I started working on the 13" tom today. Got the old clear stripped and shell sanded. I'll start the hole repair tomorrow as it was getting late. Hopefully by next week it'll hit the paint booth. Then cut and buff and together she goes. Sounds like a plan anyway. :D

Good news on the floor tom leg mounts. Mark VM2K had a set for sale which luckily I was able to grab. That'll save me mucho hassle having to fabbing them. So that's cool. ;) I can return the $9 flat bar to Home Depot. That'll buy a new tom head.

I'll get more pics tomorrow of the shell repair.

Looking good, baby! Clapping Happy2

Fun resto to watch...

John

Thank you having a lot of fun doing it too~!

Today was hole pluggin day. Pretty straight forward. Cut some maple plugs and lined up the grain best I could. Thanks John for that tip!! The hole repair area is right on the seam. So I left it sticking out a bit to blend it in better. One more cresent plug to make, fit and glue in tomorrow. Minor filler by one lug hole and around the plugs if needed. Then we bevel, level and final sand the shell for paint. It's actually a white opaque stain we'll add (a lot of) clear to and make it slightly translucent so the wood grain will show through. It'll possibly be tinted to match the yellowed WMP on the bass and floor tom. I'll see how the stain looks on the maple, it might be just yellow enough to leave it as is. Then final coats of clear and cut n buff to nice gloss. Hope it looks good. I had thought about everyones suggestion of getting a 13" WMP tom to match. But prices have shot up quite a bit and it just wasn't in the budget. Maybe down the road a bit.

More to come..............

Finished the cresent shaped plug in the tom today. It too waaaay to long to make and fit but came out pretty well. Fitted and glued and a touch of wood filler. Should be good to sand tomorrow~!

After you sand it down, it'll be like that shell never had extra holes. Nice work, buddy.

John

Thanks John. And BTW thank you for the extra WMP wrap! Bass hoop inlays coming up this weekend. Cool1

Glenn - I wish I could have saved it all for you so you could do the rack tom. If you go back and look at the photo of the floor tom I got it from, you'll see how rotted/brittle it was at the seam and along the bearing edges. As I (carefully) worked from underneath with a putty knife, it just crumbled. I managed to pull off that odd shaped piece I sent you, from the middle part of the drum. All the stuff at the seams and edges shattered into a thousand little pieces. That wrap was dry as a bone along the edges. I'm real glad to hear that you salvaged enough to do the trim for the hoops. Cool!

John

No worry's on the wrap John. That's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes...or in this case the wrap. ;) You did a amazing job saving what you did~! And thank you for cutting the hoop strips too. It's a huge help just to have what you sent me. Cool1

I have a question for everyone. Seeing how the large plug is on the seam overlap how would you suggest sanding it? Should I leave a slight lip that follows the contour of the seam edge to makie it blend in the seam more? Or just contour it to the shell and leave it smooth? Most of the area will be covered by a diamond plate tom mount. But I'd like it to look as natural as possible. Or does it really matter? Thoughts?