Thanks Dave The owner thought it was ready for the dump and I kind of took it on as a low pressure challenge. If I screwed up he didn't really care. I never would have guessed in a million years it would sound and play as good as it does. I'm guessing the 5014 was a good guitar when new. I'm thinking the owner will be back pretty quick to have it converted to a fixed saddle.
The neck and end of the truss rod were totally encased in epoxy. I had to remove the end of the fretboard to get it off.
I took an X ray of it before so I pretty much knew it would be trouble
This was kind of cool. There was a golf ball sized hole punched into the lower bout with 80% of the wood still there. I made a patch of 1/32" hobby store plywood and sandwiched it between two curved cauls with a threaded rod coming out where I removed a piece of wood. Tightening it down pushed the side flat and held the patch against the inside. I replaced the wood after I removed the cauls. It worked quite well. I still have to clean the area up and fill the gaps where there was veneer missing.
