Five years ago I bought an Epiphone Newport from a guy who found it in a sort of a recycle shop.
It had a horrible matte white refin and a Union Jack on the head stock. A three point bridge (with the original inserts just filled with large screws. A home made trussrod cover. And to make things worse it had Jazz Bass knobs.
The fact that it had an added bridge pickup was not a big issue for me, as that is actually really useful.
The first thing I did was try and remove the Union Jack. I managed to get it off without damaging the original lettering too much.
A little while later I found two original Epiphipone knobs to replace the sacrilegious Jazz bass knobs.
After some consideration I decided to remove the three point bridge and put an original two point bridge back in place.
And I left it there four about four years. And used it once in a while.
A few months ago I decided to try an bring it back to it's original colour.
I removed the thick layer of white paint. The body was full of scratches and dents. And I had no choice but to remove the original transparent red that was underneath it too.
And then I plugged the holes from the three point bridge with mahogany. tried to match the grain as good as I could.
And stained the bass in it's original colour.
I found an Epiphione logo waterslide on the Internet and put it on the head stock because the old one hadn't survived the whole make over.
Just dressed her up again. Now she's ready to rock again.
Maybe I'll sell it. Don't know yet.