Is the badge tight? Taking it off is no big deal and if you try to get behind it then you might bend it and you will have to take it off anyway! Why go through all the trouble of redoing this only to leave chance of seeing the bad paint job behind the badge.

The badge is SUPER tight. It was never taken off before (for the first bad refinishing job). It is glued down factory tight. As long as I remove all the paint surrounding it there will be no bad finish residue.

I removed any extra blue paint from the side of the badge with nail polish tonight, taped up the badge and holes from the inside with a double layer of masking tape and then cut the face of the badge out with a razor blade.

I then taped off the edges along the re-rings and put down a layer of newspaper followed by a layer of aluminum foil around the inside of the drum and taped it down so as to make sure I don't accidentally track any paint onto the inside while removing it.

I then taped off the section surrounding the badge of the drum that I will remove the paint separately from the rest of the drum so as to be able to handle it more carefully (after the rest of the paint is off)....infact I think I am going to move those a little closer to the badge before I start.

I took a pic of the drum all taped up and ready to go into battle.

Here it is!

Am I seeing masking tape on the outside over the holes?

No. Tape on the inside over the holes. The tape on the outside is the buffer zone between the large paint removal and phase 2 which will need more attention to detail.

Through with the paint stripping on the drum. Here are some pics of the process.

As you can see the badge worked out great.

I would really appreciate advice on how to make sure the wood is in the best shape to start finishing, what type of paint is best, and what sort of process is the best approach to get a nice finish on this thing.

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Adam

Do you happen to have an orbital sander?

Orbital sander? Nope! Not even sure what it is!

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Not to add to you plate Adam...

But when you PMd me about this, I believe I understood it to be a 1951

instead of a 1961.....

Pearl finish was an option in 1961

Sorry, my OAS (Old Age Syndrome) must have kicked in for a minute there

No problem Kevin!

I left the badge on and it worked out great...so I am thinking that I want to go with Black Lacquer either way. Black and Gold badge on Black drum will look sweet I think. Also, the drum sounded great with a couple of layers of paint on it before I started this project so I dont wanna take the chance of choking it any by adding a wrap.

I just need to make sure I approach this "finishing" project correctly. I have done re-wrap projects, but never a paint job so I just want to make sure I make it look as good as possible.

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated!

Adam

Yep, it has a maple exterior, so it wants a lacquer or painted finish anyway.