I like Creighton's idea of flipping the wrap over. I would think you could line everything up except for the 2 cymbal mount holes. You could plug those with pieces from the bottom or from under a lug.
I would think you would need to glue the wrap down though to keep it from trying to curl back to its original form. Maybe you could moisten, lay a plastic sheet on top and put something heavy on it for a while to help it flatten out a bit. It might make it easier to work with?!?
Flipping the wrap over is a great idea, thank you Creighton!
Jack, I believe you're correct -- only the cymbal mount holes would be on the opposite side (as long as the tom mount and spur holes were accurately measured). And since I damaged the bass hoop inlay the other day, I could use it to fill the holes! In fact, I might consider doing this to the snare wrap as well if I'm unable to buff out the Goof Off damage.
The only issue is that the wrap is very brittle, so much care will need to be taken when I attempt this. Hopefully I'll avoid some of the boneheaded mistakes I've made already. I've had success flattening out some of the bubbles using a hair dryer, so I'll likely be using it to soften wrap and the adhesive at the seam in order to remove it.
I forgot to mention, I was able to find 8 MIJ T-rods on fleabay that match perfectly with the ones on the bass drum. They need the vinegar treatment, but should clean up nicely. Now I just need claws, but I've found many sources that carry these (old and new stock).
You could always use silver sparkle wrap forthe inlays - it would provide a nice contrast and you would not have to worry about whether or not blue sparkle inlays would match up well with the rest of the kit.
You may want to invest a heat gun, as I would think it would give you a more uniformly heated surface and potentiay would reduce the risk of tearing the wrap.
Yes, I've thought about silver sparkle inlays. I think it would look great. I'd prefer blue, and I might get a closer match if I can successfully flip the wrap, but silver would be the next best option.
I posted in the WTB forum yesterday with all the parts I'll need (at least at this point) to complete the restoration. Does anyone know where I would find bass drum hoops with a thinner inlay? If I recall, the inlay wrap is 5/8" wide on mine. All the modern ones seem to have a wider inlay.
After checking the underside of the bass drum wrap, I've decided not to flip it. It's textured and the embedded glitter appears to be closer to the outside, so it barely sparkles. My goal at this point is to repair the minimal damage on the bass drum, restore the shine as much as possible on all the drums, obtain the missing parts and call it a day. I may decide to rewrap it later on if the discoloration bothers me too much, but right now it doesn't.
Here's the latest on this project.
All the smaller hardware is clean. All that remains are the hoops, high tom mount, spurs and floor tom legs. Unfortunately a few tom lugs were damaged by the vinegar (works wonders on chrome, but it ate away at some of the threads in the casings), so I'll have to replace those. A few of the bass drum lugs are in rough shape aesthetically, but are functionally sound. Those will be mounted on the bottom, so no big deal.
I've been itching to hear how these drums will sound, so I borrowed some tension rods from the snare and a 13" hoop and Evans G2 (batter) & G1 (reso) heads from my Rogers set and assembled the 13" tom. The tone of this drum far exceeded my expectations! I swapped it with my 12" tom on the Rogers set and sonically, it fit in very nicely; it doesn't have quite the projection or volume as the Rogers shells, but it has pretty good punch, nice warm tone, and remarkably even sustain/decay. I think some single-ply coated G1's or Ambassadors will sound great on these, and liven them up a bit. I've also been thinking of trying Evans UV1's on the Rogers, so if they live up to the hype I might consider them for this kit.
Lastly, I bought a gold sparkle 6-lug Slingerland stencil snare on ebay that had the strainer and butt I needed (and snares, although it came with a 12 strand so I may upgrade to a 20-strand down the road). I can also use the hoops for the 14" floor tom. It has no badge, but was described as a Mica brand. The hardware needs a good cleaning, but the shell (no re-rings) and wrap are in fantastic shape. It actually pains me to rob parts from it, but I may use it for a future project.
What I find annoying is that now that I have seen the wrap on this snare in person, no matter what I do I can't seem to get the blue wrap to shine and sparkle like the gold does. Maybe it's just the nature of the color, but even in the light I can see a subtle film on the blue wrap that I think was left on it from either the the lighter fluid I used to take the glue off, or from the glue itself. I've used Novus #1 and #2 to polish the snare and the high tom so far, and I'm not seeing a drastic difference in shine between those and the bass and floor tom. I'm going to try a coat or two of carnauba wax and see if that helps.
Very happy with the way this is coming along overall...still in need of parts though!
Photo #1: bass drum hardware (sans spurs and tom mount)
Photo #2: temporarily assembled 13" tom
Photo #3: "new" Mica snare
Mike,
There are a variety of lug inserts out there, so make sure that the SHAPE will fit inside the lug. Some of the lug housings only accepts square inserts, while others will be 5 sided (I think). Some are also different sizes. I know this as I have had to scrounge around to find what I needed in the past on old MIJ drums.
I was going through some of my stuff in the basement and found an old 6 lug Blue Sparkle MIJ snare - no badge. It has a light colored non-painted interor and thin shells (no-rings). It looks to be in similar shape to your gold one. It is complete except it is missing the snare wires and cord, and both heads are broken. The muffler and strainer are both intact and work fine. I will trade you my blue for your complete gold one, or I can keep the hoops and rods, etc.if you have already cleaned up your drum. Mine is dirty ;).
The gold will match my old TorODOr kit I got used in 1976. My kit came with the chrome snare which is killer by the way, but I always thought a matching snare might be cool to have, too.
Thanks Jack, PM sent...
Made a good amount of progress over the last week, but unfortunately discovered that I need to replace many of my bass drum lug casings. This has been a learning experience, and so far the most important thing I've learned is to no longer use vinegar on any non-chrome plated parts. :D The outside of the lug casings look great, but the vinegar really ate through some of the insides. I've already replaced the tom lugs I found the same issue on; they seem easier to find than the bass lugs.
How long did the parts soak in Vinegar?
