So, after sanding and a half a dozen coats of Tung oil:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/095f/e48dd7gjo8r1v1m5g.jpg[/IMG]

The inside is silky smooth now. I'm not sure how much this truly effects the drum, but it looks much cleaner.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/699f/swsbqv6ayfmxg525g.jpg[/IMG] Here is the same part of the edge where there was separation. The glue dried and I sanded the whole thing down. It looks much better now.

So I didn't take any pictures of the floor tom reassembled, but it is now back together and all set. The chrome didn't come out as shiny as I would have liked, but it is better than before. The biggest difference is smoothing down edge and fixing the plys.

Next up, Cymbals.

Tan

So I have no intention of using these cymbals for serious play, especially since I have better "backup" cymbals. The metal is just too flimsy and they sound awful. Regardless, I wanted to at least clean them up and put them on the kit to get some decent pictures of how this originally looked. So with that said, on with the images:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b769/bd596rxxwpg6p505g.jpg[/IMG]

This was the bottom hi hat cymbal. All 3 cymbals had bends on the edges, but this was the worst. I attempted to pound it out with a hammer, but between my wife getting mad at me pounding while she was trying to sleep and the lack of progress, I gave up and just cleaned them.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/58a3/k8p7y9stwnf28b95g.jpg[/IMG]

This is the top hi hat cymbal. It was nice and dirty for the pictures.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/02a0/dxtfw1lj1ygpd355g.jpg[/IMG]

This picture gives away my secret for cleaning cymbals. Cerama Bryte does the trick for me. I just squirt a bunch on the cymbal and rub it around, working it in the cymbal. I find that this product doesn't require too much heavy scrubbing. It is just a lot of buffing and dirty paper towels.

I usually work in small circles around the cymbal. As the Cerama Bryte works, it changes from white to a greenish brown color and the paper towel gets soaked and black. Some times, it takes two or three applications of this process. Once done, I buff with some denatured alcohol and a clean towel to get any residue off. That final step is important as a day or so after you clean with Cerama Bryte, it will dry up on the surface of the cymbal and leave a residue where you missed wiping it all up. This usually happens around the edges when you flip the cymbal over and the cleaner runs over, or it picks up some from the top of the table.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/2f42/aa3d01fcudbowp05g.jpg[/IMG]This was after my first round of cleaning. You can see where some of the dents in the cymbal needed a little more attention, so this got a second coat.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4aff/btpibs3ary27ra45g.jpg[/IMG]

And the final result.

After polishing chrome, cleaning cymbals was a nice change of pace. My hands have been cramped all week from holding lugs and scrubbing. The cymbal is much easier to clean and doesn't require near as much work.

That's it for now. I think I'm going to spend a week or so playing it instead of cleaning it. I'll get to the bass drum later.

Tan

What a great thread! Really nice job and progress. :)

BTW I have at least a dozen tom lugs that look to be exactly the same as yours. If you can use them let me know. They look to be in pretty good shape. Free if you need them.

Glenn.

Nice ole kit! Good that you have the complete set and pedals = nice.

I bought a Stewart snare WMP - last year - black badge with the silver lettering - nice drum.

I like you photos but you need a macro setting to get the close-ups nice 'n clear......I'm sure you already know that. Thanks for posting this thread - I like seeing these old Japanese kits. That's what I started to play on in the early 60's.

I appreciate that Glenn, but everything on this kit is complete so I don't really need any spares.

Status update:

I have finished up with the bass drum. I feel like I crushed my thumb with a hammer from all of the scrubbing. I'll get some more pictures up shortly (of the kit, not my thumb).

The only thing left to clean now are the stands and pedals. I'm pretty content with not polishing them as they will all be replaced for more sturdier stuff anyway.

After all of that, I'd like to get some sound profiles of the kit to share with you guys (and the seller).

And then, upgrades! I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on this:

Hardware:

[LIST]

[*]I want all of my stands to match.

[*]Light or Medium weight.

[*]I'd like to replace the cymbal arm, so the brand need to make bass mounted cymbal arms.

[/LIST]

I'd like to keep with Tama stuff so that the kit sticks to its roots. However, I know there are cheaper options out there (Sound Percussion comes to mind).

Cymbals:

[LIST]

[*]I'd like all of my cymbals to come from the same vendor, and even possibly the same line.

[*]13-15" hi hat. I'll probably lean towards the 13" size since smaller is generally cheaper.

[*]18" ride or crash/ride, or 20" ride. This will be on the cymbal arm on the bass so it needs to be kinda light.

[*]One or two crashes, somewhere in the 14" - 16" range. I have a general dislike for big crash cymbals. They have too much power IMHO.

[*]I would like something other than the typical Zildjian/Sabian as to be a little different from the mainstream and be a conversation starter with other musicians.

[*]Price is of course a concern, cheaper the better, but I don't want junk.

[/LIST]I'll be labeled as crazy for this, but I don't really care about the sound. As long as they sound like the cymbal type they are. In other words, as long as the ride has ping and wash and the crashes don't sound like trashy chinas. The hi-hat needs to chick and have distinguishable open and closed sound.

I have some ideas on all of this but I'd love to hear everyone's opinions on the hardware and cymbal questions.

