Hello,
I spend much of my time reading about restoration projects, but have found little information about the badge itself. I know that it is best not to polish the badge, but in some cases the badge finish is too far gone to leave alone. Are there any known solutions to restore the badge back to factory finish? Here is an example...

that one is gonna be tough. I used Brasso on mine and turned out pretty good. It didn't get it back to new but shined it up pretty nice. I tested the back first to see if it would damage it in anyway, which it didn't.

Contact member fishwaltz, he just did an amazing job on some badges for the Hayman kit that I painted fro Dana Bentley.
Check out page 7, post # 68 of this thread,

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/show...t=44014&page=7

^^^ Yes Jeff that's the first thing I thought of too. He did a great job on those badges.

On Ludwig kits, they were originally two toned in color so I would feel guilty to polish the finish away. I have read for several days now and can't find any info as to how the finish was created. I have found that Ludwig used a badge manufacturer, so I am assuming that the finish was created off site in bulk.

Quote...
"Up until then," said Mr. Ludwig, "some of our drums were date stamped and some weren’t - but none had serial numbers. Our dealers begged us to put them on, so we had our badge manufacturer imprint sequential numbers on the badges for all of our drums."

As vintage drum enthusiasts, we preserve the resocoat and the factory wrap, but there isn't much we can do about the badges. Wouldn't that be great, to have the badges replated as they were in 1967? Sure, the drum will never be factory fresh, but I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends!

Thanks

i'd rather see a badge in slight disarray as opposed to polished beyond how they even looked when they were new. it makes the drum look cheap to me,for lack of a better word.

mike

I agree about polish, but my interest is to restore using the same method that it was created with. I'm sure that there are metal workers who would be able to identify the method, but no luck as of yet. Other than polish, I thought that someone would have experimented with coating or plating. I see it as having nickel or chrome hardware refinished and it would last for many years to come.

I think what mr Layton is saying is even if you reproduce the finish on the badge as it were originally done, you would have a brand new shinny badge, so new it might look out of place, kind of like a reproduction badge. It would be better to slightly clean it up and leave the patina that has taken 50 years to produce which gives the drum the vintage look.

Ask serious owners of Gretsch roundbadge drums what they have to say about polished badges...........
Soap and water for me....

Everyone has an opinion and I respect that, however it is often subjective. If there is a drum that has been drilled with extra holes, we would plug the hole and fill with wrap in hope of rescuing it. Classic car owners have no problem repainting if they have the exact factory color match, but with drums it is more critical. Restoring to me is adoration and love for the instrument, not an intent of disrespect.