Believe it or not, I reacquired my long-lost Spirit of St. Louis kit, minus the snare!!
Long story, so I'll try to keep it short.
Over on the drumforum.org is a member named "DuplexTim". Well, Tim is local to me, and post about finding a SOSL bop size kit in need of serious restoration. I IM'd him with some details about the set I sold back in December 1992 when I got laid off, and the coincidence was too great. These were the drums my uncle gave to me in the late 1970's, and I used when I was learning to play. Tim wanted to finish them, so we decided to keep in touch and he would give me first refusal should he sell them.
Well, a few months go by and right after Christmas, I received an IM from Tim asking if I was still interested. I couldn't reply quickly enough and a price was set.
I drove the 2 hours last weekend and picked up these beauties! While I wish they were still original, they weren't in the most beautiful shape when I had them, and they really fell into disrepair over the preceding 29 years. So, I completely was onboard for rewrapping them, and Tim did a fantastic job!!
I just received a pair of W&A cymbal arms and one W&A cymbal stand, have another on order and a hi-hat stand on the way. Need a W&A "Rocket" snare stand and a stool. There are a couple on Reverb at the moment that I looking at.
I still have an original 18" crash A. Zildjian from when my uncle gave these to me. There were 13" A. hats, a 14" A. thin crash, a 20" A. ride and no-name Chinese cymbal with rivets, probably an old Wuhan. The Zildjian's were stolen from a practice studio in the early 2000's. the Chinese cymbal was garbage. I'll find some suitable replacements as they come along. I cracked the 14" in my overzelous youth.
The snare is needed next, drop me a PM if you have a line on one.
Now, drum ****!!! (disregard the modern cymbals, I just had them out so I put them on the stand