The Scrapocaster - The project begins!

After finding a perfectly fixable Squier Telecaster last night I could hardly wait to begin working on it, despite the fact that it was late and the shops were shut (it being Sunday as well as evening!) I managed to contain my excitement til this morning (even managing a lie in til 11am to boot). After giving the whole thing a proper scrub down using just a steam cleaner and a scouring sponge I got to see the true feat of what awaited me.

Looks quite good without that horrible white scratchplate and those tacky stickers!

On closer inspection though:

Can't really see it here but there's some serious damage to the wood as well as the obvious missing input socket and plate!

Also:

Nice little crack just above the neck pickup which was covered by that shitty scratchplate.

Various scratches such as this:

Was originally thinking of a vintage bridge like the one on my Baja but it seems I would have to drill into the body as they have 4 screw at the bottom unlike this one which only has 3.

What I'm thinking initially is to replace all the fittings (ie bridge, controls and tuners) with gold ones and fit a black scratchplate to it. Should look nice.

In the meantime I went into town to show it to the local guitar shops. My favourite one is shut for the week due to it being a small family business and they need time off. Didn't have much luck acquiring a scratchplate or anything else really but I did purchase a new socket which I fitted and am happy to report that all controls and pickups are intact (just a shame I'm going to rip them out and replace them!!

Finally I took the sander to it and got rid of (or at least tidied up) those big nasty scratches.

Guessing the next thing to do now is go shopping online and purchase the parts I want to upgrade it. After installing those it's a matter of choosing which pickups I want in it then having the guitar professionally setup. Will keep you all informed on the progress.