Oops. How to fix this...

[Gert van der Does]

This is a cascade of accidents and illinformed decisions...

I replaced a broken trussrod in an early 70s Yamaha FG 365S. That took removing the fretboard. That wasn't hard. But I didn't protect the top sufficiently and didn't pay attention for a couple of seconds so I  caused some semi circular depressions in the top. 

There is no information anywhere on how to fix something like this. I've looked. Months of looking. There's info on the steaming out of dents but that only works with open wood, even if the video says "finished wood" in the title, it's still talking about UNfinished wood.

I tried steaming it. Didn't do much. Then I thought, maybe if I opened the finish and steamed it and then drop fill the holes and fix it... That actually worked for the steaming part. It's level now. However the dropfilling... did not. Superthin superglue did not wick into the holes. I tried opening a couple up a bit further but no dice. VERY visible even with the thinnest superglue I can find.

Second thing there's no info about. Everybody has videos about dropfilling nitro because it "melts into the old layers". Nice. Sounds easy. Very convenient. But 90% of guitars are not painted with nitro and nobody talks about those! I have sought but couldn't find what this Yamaha was made with.. I presume Polyurethane. Could be polyester. Either way no blending into it. The only info out there is drop filling with superglue or gluboost. That's nice but how do they get them to almost totally disappear? Mine didn't. No sense in polishing if it's that obvious.

Now how do I proceed? Invisible is out the window, just wish to control damage as much as possible. 

I'm thinking sanding back and spraying with an airbrush with slightly tinted nitro. I'm really dreading it because so much can go wrong and getting a good tint is really hard.

Upside is I learned a LOT! Some mistakes I will never make again. But I would really appreciate some guidance on how to go on and get this thing back to my brother in law that really misses it.it's from his birth year so it's special.

[Mike Kolb]

You might be right about this being one of those situations where to go forward on your own could be digging the hole deeper than it is now.  Are there any real "hotshot" pro repair folks in the area you could consult with and perhaps get an estimate of repair?

If an intensive repair's out of the question... maybe a whole new top would solve the problem handily?

If that's not feasible, maybe be frank & honest with your brother-in-law about what happened, apologize profusely.... and then begin the search for a replacement guitar.  We've all learned these sort of lessons the hard way.  It'll work out. 

[Roger Häggström]

This is hard work even for a skilled repairman. With a lot of patience gluing in small pieces of wood, with hot hide glue, in the wounds and using dyes to color the new wood, it is possible to make the damage not so in-your-face. But only the best repair magician can make it invisible.

The good news is that the guitar still sounds as good as it did before the mishap.

[Gert van der Does]

Aww, guys. Come on. It's not THAT bad. I barely punctured the finish. They're also not that big. The entire spot is about 1 by 3 inches. 

You guys act like the thing is in pieces. 

[Gert van der Does]

Is there anyone that has a bit of info on repairing some damage on a top with some sort of poly finish?