Try some Rogers Swivo hardware on the kit! The oval Swivo bases may hide (some) of the holes left by the last mount. My Oaklawn Camco orphan kit has Rogers Swivo hardware that was installed when the drums were purchased. It looks great on them and it -works-! Try it, see if it doesn't hide the repairs.

John

Hi,

I think it is hard to hide the plugs if they are not covered with a bit of salvaged veneer. Otherwise they tend to show up loud and proud. I am not skilled at salvaging and applying veneer/wrap, but have read about here.

I like John's suggestion. The right mount will cover the brunt of the damage.

Hi John and Patrick,

Thank you for the suggestions.

The Swivo hardware looks indeed smashing on Camcos.

Unfortunately, the upper section of the bass drum is a bit of a disaster area and I’m afraid that no mount will cover it completely, for sure not the Rogers Swivo. I was planning to go original which would only leave the 2 top holes visible.

On the 12” and 15” toms, only the top and bottom holes will partially be visible once the hexagonal Camco mount will be installed. The plates will cover about two third of both holes.

Unless I wrap them, I realize that the plugged holes will always be visible, especially on a blank maple surface. I would imagine that a darker veneer would make it a tad less obvious. At this point I’m even more worried about the hair line cracks in the outer ply.

stedi - other than filling, sanding and then sealing the small cracks, there's not much more to be done about them. You'll have to learn to live with a few of them. Consider it drum mojo! Yes, the original Camco stuff does cover better.

John

Hi Folks,

Since the last posts are gone, here again a quick update on the progress of this kit.

The 4 shells and the 2 BD hoops had on top of the factory finish, a thick and very poorly applied coat of what appeared to be a boat varnish. Very hard and very nasty stuff,...

I removed all that with a „mild” chemical stripper. To get to the bare wood, I had to repeat this process 3 times.

After that I sanded the shells with 240, 320 and 400 grid sandpaper.

I went trough with the stain idea and applied 2 coats of walnut stain.

Once fully dried, I put on the first layer of polyurethane satin varnish and yesterday, after a mild sanding, I did the second coat.

The plugged holes and dark crack lines are as good as gone.

I will let the varnish sit now for 48 hours before doing the last and final coat of varnish.

Attached a couple of pictures of the result so far.

Hope you like it,...

Lovely job! That was my plan for my 6 ply Gretsch Stop Sign Walnut, but to avoid blotching, everything would have had to be taken back to white. Unfortunately, the factory stain was so leeched in that I would have had to sand off the outside ply completely, and in some places even remove some of the next one down - not an option, so I wrapped instead, and whilst I'm delighted with the result, I would have dearly loved to have been able to restore to the original finish....

Love that finish and the work you have done so far. Keep it up!

So happy the gamble paid; they're looking good!

Thanks guys,

I did some tests first but it was a bit of a gamble indeed.

The thing with stain is that you need to be 100% sure everything is gone and that you apply it to the bare wood.

The slightest leftover from varnish or even a fingerprint will show instantly.

The biggest nightmare were the hoops. It took me about 4 hours of work each hoop to get them free from the varnish, the scratchers and dirt.

I’ll post some more pictures tomorrow.