MIMF

Thanks Mario - I'm giving it time to sit like you said.
No use rushing something that should be a working instrument for many years to come from here on out.

Okay, been 2 weeks.
Had plenty to do in the shop for the past 2 weeks, but yesterday I was able to return to the dinged guitar.
As Mario predicted, the ding has shrunk back in a bit. No big deal, it is not shallow enough to fill with finish.
Not pictured, I sanded the local area of the "scar" with 800 paper. That seemed to be all it needed to make everything homogeneous.
So - seen below - I started by masking off the area and spraying a wet patch of lacquer with my trusty old Paasche airbrush. Took no time at all
I just removed the mask and left it to dry.
Since it has dried back, I can see the old depression, and I'm paining a line of lacquer down the valley. 4 coats total so far in the past 2 days.

Aces! I admire your patience. And I'll throw in another comment on the photography. That second picture really captures the tiniest dip remaining in the finish.

After spraying with the airbrush, I painted lacquer down the valley a few times to fill it up.
It's sat for 2 weeks, and I used a single edge razor to scrape it flush.
Sanded through the grits up to 2500.
And buffed it out.
It is pretty much an invisible repair - which I thought was impossible in this situation. It took a month to do, but the results are worth all the waiting.
And, actually I didn't wait for much. After the ding was steamed out, I've fit the neck, glued down the bridge, and pretty much completely finished the instrument. Luckily the repair was in a spot where I could buff it out as a complete instrument.

And done.

Beautiful repair!!

Good job Chuck!

Thanks guys. Nobody is happier than me that this all worked out.
Just wanted to report back the final result.

Success!

Nice, Chuck. Congratulations. Look again in about six months. It will probably show a little bit by then but I think you got the best of the situation.

Yes, I expect that spot will show some sort of witness lines in time. Probably around the triangle I masked off, and the dip itself a bit.
Hopefully this will be in the hands of someone else in 6 months. I don't know exactly how to warn them:
"Er ... Uh ... If this develops an ugly spot right ... there. Let me know."
Or just generically let them know that I'll fix any issues if they arise.

You tell the nice folks that it is a genuine hand made in America masterpiece. Whaddya want, machine made??? Some of the best wood even comes with "issues" so we just use it and go on.

Not bad for a dude from California.

Thanks Barry, that's real big of you.
But - of course - everything is bigger in Texas.

Nice work! Hopefully, if the repair starts showing in a few months, the guitar will already have a few more dings and scratches from being played so much because it is such a wonderful sounding instrument, its not going to matter that much, right? That's what I keep telling myself when stuff like this happens, anyways