1967 d-12-35 restore project

[scott houston]

could use a little advice on where to actually start on this project im well into it at this point but am at a critical point where mistakes can be made.

what i have found is a 67 braz rosewood d35 12 string with the neck broken in two

the guy who broke it tried to fix it without taking the neck offf and of course it broke again leaving a mess.

so far i have removed the neck cleaned most of the glue out of the old break will get rid of all traces

the body is cracked across the front of the neck block and the neck block is cracked

im wondering if seperating the sides and top from the neck block might help give me access to put things back together properly. or just injecting glue into the c rack and throwing a  clamp on it as the best route. as well suggestions for types of glue i am intending on titebond for the neck crack hide glue for the nec k block and hide glue for reglueing the neck to the body

when the guy originally attemped repair he cut the fret board at the 12 fret in order to get at the joint to get at the neck joint is it possible to fix this without removing the fretboard from the neck even though the fretboard is extremely worn i would still like to leave the guitar as original as possible any suggestions on how to fix this one? 

there are numerous other cracks and damage to this guitar as well i know the job is intensive and probably not worth the effort but i have the space to do it some time as well and the guitar was free.

i understand that the first procedure should be to rehydrate the wood before glue ? or will that make the neck block not fit back together properly?

as im sure the neck block would be the first place to start on the repair

thanks in advance for any suggestions

Scotty

[scott houston]

its made by tite bond ... it came reccomended but am willing to mix my own if you all think its not a quality product i sent a pic of the bottle

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Scott, the biggest problem with bottled hide glue is shelf life. If it's been sitting in the store too long it's useless, and unless they've changed it to bearing a manufacture date on the bottle since the last time I used it (many years ago), you have no way of judging it's freshness. If it's a verifiable new bottle, say a few months old, OK. Otherwise use the old fashioned kind.

[scott houston]

i checked the bottle and there is an exp date of 11/14/2013 so i think ill be ok

with it

[Paul Hostetter]

I agree with Jeff. Liquid hide glue is pointless for anything but gluing in labels. 

[Tim Mace]

Forget liquid hide glue as it will not hold up in hot weather....the only problem I've ever had w/glue was the product you seem hellbent on using...reg titebond is fine but real hhg is superior! It's all been tried...forget liquid hide. 'jus sayin' IMO

[Paul Verticchio]

Hi Scott.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to heed the words of caution from the forum's members regarding liquid HHG.

You are getting decades worth of great advice & direction from some incredibly talented & experienced builders.

If they were giving ME this advice, I would follow it to the letter.

There's a tremendous difference between 'doing something' and 'doing something correctly'. The forum's members have historically sided with "doing it correctly...or not at all".

Best of luck with your restoration :-)