I must say, I love working with Citristrip. It does an amazing job, but what a mess the old blue, black and original white paint was.

Those are looking really good. Amazing how clean those shells are coming out. I used Citristrip on a floor tom to get the glue off and it worked well. So those never had a wrap? If you rewrap them your going to have to be super precise when trimming the wrap back from the bearing edges. Not trimmed enough and your heads are not going to fit correctly. To much and you will have a gap showing between your head and wrap. The wood looks so nice you may can finish them natural and save the expense of wrap, or have them lacquered professionally. Amazing what people do to these once beautiful old kits. I am sure whatever you do they will be beautiful again. I am just amazed at how clean your getting the shells. I am enjoying pics of your progress.

Thanks Vibes! I swear, this forum has really enlightened me. I've spent the last week or two reading and reading, looking at pictures and learning quite a bit about the history of the kits. I must say, I'm really into it. We'll see how it goes when I start to hit the rough spots. I definitely want to wrap these drums, the floor tom shell turned out very nice, but still - I want to go original as possible. I like the nostolgia.

I'm sure these are going to be tough to wrap. I called Precision and Sam's for sample pieces of wrap. Precision got them to me in 1 day. The blue is a lot thicker stock than the black oyster pearl. I wonder if the thicker stock will help cover up any exterior roundness imperfections - or just the opposite? Anyone have any experience with that? My rack tom has a bit of an indent where the top of the lugs were screwed down. The rings are nice and round - bearing edges flat, just the body of the shell on one end of the lugs. I'll post some pics.

The thicker wrap will make it harder on the reso side for a fit with the heads. I plan on using the vintage Remo ones.

Rack tom. Paint stripped off nice.

They need some light sanding.

Ludwigs/WFL painted shells you do not want to put a wrap on them they are oversized shells not intended to have a wrap on them, the heads will not fit.

Do you really think I'll have a hard time? The top rim's goes on overly easy with a head and Remo rim. Has a gap. Even spins. The bottom ones are a tighter fit. Goes on, but does not freely spin - more snug at the moment.

These should clean up nicely.

These are the "indents" that I am talking about, on the 12" tom. The rings are fine, wonder if they would show through wrap badly. I may try to clp these, any ideas anyone? Has anyone experienced this before?

The indents are under every lug, one side only.