WOW! That dye did work very well. Most impressive!!!!

Poppy,

Looking at the date on that Black Panther floor tom label, I think it's a serial number, not a date. The date would be handwritten on the line below, I think.

Ok, I came home early today. I cant get this restoration off of my mind. I got all the shells cleaned up and dyed the second rack tom. The dye works very well. It eliminates a multitude of marks on the finish, and looks fabulous.

I scrubbed the shells with spray away with a stiff wood scrub brush, then wiped it off with purified water twice, then dryed it with a clean towel. Our water here has lots of mineral deposits in it, so I used purified water to keep the water deposits from making the vinyl like finish look milky. here's the bass drum. 1 side clean and the other not clean.

Nice! You are really tearing this thing up! It's fun watching your progress. :)

I just finished glueing down a loose/bent badge. I documennted the whole process and put it on a different thread. It worked perfectly too.

Its very cold and raining in Lubbock texas. I decided to come home and tackle the most tedious job of my restoration. Polishing the lugs. I used to use my formal dining room exclusively for restoring and working on drums, but since I remodeled my home I have all my tools and chemicals, parts etc... out in the garage. I took the two leaves out of the dining room table so the worthless fancy chairs can sit around it. Put my pinball machine in my grand kids bedroom. So, now i have it split up and do the larger stuff, like working on the shells in the dining room, and set up my polishing in the kitchen so i can watch tv and listen to music. I already finished the 12" tom. it had mini classic lugs on it, the other 2 toms and bass drum have large classic lugs. I took the springs and inserts out of all of them and put the lugs in one container, springs in another and inserts in another. Started polishing and lay the finished lugs on a soft towel. Lining them up in 4 separate rows. Sorting them by condition. #1 row best condition, #4 row worst condition. When I reassemble the drums, I'll out the #1 lugs on top and in front and #4 lugs on the bottom and back. I got my work station all set up and did 3 lugs so far and sat down for a cig. I ordered all new tension rods and t rods and new claws. Right after I order them i see a beautiful original set of t rods and claws on ebay. Go figure! 10 large classic lugs went for over $100 a day or 2 ago. Ok I've put off working long enough I guess.

Ok, I have 20 lugs polished. Enough for the bass drum. As I was polishing the same thought kept coming into my mind "Why in the *@&K did ludwig have to put all these lil grooves in thier lugs?" Out of 20 lugs so far, I have 3#1's, 9#2's, 4#3's, and 4#4's. I have 28 to go.

Why the "lines"? Style my man....style.... :D

I know, I know, Im glad I have finger nails to polish the grooves. As I was cleaning lugs last night, i kept looking at the ones I had already polished, seeing tiny spots I missed. Then I'd pick it up and polish it some more. I have some cotton gloves i am tempted to use to handle them so I wont get finger smudges on them, Sheesh! I have OCD now all the sudden. I read on another thread the o lugs put heat shrink tubing on the springs. That sounds wasy, but will the springs still work as well that way?

I've always just used good ole' fashion cotton balls......cheap and effective.