Hello!

Welcome to the forum! I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting information and fun here, as I and many others did.

As for your drums - I am by no means an expert about vintage drums, but they look more like 1977 to me - I think that badges and no re-rings on the shells point to that. But then again, you could have some sort of hybrid... just wait for the true experts!

If you have the means to re-chrome the pitted/rusted parts, do so! I think there's no point in leaving the hardware in such condition.

I wouldn't throw the original heads away, but I'd not play them either. I think that Coated REMO Ambassadors should serve these drums just fine (they do serve all drums fine, I think :)

Well, just my two cents. Once again, welcome to the forum and have a good drummin'!

Peace

Gilnar, Prague

If you kit has the same lugs and tom mounts/holder but with the square badge I would think it possible it would be a transitional kit,I think they used those mounts into the early seventies,and I have seen a few kits with those lugs and the square badge. I would check and see what kind of expense re chroming would be,unless you have some serious contacts thru your Dad it will probably cost way more than what you have in the kit to do that.The chroming on vintage japanese kits is generally not as good as on drums from Euro/British/american makers from the same period,so I see alot of MIJ kits with pretty bad rust issues.I would soak all the metal/chrome parts in hot water and dish washing liquid first,that will remove lots of dirt and surface rust,You can then go after the remaining rust with either 0000 steel wool or some people use coca cola and tin foil and various other methods and see where you are at,and decide where to go from there.Now that you have cleaned the shells you can take auto polishing compound or novus plastic polish and clean/buff them out with 100% cotton cloth and that should make them shine and add luster to them.

Hi Natalie,

First, check out this thread for a pile of cleaning observations:

http://www.vintagedrumforum.com/showthread.php?t=18919

That looks like a cool old Pearl kit. I just finished a Pearl kit from the late 60's or very early 70's. Check the link in my sig. Here in California there are gobs of these older Pearl kits. I'm sure it's the same in the UK. Look about for other folks that have kits from the approximate vintage, even if it's not Pearl. Many of the MIJ stencil kits (even 70's ones) used very similar parts. Keep us informed about your progress. Take loads of pictures during the restoration process. About a year ago, I personally wouldn't have bothered with these MIJ kits. Now, I think they are a blast to fix up! :) Have fun! It's a great ride while you put the thing back to rights. Pull the heads and check the threads for suggestions for heads to use. I personally think these old kits sound best with single and double ply (single reso, double batter) coated heads. jonnistix, cn679 and OsakaBop are three of the gurus among the group. I'm sure they will chime in with much more and better information pretty soon.