Oddball, do you know if that works any better/worse/the same as the Jasco paint remover? That stuff is pretty nasty to work with, it works, but you almost need a haz mat suit! :D

Ardrummer, that turquoise looks great!

I rewrapped a Rocker II kit a couple years ago. The outer shells are not good candidates for staining - as Rob said (and I never knew the "patch" story - it finally makes sense!). Uneven surface and different colors/pieces of wood. I rewrapped with the sparkle vinyl and it came out great, and cost less than $100. The pics aren't great, but the sparkle looks sharp, not like the "real thing" but pretty darn close. And I've done over 75 gigs with them with no issues.

Is that a big as kettle or some kinda reflection ?

I liked Parks Pro Strip, but it's nasty stuff.

It does work however. Scrape off the sludge with a plastic putty knife, wash several times with acetone and sand at 220. My partner and I did several guitars with this stuff, including vintage ones. Very safe for the wood but nasty. We never found a safer alternative that worked as well. We did find equally nasty ones that did not work as well however.

It`s like a gel, it has odors but being water based it don`t smell too bad. It will remove paint from anything and does not stain. It needs about ten minutes to half hour to sit first.

I understand your concern about keeping costs down. Wrap is expensive. However, trying to stain shells that are not all the same kind of wood is challenging. If you still want to stain, be very careful when/if you sand. If you go against the grain it can leave scratches that won't sand out and will be visible through the stain/lacquer.

Here are a few more suggestions:

1. Check with Precision and Jammin' Sam to see if they have any deals or closeouts on wrap. Or, check with our resident expert on wraps with Walopus to see if he can hook you up. Precision usually runs full sheet specials. I was able to get two full sheets of "Super Platinum Sparkle" for $65 a piece. It looks great, basically a Pewter colored version of Silver Sparkle. A full sheet is 24" x 56", so lengthwise it will handle any drum up to 16", and depth wise you get 24", which should be enough for one rack/ one floor or two rack and snare. Precision will cut the depths you need for free on full sheets.

2. Have you thought about painting the shells rather than staining them? Paint is usually less work, and will hide any inconsistencies in the wood, because the wood grain won't show through. They also make fancy glitter and sparkle flakes that you can add to the paint now as well, available at any major home improvement store. My girlfriend used a glitter additive to do a "border" on her master suite wall with a secondary color to contrast the main color and it literally looks like a section of drum wrap on the wall! You can clear coat the paint just as you can the stain.

Whatever you decide to do, have fun with the project, and as is standard operating procedure around here, please post pictures of your progress!

Thanks everybody for the input.

For those suggesting wrapping, I honestly have never found a cost effective solution. Living in Canada, shipping and exchange rate make ordering from a place like Precision very expensive, even when things are on sale. So something that costs $200 US is actually more like $400 once I pay the exchange, extra shipping and import fees. If someone has a Canadian source for wrap, please say so!

I decided to do some testing on the 12" tom last night, so I bought some gel paint stripper and went after one panel (had to work outside in the cold so I didn't have long). And just a couple of minutes gave me what you see in the pic below. After I took the pic I gave it a light sand with a medium grit paper, and it looks great. Only 2 things that are kind of a bummer:

- The stripper and corresponding melted rattle can paint are really stinky, so it's an outdoor job... and being in the Canadian prairies, outdoors isn't really do-able right now. I wish I had a garage!

- The decals are diecut vinyl and were applied to the drums before several coats of clear, so they are stuck good, and the stripper doesn't take them off, so I still wound up having to pick off most of them with my fingernails and a scraper. I may try roughing them up with sandpaper before stripper is applied, so it can penetrate the decals a bit. Any suggestions?

I am hoping against hope that all of the shells are somewhat similar in grade and shade (I know it's a longshot) so I can just give them a nice stain rub and satin clearcoat. If the shells are too ugly, I will either veneer them and then stain, or try something I saw once that I liked very much - a kid I knew in school took his old MIJ kit and sprayed them with flat auto primer, then clear overtop. it was a cool effect, sort of a dull battleship look.

If you veneer than you add a ply. Head fit can be difficult then. But I`ve seen many drums with enough room to do it.

It doesn`t look good as staining that surface will bring out the imperfections. You need to turn that drum and sand horizontally or you wont get a surface good enough for staining. I`ve stained a million things that looked good until I stained them. I see light and dark spots if you stain it. I think the adhesive has filled in and solidified the pulp.

I don`t understand you method, you should cover that whole drum is a thick mat of stripper, let it sit, then strip the whole thing at one time.

As I mentioned above, I live in the Canadian prairies, and it was -25 degrees outside. I would have been risking frostbite to do the whole drum. I just wanted to check the effectiveness of the stripper. I am going to have to wait until the weather warms up before I can undertake the stripping in any large scale because my wife won't let me do it in the house and I don't have a garage.