Had some time this past weekend to do some more work on the V.
I got the tailpiece and bridge post holes drilled (and hopefully all is good with them, but if not, I have a spare body as the company sent me a replacement for the damaged neck pocket). I'm like 90% confident that they're good, though.
One top of that, I modified the pick guard that came with it to fit around the base of the neck and fit over the pickup channels. I goofed on one side, but that's okay. I took a piece of 3 layer (black white black) plastic and use this one as a template:
Using a dremel router setup, I cut it out and did a fit test:
Once it sat where I liked it, I swapped the routing bit with a sanding bit and sanded it down:
I need to square out some spots with a file and a block sander, but I think it's coming out pretty good so far.
Next I'll be sanding and starting the staining process.