I'm well into this now, just the BD to go and the FT hoops. The hoops are fairly rusty unfortunately but they are just such a cool design so I'm cleaning them up as best I can. The kit was very dirty but it's coming up good. The only strange thing so far is some of the FT lug holes have been elongated. Judging by the marks the lugs and washers have made over the years this must have been a factory thing, or worker stuff-up. Also when looking closely at the FT wrap while cleaning i noticed a section (about 1/6th of the shell) has a marine pearl wrap just visable under the Tiger wrap. Very strange. Anyway, here's the snare.

Oh ya! lookin mighty fine. Good job, cant wait to see all of it. So did some one put wrap over the marine pearl or what?

Jeff C

Cool old Kit Andrew! I like that color too.

How do they sound?

I've been watching this thread for a while... I love that wrap! Good job buddy! I can't wait to see the kit when you're done.

It appears that the rims are being cleaned in such a way that some spots are being missed and possibly there is steel wool being used (scratching). Are you cutting corners due to your excitement? I'm not trying to offend you and criticize as much as I would very much like to encourage and share with you the SMART way to clean these up. Use Dawn dishsoap and H20 (discussed often on this forum) as you can let that do the work for you. The Dawn technique gets the best results and also requires the least amount of elbow grease.

Must mention - that those are some beauties.....how do they sound....specifically wondering if the snare has re-rings or not?

John

none taken John. If only we had Dawn in this part of the world. It sounds like some miracle stuff. Oddly, all the local dishwashing detergents I've tried here seem to only be strong enough to remove food scraps and grease and not rust. This is a shame as my elbows are running dangerously low on grease.

The hoops had the dull look before I started on them and I have not used steel wool. On the really badly rusted sections I've used aluminium foil and polish (that, in my experience, leaves no scratching) and just metal polish on the rest. The rust on the FT hoops is especially epic. I've used white vinegar on the T-rods, washers, screws etc and it has worked great.

It may seem as though I'm in a hurry and that's because I am, but not due to excitement. I have had a clear week this week, so many hours have gone into this kit (and I'm only starting the BD now) which i need to finish and get on the market pronto as I'm out of room. My Premier kit showed up and it's currently residing in the dining room. This is a dangerous situation. I don't sell many of my kits but I'm keen to keep the Premier so this has to go, and soon.

I don't know what they sound like yet as it's still a work in progress but I'll keep you posted. The snare does have re-rings and is Lauan. The other shells appear to be Birch (with Lauan plies as well).

Hi Andrew;

I'm surprised you folks don't have 'Dawn' down there... but another fellow from the UK made the same comment when the same information was passed on to him for the same problem. Heck, my wife uses the stuff and tells me it's cheap! (we're cheap! lol) If it didn't cost so much to ship, I'd send you a bottle of it...

http://www.dawn-dish.com/us/dawn/

Craig

It may or may not help in your location, but in the past I have used "Mr. Clean" solution and water in a small plastic pail and I put all the metal bits in that (screws, springs, lugs-everything!) overnight. It cleans up chrome really well and also strips the old glue-like grease off everything.

A polish when they come out (try a quality cymbal polish on the chrome), coat of good wax and they are good for another 20 years.

I don't know the attraction to dawn dish soap, I find it to be extremely mild, and a good choice for wraps (I usually use "Invisible Glass*" myself actually) but chrome tends to have some nasty dried sweat and gook on it that needs something with a bit more 'punch' to it. When I just cleaned up my kit, I used invisible glass, Brasso and then waxed the chrome bits. They look as good (if not better) than new!

White vinegar is a great tip too! I use that to clean nasty second-hand records (with a distilled water rinse) and it does wonders on all sorts of organic crud...

*It has no soap or dyes and is for cleaning glass without leaving anything behind. It is quite mild, and will not remove everything from an old wrap, but it is safe, and I always suggest starting with the least aggressive methods before stepping it up...

thanks Jim and Craig. Looks like a trip to the supermarket is in order.

With this kit the wrap was filthy but warm water and a hint of dish soap has worked in getting the crud off, then it's been Novus 2 and a layer of wax. I have soaked all the lugs in a water/dish soap solution which got the greasy stuff off and then polished with Autosol. It's the hoops that I have the most trouble with and they are the least enjoyable part of the process so I'll be trying some of these new ideas on them.

With the BD, the inner birch ply has some cracking and lifting where moisture has got in. The shell is solid under that ply but that ply is ripply and split in places (the worst bit is in the photo where there is a vent hole and grommet). Any ideas on how to deal with this? It's not really bad but I wondered whether a coat of something clear would help the look and seal it? Thoughts?

Thanks again for the advice. BTW, anyone know the active ingredient in Dawn that removes the rust?

I have a glue syringe I use for that sor tof stuff. Again- I used it on guitars, but it is actually sold for injecting glue nto loose chair joints.

Use a quality wood glue (not gorila glue, epoxy or anything else- even old Elmer's white glue is fine), and water it down a bit. Inject it in so it is coming out (it is a bit messy but bear with me). Then, since you are at a vent hole, it makes it easier- put a bolt through the vent hole with either a large washer curved by shaping it over a piece of pipe or a wooden cawl of the proper radius (trace the shell to get the radius if you do woodworking to make it) and a flat block on the outside. Here's the trick with this process- cover the cawls with clear plastic shipping tape. The wood glue will not stick to this. Clamp it tight, and immediately remove the clamp. Clean the surface of the shell inside and out with warm water (clen up te excess glue) and also clean the clamp. Repeat clamping and cleaning until there is very little to none oozing out. Then clamp it overnight.

You will have a bit of light sanding to clean it up, but the results should be quite good for you.