Fret slot filling

In this stage, I'm taping and filling the fret troughs.

I taped off all of the frets so that the wood filler 

would not embed into the natural grain and 

would only fill the fret troughs. (I'm sure there is 

a proper term for them, but I haven't found it yet.)

With the fingerboard completely taped off, the wood filling

process begins. I have chosen to use Dap's Plastic Wood,

which hardens after application and ready to sand/drill/finish 

in one hour. I was outside during this step and the dry-time

was significantly shorter. Almost causing me to rush. I wouldn't

advise working on a guitar outside, but it was a very nice day 

with low humidity, so it was acceptable for me, my guitar and

the value of this particular guitar. 

In the next three pictures you can see the results of the 

sticky tape residue and there are two notes worth mentioning

here: one, don't use sticky masking tape; get painter's 

tape and two, don't ever try to sand off some form of glue,

such as this, as it will just gum up the sandpaper, but 

instead, use your finger and rub it over the residual glue 

creating friction and you'll be able to easily "erase" it off. 

Be careful though, because you can quickly cause a blister

from the friction heat.

These next three images showcase the post-clean-up 

results. Now, this particular wood filler is made to apply 

in multiple layers (if necessary) and we see here, that it

is necessary for a second application. No worries. I'll 

just do a second application [perhaps] tomorrow.

As far as the finish for this process, after I removed the 

glue residue, I sanded the fingerboard lightly with 

600-grain sandpaper to bring back the smooth surface

once again.

Well, a final application next time and after that, I'll be

moving on to the headstock for necessary restoration.