They look to be nice shells, to me the poorly positioned holes seem like the worst of what you have to deal with... Looks like quite a bit of that paint/lacquer will come away easily. It will be interesting to see what's underneath it.. Nice project...

John

Incredible score!

You have a set of LA Camcos in "Alice Cooper White" lacquer.

The bad news: So the finish is unsalvageable (on the bass drum) (the rest badly faded), and there are some Pearl mounts and extra holes on every drum. Looks like Pearl spurs as well. Missing hoops.

The good news: These Keller shelled Camcos are going to sound great when you get them up and running. All badges look present.

If they were mine, I would remove all hardware off the shells and then strip off the paint. Since I am not a painter I would send these to Bill Detamore at Pork Pie for a relacquer or to Chris Heuer in LA. Plug all the extra holes beforehand, of course.

Then you would need to source a few hoops and the original spurs and mounts. Also floor tom brackets and legs. You can get new grommets for the badge reinstallation from Precision Drum Co. - buy the Ludwig style.

Another way to go would be to wrap them, which might be cheaper but would not be the factory look - unless you chose white marine pearl, solid black, solid white, or solid blue. The LA era kits you see most commonly were a lacquer or stain. They were just way more popular at the time than the wraps.

If you have more questions, "stedi" on this forum is also very well versed in Camco restoring and "antipodes" may even have a few of the parts you will need.

Thanks for sharing and best of luck!

Are there any extra holes on the bass drum near the spur mounts? There is a possibility someone had those installed at a dealer and ordered without spurs. In which case, they'd be "original" equipment. Same for the floor tom brackets - check for extra holes and let us know.

Thanks for the help! I’m in Canada, so sending the drums across the border would be costly. Is there a way for me to get my hands on a paint or stain which matches something out of the Camco factory? Did Camco make sets with a wood finish or stain? I’d prefer wood over paint, but my hope is to keep these close to factory if I can.

Is there a list online of what finishes I could use, that would be similar to what the factory used?

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Here's what I've figured out about the extra holes / spurs etc.:

The bass drum has no extra holes. No tom-mounting system is attached to it. Aside from the holes on the bass drum for the lugs and grommet, there are 4 holes per spur on the drum, and all of these are in use:

[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/picture.php?albumid=98&pictureid=391[/IMG]

Here's the inside. My camera's flash was on, so it looks weird.

[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/picture.php?albumid=98&pictureid=392[/IMG]

On the toms, there are two holes not in use on each drum, for what I assume was a dampener at some point. The hardware for that is no longer with the kit.

[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/picture.php?albumid=98&pictureid=390[/IMG]

Each of the three toms has five holes for the mounting system, which is in use on two of the toms. The floor tom has holes for the floor tom legs, and holes for the mounting system, although the kit only came with two tom mounts (not three). I don’t see any additional holes aside from that.

[IMG]http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/picture.php?albumid=98&pictureid=389[/IMG]

It looks to me like the tom mounts & spurs are ‘original’ equipment. The puzzling part is why the floor tom has holes for legs and a mount as well.

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Thanks again for the help!! I'll keep you guys updated on how the disassembly and paint-stripping goes.

If they were mine, I'd be eliminating all the tom mounts and the bass drum mount as well, plugging the holes before the refinish. They are very unattractive and there are much better ways to mount drums these days without holes like RIMS systems.

The spurs is a tough call because although it is a 70's Pearl, they look to be what was installed originally. I just don't like the form or function of those personally.

If you do a solid lacquer that will cover cleanly all these extra holes.

For your hardware, there are many schools of thought. I like to go with a solution of Simple Green in warm water, let them all soak. Then I use a dish scrubber to remove gunk. Any difficult areas I use 0000 steel wool WET. (many others disagree about the use of steel wool in principle, but I have had great success if you tread lightly and use it WET only).

For tension rods, a soak in WD-40 overnight restores them to a great shape usually.

Thanks again for the advice!

I'd like to turn the 16" into a floor tom, as I think this Camco makes the most sense with the 15" as a mounted tom, and the 16" and 18" as two floor toms. After some research, it looks like my best options are to purchase either a Gauger Dynamount floor tom system or a WorldMax DSS floor tom system. This way, I can convert the 16" into a floor tom without drilling holes in the shell.

Any suggestions about the RIMS Dynamount or WorldMax DSS? Considering the price difference, is it worth putting the extra cash down for the Dynamount?

If I do make the conversion, should I remove the floor tom leg mounting hardware from the 18" floor tom, and plug those holes during the refinish? This way, none of the drums will have mounting hardware at all (just holes for spurs, lugs, and grommets). I think it'd be weird if one floor tom used a suspension system and the other didn't, but I also am trying to do as little irreparable change on the drums as possible. What do you guys think?

Wow, how could I have missed this thread,...!

That is an amazing set of drums in unusual sizes, especially that 14"X16" tom.

Somebody must have ordered 4 virgin shells and mounted that hardware on it. What a shame it's done so poorly and that the mounts were placed in the worst possible position. I can not imagine a drum-shop could have done this.

Since the finish is beyond repair, I would indeed go for a refinishing job. A stain will be very tough as those 5 holes right above the badges will always remain visible. A wrap would be an option but if they were mine, I would go for black lacquer or try to go for the original Alice Cooper White.

The thing with those deep power toms and the 24" is that a standard 2up, 1down set up would be virtually impossible to play them comfortably. (In the eighties some drummers did it,...). It would make a killer 1up 2down set though,...

About cleaning, Mario gave you already great tips.

This thread here handles a restoration I did about 18 months ago. A bit the same situation as with your kit. http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=42506

One question,... are there any numbers written or stamped inside the shells ?

I agree with Stef, with holes being plugged stain is out of the question. I would find a cabinet shop that uses M.L. Campbell products, they are made in Canada and I use them. They make a pigmented lacquer and could steer you to a place that would custom match the existing color. So don't strip away all of the existing paint just yet, save one drum for matching.

Here is a link,

https://www.mlcampbell.com/products/categories/pigmented_topcoats

you can find a distributor from this site, they should be able to match the Alice Cooper white. Or any color in the rainbow for that matter.

Then, you can strip the shells and plug holes. But have them professionally sprayed, it would be worth it.

Stedi, all four of the drums have '#500' stamped on one of the reinforcement rings. I'm glad you asked, because it's very faint and small, and I didn't notice it before.

When plugging holes, would you use pre-cut dowel, or would you get a piece of maple and drill out the plugs so the wood grain matches direction with the shell?

Part of me wants to veer away from the 'Alice Cooper White' because it's cream coloured now due to aging, and it's not my favourite. When the lacquer chips off, it's much lighter on the wood side, which I assume is the original colour. I've looked into getting a wrap such as white marine (or even antique white pearl or black pearl for something different), but that's going to cost $400 - $500, just for the wrap. I probably can get them professionally painted for cheaper, but Camco colours don't leave me with many options. I'd love to do a wood finish, but it sounds like the plugs would be too visible. Would this be the case even with a dark wood stain?

I've decided I'm going to go with a 1up 2down setup for the toms. That means I have to convert the 16" into a floor tom. I won't make any more holes - I'll use RIMS or something similar. Should I remove the floor tom mounts from the 18", fill the holes, and get a similar mount for the 18" floor tom, or would you leave it be?

Thanks again guys!