$15 Samick LF009, worth repairing?

[burping_boy]

Hi all. I bought this Samick LF009 from a flea market just now, it was only $15, with 2 dunlop-style spring capos and a small bag, which i think is more than enuf to cover the $15.
basically, the specs i found about it is:
LF-009 - smaller scale (39 in. length) folk style, nato top/back/sides/neck, bound body, round sound-hole, rosewood fingerboard with dot inlay, rosewood bridge with black pins, 3-per-side chrome tuners, available in Natural satin finish disc. 2001. , found here:
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id...lt&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=samick lf 009&f=false

more about the guitar and condition: the guitar is made in indonesia. the body of the guitar barely have any scratches, some vv superficial minor chips at the headstock, but the main body looks perfectly fine, and it was the grain and looks and the condition of the top wood that attracted me, and of course the price. after conditioning it with the dunlop 65s lemon oil (for fretboard) and the guitar polish&cleaner, the wood of the guitar just looks really nice and new.

problems:
frets are all rusty but not really worn, so means can polish the rust off but will take effort and time;
the tuners which are those classical row type 3-per-side instead of one each type, are all vv creaky and oxidised, and the screws for one side are all missing. it will have to be replaced, either with the same row-3-per-side type or 6 individual ones;
the nut cracked when i removed the strings;
there is NO truss rod so the action will prolly be very dependent on the nut (which is to be replaced) and bridge.

i know the repair work and parts are going to cost more than the guitar itself...
was thinking of maybe a small diy project, but i oso need to find time for it...
anyone think that it's worth the repair work?

 

[Everdying]

since its a smaller folk guitar, i would assume the scale length is around 20-22", which i guess is why samick thought there was no need for a truss rod since it'll be a very light tension.

anyway, before removing the strings - were they at standard tuning?
if they were, how was the neck action / relief then?
at least u wouldve known if the neck is still decent or not before proceeding with any other repairs.
putting on a nut will be easy, just make sure the pressure needed on the 1st fret isnt that much greater than for 2nd fret onwards etc.
then u use the bridge to adjust the action, provided of cos the relief isnt too great on the neck.

putting on cheap tuners (that stay in tune somewhat) and a nut should be pretty cheap anyway.

 

[jmb23]

Hmm...its up to you
try to clean up the fret with wd-40 to get rid of the rust.
but if wont recommend you to get it refretted,it will just cost too much($150+).but it is really up to you

 

[RyanZ]

You can get the fret polishing system to remove the rust. Bluegrasswood has it http://bgwguitars.com/data/accpwfps.htm. Not worth refretting as jmb23 suggested.

 

[burping_boy]

since its a smaller folk guitar, i would assume the scale length is around 20-22", which i guess is why samick thought there was no need for a truss rod since it'll be a very light tension.

anyway, before removing the strings - were they at standard tuning?
if they were, how was the neck action / relief then?
at least u wouldve known if the neck is still decent or not before proceeding with any other repairs.
putting on a nut will be easy, just make sure the pressure needed on the 1st fret isnt that much greater than for 2nd fret onwards etc.
then u use the bridge to adjust the action, provided of cos the relief isnt too great on the neck.

putting on cheap tuners (that stay in tune somewhat) and a nut should be pretty cheap anyway.

To Everdying: the strings were not at standard tuning because the strings are all so rusty, the tuner machine heads are stuck, and one side (because the machine heads are those 3 in a row similar to classical guitar type) had no screws, detached, and only held on by the strings, so i could not judge the relief or action. But the neck after removing all the strings and spoilt parts, is sturdy and straight.

so i've derusted the frets with a bit of wd40 (they stink) and the jim dunlop fret polishing cloth, decent but not entirely clean and shiny. some rust stains are just hard to remove. it's actually not the frets that were rusty, it was rust from the super rusty old strings.

i also bought a new set of tuner machine heads, only $7, even cheaper than my strings. The machine heads fit nice, with the screw holes at the same positions as the old one. only problem here is that the screw holes in the headstock wood are worn down, and doesn't really grip the screws securely. my brother's recommending some white glue into the worn down holes before screwing. the screws are too small to fill sawdust anyway.

also bought a new nut which was exactly the same size and shape as the old one. but i only realised that it was still a wrong one when i was trying to restring yesterday: the string gaps was in an opp direction, somehow like for a left-hander guitar. might be requesting for a change of the nut tomorrow, or unless my sister decides to learn to play the guitar the left-handed way, since she's left handed and this guitar is not a full size so might be just nice for her. considering...

other than that, i think everything should work well... thank you all very much!