okay, a little update. i managed to seat the remaining amount of the dirll bit in the chuck of my drill and finish drilling the board. i made lots of progress, and i would have finished it today but i ran out of some parts (namely a bunch of resistors and caps i need). here are some progress pics:

front view, with flash

front view, no flash

back view, showing power jack

inside, showing pots and back of power jack, in and out jacks

my new board on the left, the old on the right
MODS and/or REPAIRS:
1) installed a multi-pin power supply jack, modified a dell laptop power supply to fit it which supplies the 20v needed to power this hoss.
2) repainted the shell with "hammered" copper finish
3) added LED bezel
4) replaced all 3 pots
5) added numbered holes to top of board for wiring to omit the cheap connector included in original production. wiring will be direct to board.
6) salvaged original chips and trannies. jury is still out on whether i want to build another. if someone wants to show me how to omit the electronic switching i'll make up a new layout and make it available as a clone build.
7) replaced all caps and resistors (the ones i had on hand, will replace the others when parts arrive)

etched a brand new board, adding holes to wire the LED as opposed to the STUPID way the LED was wired to the board originally (straight to the back of the board on its own legs!?!?! definitely a no-no in this particular housing, pads it was soldered to separated numerous times) i drilled holes where the surface mount pads were so i could run wire on top of the board to the LED in the bezel. should keep the problem from occurring again.
compare to the original and tell me what you think. I still have to get the black knurled aluminum knobs i am going to use and i need to get some vinyl/rubber flexible paint to repaint the switch cover.
pics of the original can be found here:
http://www.sonicurbs.com/dod585/index.htm