After a long hiatus, thought I would revive this thread long enough to thank everyone and post additional photos. I got a great deal of useful information from this forum, and appreciate all who have posted their experiences.
I finally finished my project. I finished re-assembly of all drums two days ago and finally got the kit set up last night. As I noted previously, I decided to have my shells professionally painted. Primarily, I chose to go this route after pulling the wrap and glue residue from two shells. It went pretty well, but in my old age I have some joint pain issues, and the prying, scraping and repetitive motion tore my shoulder up. It hurt badly for weeks and it was clear I was not going to re-wrap that entire drum kit.
At any rate, I found a local guy who paints autos and furniture, then did some research and ran down some good paint for the job. I went with a single stage urethane auto paint by Kirker. As mentioned previously, the kit was pieced together over many years between 1966 and the early 70's on a kid's budget. I had my original club dates, some super-classics I added along the way, and one concert (melodic) tom. My original snare, a 1966 acrolite, was stolen in the early 80's. I ran down an almost identical snare on eBay and picked that up as part of the effort.
To get the kit to match, I needed to convert to either club date or super classic style. I ended up going with super classic. Bought needed lugs and other hardware items on eBay, and did a lot of hole plugging and drilling. Of course, I do NOT recommend anyone do such a thing unless like me you are sentimentally attached to your lifelong drum kit, do not wish to part with them, and the collectors value has been shot.
Anyway, for the sake of anyone who might pursue a similar route in the future, I wanted to post a bit of info and photos.
I plugged holes with Elmers damaged wood epoxy putty, which I have used extensively on home restoration projects with good results. It did a fine job. Had to patch all the holes for the old clubbie bowtie lugs, with one exception. On the 9x13 shell mount tom I decided to utilize the pre-existing holes. This resulted in a slightly greater spacing between opposite lugs than on a proper super classic, but it makes a nice looking drum. I also picked up a 9x13 super classic with the intention of using the lugs only, but the shell was fine so I just incorporated it into the kit.
Here are a couple of photos of plugged holes before and after sanding. Also had to sand down wood putty I put along the wrap seams during the first paint job in the 80's.
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6/shellpluggedholes3.jpg
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7169/shellpluggedholes2.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7633/shellssanded1.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8586/shellssanded5.jpg
Here are photos of the shells after painting but before final sanding and buffing. I initially went with a Kirker color called "Merlot", but the result was more brown than red (to me anyway), so I went with a 50:50 mix of "Merlot" and "Mack Red". The end result was much closer to what I wanted- a wine red gloss.
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6042/paintedshells7.jpg
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2981/paintedshells4.jpg
Finally, here are photos of the finished product. I decided to upgrade my stands to a modern heavyweight style. (I have toppled old vintage stands more than once in my day from enthusiastic cymbal crashes.) All hardware affixed to the drums of course is vintage Ludwig, with the exception of bass spurs. I never cared for the functionality of the old vintage spurs, so went with a new set of Gilbralters.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9396/restoreddrumkitmay72012.jpg
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/9396/restoreddrumkitmay72012.jpg
I couldn't be happier with the outcome. My old kit has new life! Where players kits are concerned, painting can be a reasonable alternative to a re-wrap, particularly if your aging joints are not up to the task. I suspect some
of the older heads here will know what I mean!
Again, many thanks for the help I received from the many fine posts on this forum. Best wishes to all.