Squire Soloist Project - Day 1

My latest project is turning my roughed up, unusable squire stratocaster into a custom, functional - one of a kind guitar.

Here is what it looked like in pristine shop condition:

Work done so far:

1) Removed parts (already partly done)
2) with chisel, worked neck joint and rounded it to an ergonomic shape (after a bit'o google work i don't think its been done before)
3) sanded whole guitar and took top gloss layer off (and wrecked my lunges breathing it in)
4) with wood filler, filled and sanded dents, dings, scratches etc. Then sanded flush with body.
5) masking taped neck to protect Rosewood fretboard to save it from paint.
sanded back of neck to sort out dings and dents from leaning it against desks and junk and remove lacquer coating.
6) applied Titebond III wood glue to joint then screwed it tight together.
7) cleaned up vast quantities of excess glue that came out the side of the joint upon compression.
8) ordered parts (£100 down :S)
9) waiting for glue to dry and took pictures.

tomorrow dependant on whether my acrylic primer arrives will give a coat of that.

Pictures of work done at end of day 1:


at the moment i am having to use the webcam on my acer 5920 so the pics are not great, but pretty good for a 0.3mp webcam.