Sometime in early April I picked up an extremely neglected early 70s Avante kit in a gloss black wrap. The drum sizes are 8x12, 9x13, 10x14, 16x16 and 14x24. When I purchased the kit I also obtained some vintage snare stands, a few vintage cymbal stands and a 22" ride cymbal that was actually "green".
Although most of the items looked horrific, cosmetically speaking, they were all pretty sound from a functional standpoint. There were no modifications of any kind made to the kit and there were no extra holes in any of the shells. The black wrap was lifting on all the drums and had several tears and cracks but all the toms had their original badges, mounts and tone controls. I was simply looking for something that I could get up and running and use as the "house kit" at our practice studio and for the price I couldn't pass this one up.
The first thing I did was to remove all the hardware from all the shells and start the much needed "clean & polish" effort. I couldn't believe how well the lugs and floor tom mounts turned out (last pic).
Initially my plan was to make the attempt to re-glue all the wraps at the seams (something I had never previously done) but I realized that it would be quite a challenge based on the condition they were in. While working on the 8x12 tom I noticed that the section of the outer shell that was exposed seemed to be in really decent shape with minimal glue residue other than the area where the wrap overlapped at the seam. Since I was never a fan of that plain black gloss wrap anyway and had always liked the looks of "natural wood" finishes I decided to remove the entire wrap from that drum to see how the entire shell looked. I was quite surprised (in a positive way) at the condition. Right then I decided to remove all the wraps from all the drums to see if they were in the same shape. The pics I posted show the results.
Other than some minimal adhesive residue on all the shells at the seams, the rest of the areas looked pretty good. I've decided to keep the shells in their "as is" condition without applying any sort of wrap to them.
Here's my question: Would it be wise to leave the minimal adhesive residue "as is" on the shells or is there a product or simple process that would remove it without negatively affecting the condition of the shell itself? Again, this kit will more than likely only be used at our practice studio.
THANKS in advance for your time and your help!