Ludwig timbales since 1959 all are made of steel and plated. The brass models of the early 50's very hard to get, those that have them keep them. In order to remove dents on a steel timbales you need to use a metal or wooden roller. That the only way you can remove dents. hitting them with rubber hammers just dents them more. If you use a 6'' roller on a flat surface all dents will be removed. I use it on my brass timbales when they get dented and here you can see a refurbish product that was full of dents and out of round. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3251472336478&set=a.3182122002763.2147543.1557114875&type=3 All dents and out of round removed on this 60+ years set of timbales

Metal shops can do wonders. I don't think this would have posed any problem.

However, they're probably steel shells, so they're worth about what the auction ended for.

Dings and dents are very easy to remove.

tools you need

1) A cooking roller or a steel dent remover ( used in body and fender shops ) it's a hard rounded piece of steel that you bang to remove dents in cars.

2) Rubber hammer curved preferred

Softest metal is brass so as you roll roller inside the drum tap lightly on the roller to remove dents. If drum is a bit warped from fall or years pull drum do not bang with hammer. You will see if warp roller will shift drum and not a straight roll.

Steel drums; very much the same but since metal may be harder depending on gauge you may have to bang roller a bit harder to remove dents