Harmony H162 refurb

[hat]

I've recently picked up a pretty nice Harmony H162. The neck joint is tight, but the upper transverse brace has sunken, letting the top sink. I'm sitting on the fence on whether to just fix that, or re-brace with FS scalloped X bracing.
Also, this one has a non adjustable truss rod ( steel bar). I am wondering - if I pull the frets to do a re-fret, will it do any good to drill small holes in the fret slots to inject some superglue down around the truss rod? The neck is straight as is, so this would just be insurance.
Your thoughts on this, and also bracing, leave it as is, or re-brace.

[bisco1]

I've spent quite a bit of time working on these old Harmonys, and I've never seen a "sunken" brace. I've seen loose braces and broken braces however. I think you need to determine just what is going on with that before deciding what else you may or may not do. On these old Harmonys, there are only two types that I have found--those that have already had a neck reset, and those that need one.
I've "X" braced a number of these, and invariably they had superior tone compared to their ladder braced versions, IMO. Removing the back can be tricky, so if you decide to do that, take your time. I've always copied some version of Martin's design and have been pleased with the results.
Good luck,
Bill

[hat]

Hmmm, I'm pretty sure I can tell a sunken brace when I see one. And the neck joint is nice and tight. W/O knowing the history it's hard to say if it's been re-glued or not.