Old Höfner in need of care

[Michael L.]

In spite of my honest determination to close my door to further applicants, yet another senescent guitar has sneaked into my home. May I prevail on you experts for a little advice on restoring it to something near its former glory?
As far as I can determine from Stephen Candib's excellent identification guide, it is an humble sunburst Höfner 449 from the early sixties, and it is in reasonably good shape - no cracks, nothing loose. Naturally, however, an oldie like this has some issues:
1) Predictably, the neck has a slight forward tilt: viewed from the headstock, the floating part of the fretboard (the tongue, from the 13th/14th fret towards the bridge) seems to slant upwards - but of course it is the upper part of the neck that has been pulled forward, as witnessed by an impossibly high action. The neck is absolutely straight between the zero and 12th fret. Am I right in thinking that a simple neck reset would not cure such an elbow in the fretboard? (cf. Snap's post on "Neck straightening techniques").
2) Another challenge will be repairing the places where the laquer has peeled/broken off along the edges (see picture). It would be nice to apply the same sort of laquer used by Höfner back in the sixties. Do any of you know what that laquer was?
Hoping for enlightenment, friends!

[the-mooche]

Hi Michael, I think, that Höfner experimented relatively early with 2K-finishes, but mainly I am quite sure, they used nitrocellulose. Your surface seems to smell like nitro.
For my violin-coloured stuff I use the violin-touchup-laquers from hammerl from Bubenreuth.

http://www.hammerl.com/deutsch/retuschierlack.php

Easy to work with and especially on the borders of a sunburst, nearly unvisible, when buffed. Needs som experience, to mix the different colours out of 4 basic-colours. A stripe of Tesa on the original-finish will help to find the right colour-tone.

[Michael L.]

Hi, The-Mooche,
Thanks very much for your reply and expert advice. I have ordered the touch-up lacquers you recommend and look forward to experimenting with them. I have but little experience, but luckily some of the damage to the finish is in inconspicuous places, so I have some room for learning.
Thanks again!

[the-mooche]

... and you need good brushes with nearly no hairloss. Much luck and .... fun .... and don't forget to try the colour on a foi or stripe of tixo/Tesa directly besides the spots.