I used Xylene on these two re-wrap projects and the mahogany re-finish and was very pleased.

Update!

I took a rag - barely damp with warm soapy water, laid it over the shell and waited 5 minutes - then I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (suggested by my wife) and wow. Not only is the contact cement gone, but the original wrap is shiny and looks great!

Except... in a few spots that are dull and hazy looking - roughed up a little, perhaps.

My next question is how do I restore the glossy luster of the wrap in these spots and all over? I've heard Turtle Wax. What do all of you suggest?

I'll have pics shortly :)

That novus product is good

I have a floor tom that is WMP and someone had painted it black. I got all the paint off of it and the WMP was pretty dull. A body shop friend of mine polished it with 3m Plastic headlight polish and it shines like a brand new penny!

I have a similar story. My wife also suggested a Magic Eraser on some discoloration from rust on my WMP Super Gene Krupa snare. It worked wonders, but left some dull hazy spots like you mentioned. I used Novus 2 on it and it shines like a new penny. I attached a pic for you.

By the way, I found Novus at the local Harley shop. I hear you can get it at speed shops and whatnot, as well.

Good luck!

Great info and ideas. Okay that was one drum. Did you peel the black cortex off the rest of them? I'd make sure they all have the black oyster intact and it's do-able before continuing if you did not already. Good luck with your project!

I was looking for something I could get quick and went around the corner to the Auto Zone and got some Meguiars PLASTX. It worked great and removed the cloudiness and yellowing and seemed to get out fine scratches. That's what it is made to do though. Clears up the headlights too. worked great on my Gold sparkle Ludwigs.

Thanks again, everybody - for all the input and advice.

Here's the complete story so far:

Purchased the kit from an older lady who inherited them from a friend who was a popular country drummer in the 70s/80s. The kit was 13/14/16/22, and had been re-wrapped in black gloss to match a bunch of Pearl fiberglass concert toms that were added on. All of the bottom hardware (hoops, lugs and rods) were missing on the 13 and 14 (again, to match the concert toms). To make matters worse, the inside of all the drums were painted with flat black spraypaint - right over the bolts and washers. The badges were all missing. The consolette mount was removed and a modern single-post holder was installed (nicely, but argh).

The first drum I unwrapped was the 14", simply because I like a 13/16/22 combo and I thought I'd experiment on the one I was least likely to use. I noticed a few things right away - this drum was newer than the others - it had a natural maple interior, different muffler holes and I could still see the outline of a Blue/Olive badge. Once I got the contact cement off, the finish was in beautiful condition - but then I realized that this was an add-on drum, and the finish on the others would be much different.

To my horror, when I peeled the black wrap off of the 13", I found out why the drums were wrapped overtop of the original finish. Obviously the 13" was their first attempt, and they had tried to rip the black oyster off without heat or a scraper of any kind - they peeled back about 6 or 7 inches of the wrap, taking a few big chunks of the mahogany outer ply with it.

Now, at this point, any sane person would slather that thing with glue, and stick it back down - instead what they did was cut the wrap at the next set of lug holes, then fill in all the missing chunks of mahogany with wood filler.

The rest of the finish has also cleaned up very nice, but is not in as good of shape - lots of little splits and cracks, especially on the bass drum. The nice part is that Black Oyster is a very forgiving finish - you can't see any flaws unless you're a foot from the drum and looking for them.

So what I wound up with is a 13" that's missing a chunk of wrap (exactly the width between two sets of lug holes), and a 14" that doesn't match at all (it's the newer Black Oyster that looks almost like camoflage).

I am trying an experiment this week - I have taken a high-resolution scan of the wrap from the kick drum. I am taking that scan to a friend of mine in the signmaking business, and I'm going to have him print it or me on adhesive vinyl. From that I will make a patch for the 13" tom, and also some bass drum hoop inlays - the original inlays were both only about 40% intact. Has anyone done this before? I figured no matter where I ordered a chunk of wrap from, it was not going to match closely - these drums have taken on a sort of golden hue from age, smoky bars and of course the contact cement - so any new wrap isn't going to be a close match.

I've patched the holes from the consolette using wood filler (just a tiny dab of black paint on top of the wood filler on the outside holes hid them nicely in the oyster, and after several unsuccessful attempts to remove the flat black spraypaint from the interiors, I decided to paint them with white semi-gloss - they look great after a coat of primer and two thin coats with a roller. I cleaned all the paint off the lug bolts and washers as well.

So as of now, the kit looks great as long as you can't see the back of the 13" tom. I am waiting for badges (I ordered some repro keystone badges from a guy on eBay), and the aforementioned "sticker patch". Once I've got it all put back together, I will post some 'after' photos.

That's an interesting idea about scanning the wrap and going to a signmaker. If it looks close enough you might cover the whole drum with it.

It will be very interesting to see the results on this. Do you have any pics of what you have done??? Did the rolled on paint come out smooth? I have a 9 piece 3 ply kit with black paint on the interiors I am planning on removing. I was thinking about just repainting with Plasti -Kote stone touch paint to match the granitone interior that came out in the late 60's

I don't have a decent camera of my own, so I'll be borrowing one from work this week to snap some photos.

I am excited to see how my idea works too - I'd rather not have a huge bald spot on the back of the drum, but I know any wrap I order will not match perfectly anyway - so I figure this will be a low-cost way to make the drum look complete. It may also be a great way to patch small holes in wraps.

Rolling the inside of the shells worked great! I used a small foam (no spatter) roller and a foam brush (to do the seams, etc.). I was able to roll right up to the bearing edge successfully without getting any on the edges.