Well obviously nobody had any input here so I decided to leave the shell alone. The new snare side head was a tight fit but not too bad. I put the drum together after thoroughly cleaning everything and decided the black finish looks really smart so I'm leaving that too. Considering it's 70 years old it's a really nice drum. I think the only playability problem may be the throw off which doesn't take much to disengage. I'll try and think of an elegant work around for that. Failing that I'll tie/strap it into place to be safe when playing.

Nice job on the clean up

you did a fantastic job on this one. I know you had thought about taking it down to the wood. I think you made a great choice to detail the black. it looks superb! well done..

mike

It's a really nice drum. Good job cleaning it up. As long as you can get the heads on and can tune it up ok I would mess around with the shell. Congratulations.

Looks very nice! Ya, I wouldnt mess around with the shell either. Good job!