Excellent restore job... I can only imagine how meticulous that sanding job had to be.

Nice work!

So my procedure for little holes is to use dowels. When it comes to larger holes, I have a shell had some damage that I picked up just so I could cut patches out of it. This way it will have the proper curve in the plug piece as well as the grain is in the right direction. The only color I had to mess with was the green. I use a green sharpie. You basically have to color in a spot like an inch or two long, then wipe it off almost right away before it dries. That way it leaves just a little bit of a haze of green. If you just color it in, it will look like it was colored in with a sharpie. It's a tedious process. You then continue that process until it matches the no fade under the lug or gets close. In this case I didn't want to bring it to a 0 fade. I just wanted it to look natural aged. I then put an industrial clear poly urethane over the top of it all to seal and protect it.

jason

That's pretty cool I would have never guessed a sharpie. Looks great that's for sure! Thanks for the info.

Those came out great ! Very nice set.

The final pics are enough to bring a tear to this old man's eye. Fantastic job.

After all that I'd never let them go....

Lot's of "sweat equity" there.

They turned out amazing !!!

Congratulations!!!

I'm with Kevin's. After I find a set in really rough shape and put all kind of man hours working on it, I can't part with it. The only set I ever sold was my first restoration from a few years ago I sold this year. And I hated doing that, but it was my least valueable set and I had just found another nice project set to work on. I would definitely keep those ! If it were me of course.

Amazing! What a great job! That's love right there!

@ Kevins and Vibes,

In my dayjob I'm a psychologist. Quite often I see women that are in a chronically bad relationship and that are struggeling with themselves to find a way to leave their man. Typically they all say a part of them can't leave him because they still love him. And then they all ask: "How come I do love him despite of all this mess we went through?"

Then I typically say: "Maybe you love him becuase all the mess that you've been through". They then look puzzled and I explain myself with an example. I tell them about my hobby and my overstacked drumspace/barn/hallway, etc. Working on a drum makes you love it, makes you want to play it. Seeing some beauty and possibilities in an old heap of wood and metal, and working hard, spending money and being inventive to get that beauty to the surface, makes proud. It's also a piece of me.

I would on no account part with that very beautiful ludwig set!

What a result. That kit is beautiful. Great work.