I defretted a battered old Warwick a few years back. Yes, it falls apart like Weetabix as you pull the frets.
Last year had my first go at a super glue coating. I did it in a bit of a rush, two days work really. This has 7 layers of glue, flatted back after 4 coats, then added 3 more. Lots of super fine wet and dry and polishing later it looked like this.
I polished through the glue on the edges of the board. One day I'll go back and redo it as it wasn't that difficult.