Thanks for all your suggestions! I will try each of them starting with which ever is cheapest and go from there.

Regarding the cost/waste of time aspect, yes, I know that unless I do the whole industrial stripping and replating thing, these are never going to be beautiful. I'm not going to go that route (not cost effective for what the project is, and new, or newer looking hoops wouldn't fit the overall character of drum that I'm hoping to acheive once it's finished.) So really, I just need to clean these hoops up as much as possible, and eliminate as much rust as I can. Once I get closer to being done with this drum, I will post a new thread which I hope will be an interesting read. This snare isn't going to be a player, but it has a story which I think will convince you that it deserved to be restored.

So hang tight and thanks again for the suggestions!

Man I'm telling you, if you remove all the corrosion and loose chrome then take them to a polishing wheel for a few minutes they will look fine.

Put some auto wax on them when you are done and install them on your drums.

They are ready to play.

I don't get too worked up about imperfections.

I'm sure it'll be an awesome drum. Walking

Good call John!!……..Laughing H

Really, there's nothing there worth restoring. The chrome is already eaten up, even if you could grind off all the rust, underlying rust particles will always be present and grow to eat up whatever is left. It's why most rust spots in a car are cut away completely. It's kind of like how you treat a cancerous growth. You don't just cut it out, you have to cut out all the surrounding tissue and still go through chemo therapy.

I really wouldn't waste the effort, replacement hoops are only about $10 piece. You'll spend a lot more than that on cleaning and repairing those anyway.

I used this stuff (Autosol Metal Polish)to clean the hoops on an old set of vistalites that I am in the process of restoring - it really worked very well - http://www.autosol.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=1000

CN: There IS one other thing you can do. Krylon makes a product thats a dark grey metal type paint. I've used this on cymbal stands and other metal parts that were rusted and the chrome was gone. Its a cheap way to make the parts look much better.

i've never had anything that bad to try and save. this might seem weird but try using coca cola. the acid eats the surface rust.

people use c.c. for alot of other applications. here's a example of cleaning rust with coke.

it looks like a real video to me:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Ww30FqdyA"]Coca Cola Rust Removal / How to Remove Rust from a Car - YouTube[/ame]

I have a mid 60's travel trailer/camper that's for the most part all original. it had/has the original wheel covers/hubcaps on it. they were very rusty. tried to find replacements with no luck. wanted the originals. I bought some naval jelly from lowes. it is real strong. you have to be careful with it. it did a good job. sure , there was bare metal under where the bad rust was now gone. I just polished it chrome and metal. they look fine. that was about 7 years ago I guess. hanging in there nicely.

mike

Results speak volumes....

I did this as a little test before putting it to something valuable. I dug the hardware out from their 10+ year cocoon in the bottom of a coffee can in my shop and put them in a small glass jar and covered them with citric acid (50% Citric Acid/50%H20) and came back 24 hours later to find them like you see in image #2. Not a single pit left from the acid (quite mild to use - nothing like phosphoric or hydrochloric) and ready for polishing.

It will not effect plating in anyway (moved to some mid-60's Ludwig lugs and got the same fantastic results - unlike the results I got from the "Soak in 10:1 water/molasses solution for a week" test. Yes Sir

those are nice results poregon..

mike