I recently became inspired to do what I should've done a long time ago...I pulled the chrome wrap off of my not-so-good-looking-but-awesome-sounding 14x22 Ludwig bass drum. That was surprisingly easy after reading dozens of horror stories, but I got lucky that it was plastic and not steel. The shell is looking great! I've done a ton of reading on various forums including this one, and have formulated a plan. Here's a run down of what I plan on doing:
1. Get off the glue (i'm not using anything other than an old rag and some elbow grease, but i have all the time in the world)
2. Fill Holes from unwanted tom mount using plugs cut from another shell (more on that below)
3. Clean up rivet holes and nicks
4. Lightly sand the outside smoothing over the plastic wood; Sand/Reseal the inside (is this part really necessary? is there any advantage to this?)
5. Rewrap with BDP (i'm considering doing this myself, but not sure)
6. True & Recut Bearing edges (I plan on having a professional do this part)
7. Drill holes through wrap for hardware
Materials:
- Plugs for holes and whatever wood glue works best (suggestions?)
- DAP "Plastic wood" (for filling rivet holes and nicks)
- lots of sand paper (220 for light sanding and 400 for more thorough jobs)
- 3M backing pad for sand paper
- 3M-30NF contact cement for wrap
On the subject of filling holes...Does anybody have some scrap that they could sell or know where to get scraps so I could patch the holes? I don't like the idea of buying a shell on ebay just to tear it apart when I could find scraps, but if I need to I will.
Should I do anything about nicks on the bearing edges before they are cut or will it really matter? There are visible nicks and the wood is very visibly porous at the edges and I want as smooth of a surface as possible right? Or will having the edges recut take care of that on its own?
If anybody has pointers or advice as to ideal materials /tools that would be great, as this is the first serious restoration project I've gotten myself into.
Thanks in advance.