Initial Clean Up

I cleaned the entire guitar by wiping with a damp rag and drying, and wiped down the fretboard and wooden saddle and adjustment screws with alcohol (ethanol). To remove the white glue from the cracks I dabbed the glue line with distilled white vinegar using a small piece of cloth and tried to keep the vinegar off the surrounding area by wiping the excess with a wet cloth and drying. This helped some, but I had to apply vinegar many times and it left an etching or slight discoloration on the finish. Eventually, after maybe 20 minutes the glue softened a bit and using a 1/4 inch chisel I carefully chipped at it until it was gone. Then I cleaned the vinegar off with a damp cloth (water) and dried.

I only chipped the Sunburst finish in a couple of places, should touch up pretty easy!

I french polished the top. This got rid of the discoloration and new scratch marks around the cracks, as well as making the many other cracks in the finish less noticeable. I had earlier tested a small area and discovered that it was soluble in alcohol; maybe Gibson used shellac over the Sunburst, or even if they didn't, I figured french polish would work because of the solubility.

** A NOTE OF WARNING HERE ** I have sort of taught myself how to french polish over the last 8 years, but it's only lately that I've felt like I could get predictable results. It's very tricky. I don't use oil (maybe that's the problem!) - I know there are many that polish without oil lubrication and I figured that would be one less thing I could screw up. But with no oil it's very easy for the pad to dig in and scuff up the existing finish. You need just enough polish (liquid) to lubricate and polish at the same time, but if you have too much it will start removing the existing finish.

Just to give you an idea of what can go wrong: I had tried using mineral spirits, and then rubbing alcohol to remove the adhesive left by the missing pick guard. Neither worked, so I used alcohol (ethanol) to clean off the rubbing alcohol. A little of this got outside the pick guard area and removed some of the clear finish, so I tried to touch up by french polishing. I had too much liquid or something and it kept removing the finish and also left a white discoloration over the whole area around the pick guard. I thought maybe this would come out if I waited until the next day, so I went on to french polish around the cracks. But again, I had too much liquid and it just left a smeary trail everywhere I polished. I finally gave up and went to bed.

The next morning the white discoloration was still there, I had another try at french polishing that area and was able to remove it. I went over the whole top and improved it, but it was still dull and showed marks from the pad. That evening I sanded the entire top with 800 grit and then 1500 grit sandpaper using an eraser for a sanding block. (I first did the pick guard area with 150 grit). Then I french polished again and finally got pretty satisfactory results. I still have some more work to do on the finish, but it's getting close.