Suh-weet! Not to get off-topic, but I had a 40 Chevy Business Coupe as a teen that didn't run and I sold it to buy a '53 Ford that was running. I regret selling that coupe and I ended up selling the '53 a couple of years after that. I also had a '64 Cadillac that I sold last year to buy my house. Next on the list is a '49 Chevy pickup. That'll be able to haul my drums around town in style!

You are the coolest guy in the world. :)

Mitch

My drums and car is cool but Im a dork.

Jeff the 40 is looking good buddy. I so miss not having a hot rod to tinker with. Mustangs, Shelbys, Cobras, Cougars (Mercury :p) I miss them all. Big blocks of course!!

Hahahaha no way bro! The drums and car reflect the man, man.

Mitch

Well, I had a fun day. Worked on the bass drum and drove the car while glue set up.

I ended up making six strips of maple 1/32" x 1.5". I actually cut a 45 degree angle on both ends of each ply to fit against the 45 degree cut on the existing ring. The first strip, or ply, was not glued to the shell. I glued the second ply to the first on using several c-clamps then repeated for each additional ply after about a half hour or so of glue setting up. Once all plys were glued up I took the curved piece of wood to my edge sander and sanded one side down so all pys were flush. I used that edge for the inside. After a little work with a small drum sander and lots of hand sanding I was able to copy the profile of the existing ring. Glued in the piece, did a little more sanding, paint and there you have it. Someone had painted the area of the shell where the ring was missing at one time, they got some paint on the edge that I should remove.

Last pic shows how close and precise the new ring came to the factory edge. I was very happy that I was able to do all of this and leave the round factory edge untouched.

Well, here is the ring with some paint on it. The original paint in the shell is kind of dirty looking so the new paint really shows. I am thinking about just painting the entire shell. These two pics are with the drum upside down, so you can get a look at where I had filled in the holes with the plugs and silver sparkle wrap, can you find them?

First pic, some slightly different looking white "smudges". Second pic, invisible. Extremely impressive work you're doing here. The re-ring looks perfect.

Mitch

Nice work Jeff. Re-ring replacement is stellar! I can't see the plugs anywhere either. So I bet the silver sparkle side are impossible to see too. That's what it's all about. Yes Sir

Thank you Mitch and Glen.

The wrap repair was good but not perfect. When you look at it from one angle you can see them pretty good from 5-6 feet, but from a different angle they disappear at 2.5 feet. The Gretsch wrap that I used has a slightly different texture to it if you look real close, so I think it is as good as its gonna get. The ring however came out 100% perfect.

Here are some before and after pics.

Not bad for a cabinetmaker. Hope I did not decrease the value of the drum by doing the work myself.