Fender Deluxe Strat neck

Steve this is brian chambers from Canton, GA. I'm building a american fender strat  deluxe by buying parts from eBay. The neck I bought was at a good price compaired to most of the other necks. in the description it said it had worn places along the skunk stripe and could be from truss rod damage. I haven't received it yet , but if I have to replace the truss rod. Would I need to rout out the skunk stripe or is there an easier way to get it out. I've built two solid body eletric guitars from scrach neck and all. But I just routed out the neck and put the truss rod under the fret board.
Thanks, Brian

I can't think of any way to get the old skunk stripe out without wrecking it. I have routed them out. It is very tricky putting in the new skunk strip. It would be easy to put it in proud and file it perfectly level, and then refinish the whole neck. The only ones that I have done were very old and required saving as much of the old finish as possible. The strip had to be fit level with the wood (below the thickness of the finish) and then new finish (ambered to match the old) built up on the skunk stripe only.

While you are in there, replace the Fender style rod with a double action rod. Maple is an unstable wood and the double action allows you to straighten the neck whichever way it warps.

Replacing the truss rod is a whole lot of work. I charge $500. I would say, when the neck arrives, check out the trussrod. Tighten and loosen it all the way. See if the range of movement will allow all the adjustment needed. If the truss rod is bad, send it back and get another neck. It is nearly impossible to replace a trussrod without making the subtle changes that throw up red flags for collectors. If vintage, collector value, etc. don't mean anything to you, just get a good neck that works. And, get one with a rosewood fingerboard. They play better, are more stable, and it's much easier to level and round the frets.

Steve Mason