I had a Leedy floor tom like that a few years back. I was able to repair it using a lot of carpentry type clamps and carpenters glue. As far as the edge was concerned, I just touched it up with 400 grit after everything was dry. Came out good and sounded just fine. I'd say its worth taking a crack at it!

100% agree with Ludwig-Dude/ carpenter's glue- many wood clamps and you'll have a like new edge- if it needs anything more be careful sanding at the same contour as the rest of the bearing edge - 'finesse' with light grit sandpaper like 120/ 220 or even 320- don't be aggressive. Good luck!

Thanks guys. My concern is that the rering is stronger than the shell. I’ve tried to clamp it once but the shell began to bend toward the rering, not the other way around, so I removed it. Maybe I’ll put an old wood hoop on the outside as a brace and clamp to that.

So I decided to give it a go. I put an old wood hoop on the outside of the shell to use as a brace, and I cut up an old T-shirt to protect the pearl. I have some Elmer’s wood glue on hand, and clamped the right side first where the rering begins. I watched closely to make sure that the rering was bending towards the shell and not the other way around. Next I clamped the opposite side of the drum where there was a little more separation. Lastly I clamped just the beginning of the separation on the left side of the seam. I’m going to leave it like this until tomorrow night and see how it looks then. The plan is to add another clamp about an inch to the right tomorrow, and then another one the next day, and slowly move to the right of the separation. The wood is not very flexible so I’ll have to work slowly in small stages.

A couple more pics

I think you're on the right track! Looking forward to the final results!

-Mark

Good work- slow and patient/ gradually 'coaxing' back into shape- I'd suggest wetting to make it more pliable but I'd also be careful as to not get it wet anywhere else..... may cause other warpage.

I would leave those to together and start camping from the black one to the quick release one so the other side don`t slide.

I think that makes sense.

@JDragon - I like your idea about wetting the rering. I might put a strip of wax paper between the seam to protect the shell and wet the ring with a spray bottle from the inside.

@OddBall - yes, the plan is to leave all of the clamps in place as I add new one's.

I'm really excited about this project actually. My cousin gave me this drum back around 1996 when I had bought my Radio King kit. He had had a local drum maker look at the water damage and was advised to just leave it alone. That was back in the 80's when it was still just an old drum, and not necessarily "vintage". I always thought it was the same 20" floor tom that Krupa played, and thought that someone had drilled some extra holes on the sides. I have two FT's on my kit already, so I hardly used this drum, but I also thought I wouldn't get much for it in this condition so I might as well hang on to it. A couple years ago I thumbed through an old Slingerland catalog and realized that it's a bebop combo drum, and that the extra holes are actually for mounted cymbal stands.

My cousin passed away just a couple months ago. He was a close friend and a fantastic drummer. He was also a big Krupa fan, so I decided that I'd like to repair and restore the drum and add it to my kit as a kind of tribute. I've also set out on finding the missing pieces to assemble the original bebop combo kit, which I thought would be kinda cool to have, but that's really secondary to restoring this drum at the moment. I recently found the 944 reversible pedal that came with it, as well as a couple brackets for the mounted cymbal stands. Anyway, thanks again for the advice and encouragement. I'll post with my progress.