Tan

On the vintage scale I use a old pair of Ludwig/Paiste swiss made 15" hi hats. One has cracked (from the edge inward) and I drilled the ends of the cracks. That's now the bottom cymbal. They still sound great and most would have tossed the cracked one into the trash. I have a old Zilco splash that's cracked I plan to drill and use. Very thin but nice sound. Sometimes you can find these oldies on CL. You can still find some nice 70's and newer Zildjian A's from time to time priced pretty well too. Those are good value.

Newer better scale......I was talking with member Kevin S about Amedia (sp?) cymbals. He said they were very nice for the money. I haven't seen any in person yet. But plan to check a few out hopefully.

Alright, here we go on some more pics!

I started the Bass last weekend and it took a while for me to finally get it finished up. In all the years I've been playing drums, I never realized how much bigger a bass drum is than say a floor tom. The amount of lugs and claws and rods, the interior surface area, etc... It added up to be a much bigger job than I anticipated. Time wise, I finished the 13" tom's chrome in about 1-1/2 hours. The snare and floor tom taking about 2-1/2, 3 hours or so. The 22" bass took around 4. Mind you, this is just shining chrome. Not cleaning, sanding, finishing or (dis)assembly. I haven't be logging accurately, I'm probably around a total of 20 hours or on this project.

With that said, these will be the last of the restoration pics as I've done all I care to for now. There is still a little rust in some places and still tons of room for improvement, but it's about 90% of being perfect and that is good enough for me. On with the pics:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/4724/r70y27ht8vliwq95g.jpg[/IMG]

So in this shot, you can see the dust that had built up on the underside of the bass drum.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d08b/9eu78az1gdpoky75g.jpg[/IMG]

And here is a good shot of what was under the bass drum claws.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/cfd0/4fmtf1a0w1ncwa35g.jpg[/IMG]

So the bass drum was made in two sections. Here is where the plys overlap on the bottom, cymbal arm side.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/44f3/t0i7tge1b952c7w5g.jpg[/IMG]

And here is where they overlap on the top, tom side.

They aren't quite in half, but pretty close. I thought it was interesting and worth the pic. Also notice the lug screws on that side were more rusty. I also found on the wrap that area was a little stained and it lightened up with a little scrubbing. I believe something may have been spilled on the drum there at some point. No biggie, just noticeable.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/332c/y13qzfvf9t00weq5g.jpg[/IMG]

So on the reinforcement ring, they put in this little tiny piece of wood. It has two purposes in life. 1. to catch the edge of the sandpaper as I sanded down the shell. 2. To add enough space to the reinforcement ring to make it fit.

More coming up.

So it occurred to me that I didn't show any of my sanding work. Not that it's the greatest, but I kinda went over what I did to the cymbals, so thought it'd be a good idea to show what I did for the interior.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b81b/6bmzlaa1bgk2fck5g.jpg[/IMG]

In this pic, I have started my rough sand. I'm using 100 grit and started between the lugs where the grommet/badge is (that was stuck in there really well and I felt I'd damage it to get it out). I get as close to the reinforcement ring opposite from me as possible. In this case since there is an extra one in the middle, I edged up to the middle and the far side. From there, I spin the drum and repeat the process, edging the places that I missed.

I then repeat the process with 220 grit sandpaper. This is the result:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b348/rjlzfkjdumvclpm5g.jpg[/IMG]

So as you can see, not perfect, but better than nothing.

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d0ff/47mqlwhn7l5788s5g.jpg[/IMG]

My next step is tung oil. Now tung oil is VERY thin and evaporates pretty quickly, but will leave a sticky residue when not dry. A single coat will be dry to the touch and penetrate the surface in less than 30 minutes.

I apply many coats in a short period of time without waiting for fully dry. Essentially as soon as one coat works its way down into the wood, I'm putting the next coat on to start that same process. I can really only tell by when I apply more oil, I cannot see the wood grain darken. Also at that point, it starts getting a little tacky on the surface which tells me, the wood is saturated to the point and it cannot penetrate any faster.

So within the first hour, I may have put on 4-5 coats. From there, I let it dry until the surface is no longer tacky and attempt the process again. The picture is the view of doing that 3 times over the course of 24 hours or so. In this picture, it is fully dry and smooth. No tackiness at all. If you compare this to the pictures from my last post, you can really see the difference in the color of the wood.

Coming up, so after pics of the set reassembled and set up.

So I think this would be best as a before/after approach.

[SIZE="3"]Front view:[/SIZE]

Before:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/d3cf/llcr3nlrt3q4a3c5g.jpg[/IMG]

After:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/de4e/hoxjlt3byiwg2oo5g.jpg[/IMG]

[SIZE="3"]Top of bass/Tom Mount:[/SIZE]

Before:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/78ca/pjvqxdp4r9rewwo5g.jpg[/IMG]

After:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/08d1/g9aon91slaldu1l5g.jpg[/IMG]

and a clearer after shot from the front:

[IMG]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/e23b/ewqepmrz226i1dp5g.jpg[/IMG]

So that's probably going to be it for my "restoration". I may do a little more shining on the remaining flecks of rust from the rims when I get new heads, or when I spot something that annoys me. At this point, my arms and hands are killing me and I really just want to play the damn thing!

I hope this thread has been informative and helpful for those interested in stencil/MIJ drums and what to expect out of them. Any questions, thoughts or requests, keep them coming!

Thanks everyone,

Tanner