Gibson Mandola Restoration

[Mandyourmanners]

Restoration moved to https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...87#post1770487

AND

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...94#post1770494

[Mandyourmanners]

Restoration moved to https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...87#post1770487

AND

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...94#post1770494

[Mandyourmanners]

Is that a drywall screw in picture #2?

Turns out they are metal dowels covered by small wood inlays...

[Rob Roy]

I will echo what others say about refinishing, it not only impacts the value of vintage instruments, but also the tone. In terms of pulling the back, putting it back together and getting everything realigned is problematic, particularly the binding channel. Your instrument is fixable without removing the back. In the guitar world, closing and reinforcing cracks can be done with string jacks (I think I first saw them in Teeter's book). You make diamond shaped cleats that get snugged up to the bottom of the top plate via the ball end of a guitar string, the grain of the cleat is aligned at 90 degrees to the top grain for strength. You can work some glue into the cracks with a pallet knife before pulling things up flush. For increased open time, you'll probably want use Titebond or similar, even though hot hide glue would sound better. If you poke around the web, I'm sure you can find more details about the process.