I doubt that I would recommend sanding through the outer plastic film, however, if one were really interested in adding shine to your otherwise dull and lifeless plastic wrap, you could probably use a product called VertGlass. It is typically used on boats and is an acrylic finish. I had a 24' cabin cruiser that was getting a bit dull regardless of the amount of buffing and waxing I did. I finally tried the VertGlass product and the boat looked awesome when completed. I did six coats, but it dries so fast that it took very little time. After it has cured for a few weeks you coud buff it to an even smoother finish. It is pretty great stuff. Never tried it on drums though. I woud suggest trying it on something that doesn't matter. If I still had some here I woud put it on an orphan shell that is going to be rewrapped someday to see how it works, but unfortunately I do not have any.

By the way, you woud only need the finish product (the number 3 sealer) You woud not have to do any of the other steps. This product simply adds a very shiny (hard) top coat to whatever you apply it to. Not unlike this stuff you see on TV for bringing back hardwood floors and other wood finishes.

http://www.vertglas.com/index.html

I will say that the pictures on their site are the real deal. My boat was nowhere near as bad as the one pictured, but it was pretty obvious that the product worked that well. Just a thought.

wrap material (glass glitter, sparkles) have a base, then the material then the top clear or tinted material. then its smashed together to make the wrap. the sparkles don't give it the color-the top material is tinted. so if you sand thru it then your screwed.

pearls and other types of wrap do not have a clear or tinted top layer, as they are made differently.

you didn't say why you wanna sand thru to the spkls, but in either case you don't wanna sand thru it. if you just wanna clean up the wrap and make it shinny again, then that can be done by buffing.

in some cases you can litely sand the wrap to take off age, then buff, but it also depends on the wrap and its age.

for modern indie drums with graphics on the wrap, some custom companies will shoot some clear over the graphics or inlays.

overall you might wanna be more descriptive on what your trying to do and post pics.

I've never heard that before about vintage wraps??

Yep. The Luddie bongos I played in HS had a blue sparkle wrap that was lifting a little at the seams, and you could see the other side was red. Same wrap, 2 colors depending on which side you faced up.

I've seen that too, but didn't know that was the reason, wow!

Thanks for the replies. I'm not planning to sand through my wrap - just wondering whether it could be fixed once it has occurred. I don't have a drum that needs it now, but I have seen this in the past - usually when someone goes overboard when removing paint from a wrap.

I thought there was a clear layer of plastic on top of the sparkles; I didn't know it was all a colored layer of plastic. Good info there.

The vertglas product sounds interesting. But if the wrap's plastic layer is tinted it sounds like it wouldn't quite do the job unless it was possible to tint the vertglas before it was put on.

Does anyone know what kind of plastic is used on original vintage wrap? Is it acrylic or something else?