The past few days I managed to get the top and back trimmed flush to the sides. Ordinarily this would be done with a flush cut bit in a router and a specialized fixture. Once again..... I don't have those tools, so I had to figure out a different way of doing it. I ended up carving away the over hang with a nice sharp box cutter knife! It took about 4 hours of work to complete, but it turned out well. The knife slipped on me twice, leaving a light mark in the top and one on the back. Both marks are very light so they should sand out.
After trimming the top and back with the knife, I used a scraper to smooth out the sides and scrape the top and back completely flush with the sides. Next step on the body? BINDING! I have to admit, this next step has me a bit nervous, but I think I should be able to handle it!