Restoration of a write-off archtop

I've been looking around the site for some time and used to be a much more active member. Life and funds have always made my building experience a slow one.
While on holiday last week I decided to invest in a 'project' guitar. I found a 1961 Hofner Congress in very bad shape. I paid a little more than I wanted to for it and had expectations that many things would require repair and renewal on the guitar. It had a broken neck at the heel. Someone had added a Japanese pickup in the late 60s early 70s and the whole thing was held together by sheer willpower. Perfect - it provides an opportunity to cut my teeth on a lot of repair jobs I have always wanted to become accustomed to.
For those who may not know, the congress is an all laminate, bottom of the range fully acoustic archtop affair in its original form. I suspected that it would be parallel braced and i was correct. When the pickup was installed they cut through the top and straight through both braces!
I have already stripped the guitar and removed the top. I added a maple filler piece to the pickup aperture and replaced the braces. It was at the point of sanding the maple filler piece that I realised that I had made a rookie mistake - I hadn't thought to run a straight edge up the length of the top. Upon sanding I became aware that the pressure of the strings over the last 40 odd years and the compromised integrity had caused the arch to collapse below the pickup hole and the top described a double arch with a dip at the waste some 2.5mm at its deepest.
The intention was always to refinish the guitar as a 'black top' to hide many other minor scars to the top.
What would you do at this point? Would you backtrack, remove the new braces and patch and make an effort to reintroduce the original arch by creating stressed glue joints and new braces that compensate? Would you continue with the top in its existing shape? Could you think of an alternative? I would imagine that adding material (even spruce) as a splice over the area and sanding the original curve back into it would dampen the responsivness of the top and as such would be a no-go.
As it stands, patch in place and braces shaped with the indentation present the top is actually very responsive for a piece of laminate and taps a nice clear and loud tone.
For further interest the guitar will be receiving new binding front and back and to the neck (currently no binding on the back and neck), corrected back bow to neck, repair of broken heel, from 10 to a 12 inch radius on the fret board, full refret, new hardware throughout, full refinish along with the repair of all indentations, small cracks and various holes and gouges that have been drilled and cut into it over the years. It really was a shambles! Down the line it may also receive a floating pickup off the fingerboard (which also has to be replaced)
While on holiday last week I decided to invest in a 'project' guitar. I found a 1961 Hofner Congress in very bad shape. I paid a little more than I wanted to for it and had expectations that many things would require repair and renewal on the guitar. It had a broken neck at the heel. Someone had added a Japanese pickup in the late 60s early 70s and the whole thing was held together by sheer willpower. Perfect - it provides an opportunity to cut my teeth on a lot of repair jobs I have always wanted to become accustomed to.
For those who may not know, the congress is an all laminate, bottom of the range fully acoustic archtop affair in its original form. I suspected that it would be parallel braced and i was correct. When the pickup was installed they cut through the top and straight through both braces!
I have already stripped the guitar and removed the top. I added a maple filler piece to the pickup aperture and replaced the braces. It was at the point of sanding the maple filler piece that I realised that I had made a rookie mistake - I hadn't thought to run a straight edge up the length of the top. Upon sanding I became aware that the pressure of the strings over the last 40 odd years and the compromised integrity had caused the arch to collapse below the pickup hole and the top described a double arch with a dip at the waste some 2.5mm at its deepest.
The intention was always to refinish the guitar as a 'black top' to hide many other minor scars to the top.
What would you do at this point? Would you backtrack, remove the new braces and patch and make an effort to reintroduce the original arch by creating stressed glue joints and new braces that compensate? Would you continue with the top in its existing shape? Could you think of an alternative? I would imagine that adding material (even spruce) as a splice over the area and sanding the original curve back into it would dampen the responsivness of the top and as such would be a no-go.
As it stands, patch in place and braces shaped with the indentation present the top is actually very responsive for a piece of laminate and taps a nice clear and loud tone.
For further interest the guitar will be receiving new binding front and back and to the neck (currently no binding on the back and neck), corrected back bow to neck, repair of broken heel, from 10 to a 12 inch radius on the fret board, full refret, new hardware throughout, full refinish along with the repair of all indentations, small cracks and various holes and gouges that have been drilled and cut into it over the years. It really was a shambles! Down the line it may also receive a floating pickup off the fingerboard (which also has to be replaced)