standard Elite design?

Finally, the bowl...the bowl is in good shape, but looking at the epoxy residue on the bowl. It is pretty clear to me that the top and bowl had flatness and fitting problems. I don't know if it was a factory issue or a failed restoration, or what, but when I measured the epoxy thickness between the bowl and the soundboard, there were variation in epoxy thickness. In some places the epoxy was 2mm thick, in other places it was too thin to measure. I know Ovations were notorious for the amount of epoxy used to adhere the bowl to the soundboard, but was this kind of variance seen in a lot of Ovation assemblies?

In any case, I'm really glad I was able to make some progress on this project. As usual, I sure would appreciate your comments and analysis. Oh yeah, as I was heating the bridge, the finish on my Elite bubbled up in a really small area around the bridge. It looks like if I heat the whole top, the paint will just peel right off, so if removing the paint will help the top flatten out, I might re-use the top and re-finish the whole thing! This is getting exciting!