Just picked up a mid 80s Ludwig 5x14 acro snare, with the black & white USA badge & the black galaxy sparkle finish. I found it at flea-market for 40.00 bucks. It was pretty dirty & both head were blown through, but no rust & chrome looked real good. I thought hell for 40. bucks plus about 25 more for new heads & some cleaning, it would make a nice spare snare to gig with or ad to my small collection. My question is did Ludwig drop the ball with this finish? When I started cleaning it up I noticed at the corners/edges of just about all the hardware & every lug the clear coat finish was chipped off. The heads were blown through but I'm quit sure that they were original. So I did not think it was ever taken apart prior & someone tighten the lug bolt/screws to tight. They were (the lug screws) still were fairly tight. I'm wondering if from the vibrations from use & tension on the hardware just caused the finish to chip. Other then the chipping after cleaning the drum still looks pretty close to new. Don't get me wrong; for what I paid & it still looks pretty nice after cleaning & with the new heads it sound great. Just wondering if anyone else ran across this problem with the finish on these drums. I did notice that the finish is very thin, plus the sparkle is in the clear coat finish. So when it chips off it's just the flat black under paint that is left. I was thinking about maybe stripping it & doing a customize paint job on it. Cant really hurt the value now, right?. I wonder why Ludwig and many other manufactures did & do not use/put gaskets under there hardware to protect the finish or wrap from cracking. Hmmmm