I accidentally spilled some floor adhesive remover on my Oyster Blue kick drum, and it immediately ate right through the gloss! It was an area roughly two inches wide and dripped across the depth of the drum. After a couple months of lost sleep, feeling sorry for myself, and serious thoughts of self-inflicted pain, here's what I did:
1) I "squared off" the area so I had an isolated strip of the drum roughly 2" by the 14" depth of the drum. I then (eek) used the same offending floor adhesive remover to make the damage even across the 2" x 14" strip.
2) I got some super high gloss artist's varnish and carefully brushed it on with an expensive brush.
3) I then wet-sanded. 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1200 grit, 1500 grit, 2000 grit, 2500 grit in that order.
4) Novus scratch-removing polish. Novus #3, Novus #2, Novus #1 in that order. Applied with make-up cotton rounds and buffed with blue Scott shop towels.
And I'll tell you what-- You cannot tell that there had been an incident AT ALL! I was so amazed with the results and I now have a new lease on life! I don't have a "before" photo because I was way too upset at the time to take a picture of such a travesty. But now I have gained the confidence to really justify all the time, money, and energy spent on this vintage drum affliction. All it takes is some creativity, patience, more patience, and the belief that what you are doing could not possibly make things worse. And most of all, I look forward--like I never have before--to undertaking all of many "TLC" drum projects I have in the queue.