I've got some pre-stain wood conditioner that I'll use either way. But I just did some test patches with different color stains on the interior of the bass drum (will be painted over). I found a pretty good mix that looks like it will match the mahogany. It covered the orange pretty well without bleaching first. The exterior is sanded much better, so I think if it covers ok on the interior it should cover pretty good on the exterior.

I'll see how the test patches look after drying, sanding, and a coat of poly. I really don't want to wrap these drums. I priced it out, and that would be $300-400 for something cool. Or I could do some lame black gloss for cheaper.

The stain came out ok. The orange is still a little visible, but not bad. The bass drum should match pretty well, it just looks a little "wetter" than the raw mahogany. I think they'll even out with the poly.

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMAG0815.jpg[/IMG]

Things are progressing. I did all the poly coats today. I lost count, but I think it was 6 (maybe 7). They're all nice and shiny, now I just have to wait for them to cure and I can wax them. In the meantime, I'll have to paint the interiors. I really wish I didn't have to, but they're just too messed up inside. I picked up some Rustoleum stone paint that is a good match for granitone.

The other thing I did today was try some oxalic acid to clean the hardware. It worked amazingly well. I heard of it being used for rust removal. These parts had very little rust, but it's all gone now. But just the cleaning was so much easier. After soaking for about 5 hours, all I had to do was give everything a quick rinse with water and a rag. Not counting soaking time, it took about 45 min to clean all the hardware for a 5 piece kit. Not bad at all.

If anyone wants to try it, you mix 3 tablespoons of pure oxalic acid powder per gallon of water. With this solution, you can let the parts sit overnight. I made mine a little stronger and soaked less time. Learn from my mistake, add the acid to the water amd mix well before putting in your hardware. I added the powder to the hardware, then water and just agitated a little. A couple lugs had spots where the chrome was eaten through to the brass (or copper pre plating). I'm assuming this was from sitting in some undiluted acid powder. Those few aren't too bad, but this could have been avoided. Overall I was very impressed, and this will be my new method for cleaning hardware.

I will post some pictures when I get more done. It's hard to believe this kit is almost done.

Nice work!

I'm wondering how you ended up patching that hole you had in the bass drum?

I didn't patch a hole in the bass drum. Are you talking about that Tama center mount? I think I'll leave that alone for now. I might replace it with the correct one at some point.

Interior paint is done and drying now. Tomorrow I can wax the shells, polish the hardware, and assemble. That's pretty ambitious, but that's the plan so far.

I finally finished this kit. It was indeed a nightmare, and I will never buy a spray painted kit again. The bass drum did end up being maple, and was originally a natural finish. I found the remains of the clear lacquer under the layers of primer and paint. I stained it to a decent match (the difference is less noticeable in person). I wanted to leave the lighter maple color, but they were too stained by the citristrip. There's something else that I'll never buy again-- citristrip!

In general I'm happy with the way it all turned out. The wood looks ok, and the drums match fairly closely. The interiors are back to a granitone type paint. Most of the drums were originally granitone interior, and after stripping I found a good match with a Rustoleum stone spray paint. The repro badges worked well, they are on the 12", 13", 14", and 16" toms. The bass and 18" toms are "real" badges (many thanks to Purdie Shuffle for the badge on the 18"). The previous owner did some strange redrilling and moved the badges, mufflers and mounts around on the rack toms. For now I just have everything where I found it.

The setup in these pictures if 24/14/16/18. I've been playing a 4 piece for a long time, but I think I can get used to 2 floor toms. But I can't say I love the sound of the 18". I actually tried out 24/13/14/16 with the 14" on a snare stand in the first floor tom position. I may end up playing it that way. This is my first 24" kick, and I'm loving the sound of it. Now I have to decide whether to keep this or the near mint blue oyster Ludwig (bowling ball) kit that I recently finished cleaning up. If that one had a 24", it would be a much easier decision, but it's a 22".

Anyway, here are the pictures:

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3268.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3269.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3267.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3280.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3276.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3272.jpg[/IMG]

...and a couple more:

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3277.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i988.photobucket.com/albums/af5/potsy24/70s%20Mystery%20Ludwig/IMG_3274.jpg[/IMG]

nice job! Glad you stuck with it.

Yeah.......turned out good......

Bet they RAWK too!D' Drummer