That's Awesome! Yes, you should repair those rerings. If not, it may make the shell go out of round, and indeed you are lucky it is not OOR already.

I have a Pearl made kit with those shells as well. It sounds GREAT as will yours once you have it set up with new heads. Make sure any FT match the shell make-up, as the thin shell drums sound a bit different than the thick shell ones. Yours are pre-1968 and note the difference in badge compared to that catalog page.

Any attempt at a re-wrap of a FT might be difficult to match due to possible fade of your Dixies. It might be difficult to match the color of your wraps there, especially since sometimes you have to buy unseen - pics are subject to settings. It would be best to find something for it in person. Hope your local market is MIJ active.

These BDs tend to need either an anchor or a pedal with velcro - as they tend to scoot since they are so light. Treat these drums as very delicate - as they are and indeed therefore have pros and cons. Never move without cases and don't let drunk girls dance around them. Ok - done perhaps preaching to the choir!

Finding the 13" x 13" will be hard, but in this case every 13" Floor Tom I have seen (and judging by the pic in the catalog) is 6 lug. There are an abundance of 6 lug MIJ snares on ebay with the Slingerland Copy lug design like your Dixies, so getting the lugs will be easy. I seriously doubt you will ever find an MIJ shell with re-rings in that size, but you could always get a thin Keller shell with re-rings and wrap it to match.

Obviously, that would most likely cost you more than you paid for the whole kit, but it's up to you if that would be "worth it" to you.

For what it's worth, on these MIJ "Club date" style kits, has anyone EVER seen one with a matching floor tom? I haven't!

Just seek out a 14 with these lugs. Easier to find, even with a wrap that will be close enough. Once you find one - snag it....BUT you can keep looking for a better match if the wrap is not exact. Snag up the next one you see as a potential match, even if it means changing out some lugs if you have to - as these lugs are not impossible to find, even without buying a whole snare.

(Keeping looking and buying a 2nd attempted match) It will always be easy to sell off one of these 14 inch MIJ FTs - and not loose too much money at all (if any).

Hee hee look at that tom mount! Chris Partridge style! Definitely take it off the BD to bend it back into working order. Although that will be mostly metal fatigue you would be accomplishing so I'd skip it and put the tom on a snare stand.

Here are your tension casings, yours for the cost of shipping. Two have somewhat rotted-out mounting screw receivers, so I put longer mounting screws in those [pic 1]. Two have slightly longer inserts as the originals went missing. Funny thing - the way these are cast, non-original inserts will fit in one end but not the other. So I pulled the inserts out of one and used one original and one spare in two casings...hope that made sense...

These are from a thicker shell so you might need to add washers. I'll throw in some extra mounting screws and inserts just for fun.

These are larger pics so, one per post.

Mitch

Second large pic wouldn't load, had to take smaller ones, so here they all are. Note two long rods included. Casings will need to be cleaned...let me know if you're interested.

Mitch

[edit] Forgot to add - love your little 18" BD Dixie kit! Those Rogers knockoff snare and tom rims are the best of MIJ, no question. They will sound great!

Thanks guys. Ill pm you if I want to go through with the deal downtown. I'm more interests in finding a mij 14x14 that just matches in finish . Not sure if I want to rewrap. I don't think I'll get it close to matching. The finish.

The shells are indeed super light. Thanks for the info. And yes I'm going to carefully Dremel out the small rering that overlaps on the bd and push it together glue and clamp. Shouldn't be to painful to fix. I might re coat the bd heads with white plasti dip as well and also felt line the lugs.

Dremel out a rering? I would suggest you do NOT remove any mass from the re-ring.....as it will stop it from being solid all the way around - and render it useless with no effect. I hope that makes sense.

Of course you shall glue that rering back into place.

Use water-resistant white PVA-glue, and clamp it gently together, wiping off excess glue with a moist cloth before it dries.

Nice find!

Ended up using wood glue and clamped it back in place. I let it dry for about 24 hours. Checked on it. Looked good but added just a tiny bit more just to make sure. I'll post a pic as soon as I get home.