Getting there now ...

Firstly, for anyone reading this post-by-post, here's a pic of the body, with the thru-body string holes drilled, and widened so that the ferrules will fit properly. These look pretty straight and evenly spaced to my eye ... not bad for some freehand drilling!
You can also see the effect of the oil on the body ... the top 3/4s has just had the first coat of oil applied, whereas the bottom is still oil-free. The oil is really bringing out the grain, and the different colours, of the wood. Looks good to me!

The neck for this build might actually qualify as an "eBay bargain" - 2 words that I really don't use together very often (as opposed to "eBay ripoff", "eBay scam" etc!). The neck cost me £5. It was as straight as a banana, and the back of the neck looked as if it had been sanded carefully with a rasp. A coarse rasp.

Some twiddling with the truss rod has more-or-less straightened the neck, although the frets still need some attention to level them properly. And an afternoon spent with some sandpaper and wirewool has removed pretty much all of the marks on the back of the neck. It's now straight, and smooth.

To keep under the £100 budget, I'm re-using some old hardware that was salvaged from an old Tele-copy by a co-competitor. So it's second-hand, and second-dirty-hand. Some metal polish, some rags, an old toothbrush, and a couple of hours ... and the metalwork now shines. The pic below shows the 2 control knobs - 1 before, and 1 after the polishing work ...
I took the machineheads and the bridge completely apart so that I could polish all of it - even though most of it isn't visible ... again, the pic below shows the pre/post condition of some of the components ...
The plan now is to put another coat of oil on the body and the back of the neck, and then put the guitar together. I may get the controls soldered today, or that may be a job for tomorrow, just see how it goes.

Almost done!