It really depends on the extent of the lifting. Personally, I used good old Krazy glue cyanocrylate(?) and some careful clamping to flatten the seams on some early 70's Ludwigs and it worked great -none of the toxic fumes of contact cement either.

Do a search here. There may be an in-depth thread or two on this subject already. I lose track sometimes! heh hehCar Driving2

Thanks! I'll surely do a search and see what comes up. Some of the seams are lifting more than others, but I'm guessing that I'd not be touching any wood, just plastic on plastic. I just don't wanna put anything on there that starts eating away at the wrap. Careful clamping is important...

Found something - "I had to do this a couple of times and I used "Crazy Glue". I know, I know....I thought the same thing...but apparently the chemical that Crazy Glue is made from is cyanocrilate(?) or something and it reacts with the plastic wrap and supposedly kind of "welds" the plastic back together. I used the gel and it comes in a tube with a small needle-nose -so you can squirt it down into the gap a bit. You might need several tubes of it...I think I used about three of them (they're small).

I applied some blue painter's tape to the exposed areas of wrap along the seam so I wouldn't get glue on that part when I clamped everything up.

To clamp, I used a couple of pieces of flexible plywood pieces to protect the inner shell from the clamp ends and then on top and along the full length of the seam, I ran a 3/4" X 3/4" maple strip of wood in conjunction with the clamps so that the pressure would be evenly-applied. Since pressure will still be greater at the ends (nearest the clamps), I "thickened" the central portion of the maple strip with a few pieces of painter's tape -so that when the clamps were applied, the pressure would be more equalized along the length of the entire seam. I hope that makes sense.

Leave the clamps on at LEAST overnight so that the warped plastic has time to re-shape itself and straighten out. Then, remove the clamps and check to see if there might be some gaps left...repeat as needed.

So far, the Crazy Glue has held and all the seams are nice and flat now."

Sound familiar, O-Lugs? Laughing H

I think this might be better than using a contact cement, because I'd need to lift the wrap more to get it on both sides... I like your suggestions about the tape, too.

Thanks again! Yes Sir

The plot thickens. Ok, so I still haven't fixed the lifting seams on my '74 BDP Ludwig kit, but I just saw this auction on eBay from Arkansas Drum Works, and here's what the very passionate Ivan Hunter says about the use of Superglue for seams:

"How many of your seams are glued down with super-glue? Same thing. Pick up ANY BRAND OF SUPER-GLUE, & read the back. It will say, NOT TO BE USED on polypropylene & polyethylene! If allowed to stay, it will crystalize the wrap seam. Our seams are guaranteed to stay down, & be super-glue free!!!"

So, is Krazy glue going to give me this same problem?

LOL! Yes, now that you mention it, it DOES sound familiar! ;)

Well, if you want my opinion about Krazy Glue "crystallizing", then I'll show you the seams that I repaired with Krazy Glue. Party -no crystals, here!singer

I'm not sure that all wraps are made of reactive materials as described by Ivan Hunter. All I know is that it was winter...I didn't want to deal with the toxic fumes of contact cement (even though I have a can of it)....I had read by other drum repair people that Krazy Glue would actually be strong enough to hold the curled up edge of the seams down because it would "weld" the wrap. I don't know what happened on a molecular basis, but the seams are now fixed and haven't lifted, cracked OR crystallized over several years.

No disrespect to Ivan Hunter's opinions, but he has a business to run and re-gluing seams is one of the things he does and charges money for. Maybe using Krazy Glue isn't his optimum choice, but my own experience showed it to be an ideal choice.

Fantastic - So no need to fire up the Flux-capacitor with Dilythium Crystals... just break out the Krazy Glue and have at it! Thanks much! Cool1

I'm a little late to this party here, but I have to agree with Ivan that crazy glue, in any form, is one of the worst things you can put on any wrap. All wrap _is_ the same plastic - all of it is reactive - and most of it was made by the same company. I have repaired hundreds of drums that were ruined with super glue. The glue _will_ eventually crystallize, the wrap will become brittle and the repair will not hold. Sometimes it's almost immediate and sometimes it takes years, but a lot of them end up in my shop when they deteriorate at which point I remove what I can of the super glue and replace it with either contact cement or double sided 3m tape (on seams). Many times you can not see the crystallization until the seam just pops up one day. The best thing to use for wrap repair is contact cement. That's why they use it at the factory.

This is not a subject for opinion. This is all verifiable fact documented by pro repair guys and the principles of chemisty.

Get some good highly flamable contact adhesive, 3m or dap weldwood. flamable, not water base. The warmer the enviorment the better. I used aheat gun and it was perfect. check this link out

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=6956&highlight=loose+wrap

The Flux Capacitor works best if you have a Mr Fusion.....LOL!