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My friend had picked up this old guitar. It was in sad shape and some repairs were less than stellar. There were a number of bridge plates , none original , that were stacked under the old bridge. This bridge is not original and so it was not a problem to remove.
Once removed I found the top under it was gone , that may have helped to explain all the crap under the top. I started a soaking procedure Monday and today I started to remove them. It took about an hour of patience and heat.
As they started to come out I was amazed at the pile of firewood under this top. The work was less than amateurish to say the least.
My friend Steve just wants a playable guitar. I think we can do that. During the steaming process I had to do many of the top cracks reopened so I will be able to reglued all of them and flatten the top.

Here is a pic of what I used to accomplish this. I will follow up in a week or so as I do more work. I was surprised pleasantly that the top isn't more damaged.

Dr Hall will get this one back in shape. Love to see the rescue as it unfolds!

today I checked the top , align the cracks and reclamp. The top should stabilize in a few days then I can reglue. A crack or 2 may need a filler.
It seems like it will come back together

Amazing to be able to save that top. I will be interested to follow the rest of the repair.

I checked the top today and I think I can start repairs next week. The top is drying out from the heat and steam to pull the firewood out. I had a nice discussion with Kathy Wingert about this guitar. I hope to get some better pics of the inside .
The plan is to now lay a piece of spruce inside to help stabilize the top in the bridge area and then apply a period bridge plate ( mahogany actually was used ) then also reglue the fan braces and make a period bridge and reglue the top cracks.
Looking forward to this project

Pictures as promised.
I had to start with regluing the tone bar. Here As you can see I used long C clamps and using fish glue installed the tone bar.

The last picture is of the tone bar before regluing?

While the glue is curing I had made a template for the through patch that will be a thin piece of spruce of about .035 in thick. I have a collection of magnets and cawls to glue this in after I can stabilize all the cracks, The process may take a few days. The last piece that will go in the top is the missing fillet above the bridge as that allows me to put in the top support patch in one piece.
To get a good idea of what I need as far as the shape of this patch I used magnets against the braces. Then I could trace a line off those points. One I make the patch I can allow a bit for final fit. This process I will post in detail when the time comes.

so today I checked out the reglued tone bar ( success ) and now I can proceed with the next step in repairs. I made a template for the top patch. This was made of red spruce to match the top. with the original top at .065 with finish I made the patch .0325 thin and finessed that into position.
Once I have that I then made the bridge plate. On this era the plate was mahogany about .060 thick. I made this one .050 as I did increase the top thickness. The plate would have been about 1 1/16 wide. I trimmed the plate to fit and now the 2 patch pieces are ready for install. I did however order about 50 magnets that I will be using to clamp this in. I also have some urea to allow a little more work time as this is going to be a bear to set in without the HHG gelling.

Most ambitious Jhon this will be enlightening to follow.