001) I use a scoop, a round-nose end-mill, and a shop-made, domed plug cutter which I made by boring the end of a steel bar with the domed end-mill to create a dish, then turned the steel rod smaller, to the the right diameter. Finally I hand-filed two fluted cutting edges on it.

002) Some holes I filled with the circular plugs, and some with scooped-plugs.

003) Once plugs were glued in and leveled, thy looked decent but not good enough, and here’s where Nora entered — she hand-painted color and grain lines on the edges of all the fills and they disappeared!

004) Toward the upper middle right corner was a scope you can see where she painted its shape into the grain.to hide the grain she did this to the entire face of the guitar

005) Next I shaded the top and sprayed a sunburst out to the edges and into the original sunburst as it rolled over the edges.

006) After spraying clear-coats, drying, and buffing, Nora lightly chipped and aged the finish in places.

007/008/009) The Strat’s peg head had suffered too, some of the decals were chipped away. Using a real Fender decal to copy from, she painted in the missing parts and they looked perfect.

010) Nora was as proud of here work as I was of her!

Nora has gone on to become a well-known East coast painter with shows in NYC.