get some" back to nature" (ultra) stripper or soy gel (it wont harm clear plastic/ lacquer)and brush it on in one direction real heavy then wrap it in thin 1.5 mm plastic seal it up good (must make contact) wait 2 days then remove plastic and it will flake off any residual paint spot strip and then clean with diluted stripper and very light scrubby pad, final rinse and your ready for wet sanding and buffing good luck

Thanks! I'll look into that. Got some No.4 Lift Off and that worked better. Apparently it is oil based paint. Still slow and laborious. Ended up placing paper towel on the treated area to help keep stripper in place and that helped a good bit. I'll pick up some of the ultra or soygel.

The plastic a great idea. When you mention 1.5mm plastic, are you referring to actual thickness, which would be awfully thick. Would thin plastic wrap work? I have thicker stuff around here too (thick crawl-space plastic), though none that is 1.5mm.

Thanks again!

Any progress pics? I'm sure many of us would love to see them.

Well, sad story but happy ending. Successfully peeled vast majority of paint from an 8x12 tom using Lift Off 4, and plastic wrap, but paint had permeated the wrap to such an extent that it was trashed. Tried hard with strippers, polishing compounds, scrubbies and even plastic putty knife and it ain't coming out. Seems I really screwed over my future self in late 70's- I thoroughly sanded the wrap, puttied to mask the bump at the seams, and selected a very durable high-bond paint. All other drums will be same. Holding shells in light I can see the putty lines, and all were sanded and painted at the same time. Follies of youth coupled with overkill.

Changed gears entirely. Going to re-wrap now. Didn't care for RS anyway, and collectors value no longer an issue with the trashed wraps. Rather liberating actually. I can do what I want rather than worry about such things.

Picked up a glue gun and got the RS wrap off the 8x12 in a flash this afternoon. Been researching wraps, adhesion methods, etc. and feel good about it, except for the added expense of course. Going to convert the clubbies in the kit to super classics. Had to go one way or the other to get it all to match, and I always prefered the SC's. Thinking I'll wrap in gloss black. Always loved that look. Wine red would also look sharp, but with black always easy to get wrap for any drums I might add along the way. Either way, should look sharp as a tack when done.

What works best to remove glue residue from shells? Any thoughts?

I'll post some photos along the way. It'll be a fairly LT project. I have many irons in my many fires.

I have two shells (a 3-ply 8x12 and the 9x13 concert tom I am going to convert) stripped of wrap and glue residue removed. Here are some pics:

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6108/dscn0406sm.jpg

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/4738/dscn0407sm.jpg

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/2567/dscn0408sm.jpg

You can see residual paint in the grain on the 9x13, as the wrap on this one was removed when originally painted blue back in the day. Note the very funky seam on the 8x12. I am at a loss to explain the apparent burn marks. These were under the original wrap, and although I used a heat gun to remove the wrap I did not apply near to this part of the shell. Same with the glossy buildup (glue?). I guess the Ludwig factory line workers figured this one was headed for the wrap shop and so such imperfections no big deal. Who knows.

Wrap came off easily. Glue residue another matter! Tried several different solvents, and found xylene worked best - soaked small areas with rag cover for several minutes followed by peeling of gunk with putty knife. Repeat and repeat. Very time consuming.

I am going another route. Spoke today with a local guy with a nice paint shop set up at his place (for autos and occasional furniture restoration). Came highly recommended. I am going to get him to recoat the existing painted shells (and bare shells for the two shown) with high quality polyurethane paint. Should be able to achieve the nice smooth black gloss finish I want, same as with a re-wrap. Far less work for the same outcome and about the same cost, and the original wraps (probably trashed on all drums but maybe not) will still be under there.

I'll post more photos later. Gotta prep those shells!

And hey, here's a tip. I mentioned to him how hard it was to get the glue residue off. I had a piece of the old wrap with me. He took one look, then wiped it with a rag with carburetor cleaner for about 3 seconds and the glue blobs came right off! Not recommended for direct application to wood of course, but really looks like the ticket for getting that last bit off shells. He tells me brake cleaner is even better, as it is basically the same as carburetor cleaner but leaves zero residue.

I'm pretty psyched. These are gonna look good!

After a long hiatus, thought I would revive this thread long enough to thank everyone and post additional photos. I got a great deal of useful information from this forum, and appreciate all who have posted their experiences.

I finally finished my project. I finished re-assembly of all drums two days ago and finally got the kit set up last night. As I noted previously, I decided to have my shells professionally painted. Primarily, I chose to go this route after pulling the wrap and glue residue from two shells. It went pretty well, but in my old age I have some joint pain issues, and the prying, scraping and repetitive motion tore my shoulder up. It hurt badly for weeks and it was clear I was not going to re-wrap that entire drum kit.

At any rate, I found a local guy who paints autos and furniture, then did some research and ran down some good paint for the job. I went with a single stage urethane auto paint by Kirker. As mentioned previously, the kit was pieced together over many years between 1966 and the early 70's on a kid's budget. I had my original club dates, some super-classics I added along the way, and one concert (melodic) tom. My original snare, a 1966 acrolite, was stolen in the early 80's. I ran down an almost identical snare on eBay and picked that up as part of the effort.

To get the kit to match, I needed to convert to either club date or super classic style. I ended up going with super classic. Bought needed lugs and other hardware items on eBay, and did a lot of hole plugging and drilling. Of course, I do NOT recommend anyone do such a thing unless like me you are sentimentally attached to your lifelong drum kit, do not wish to part with them, and the collectors value has been shot.

Anyway, for the sake of anyone who might pursue a similar route in the future, I wanted to post a bit of info and photos.

I plugged holes with Elmers damaged wood epoxy putty, which I have used extensively on home restoration projects with good results. It did a fine job. Had to patch all the holes for the old clubbie bowtie lugs, with one exception. On the 9x13 shell mount tom I decided to utilize the pre-existing holes. This resulted in a slightly greater spacing between opposite lugs than on a proper super classic, but it makes a nice looking drum. I also picked up a 9x13 super classic with the intention of using the lugs only, but the shell was fine so I just incorporated it into the kit.

Here are a couple of photos of plugged holes before and after sanding. Also had to sand down wood putty I put along the wrap seams during the first paint job in the 80's.

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6/shellpluggedholes3.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7169/shellpluggedholes2.jpg

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7633/shellssanded1.jpg

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8586/shellssanded5.jpg

Here are photos of the shells after painting but before final sanding and buffing. I initially went with a Kirker color called "Merlot", but the result was more brown than red (to me anyway), so I went with a 50:50 mix of "Merlot" and "Mack Red". The end result was much closer to what I wanted- a wine red gloss.

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6042/paintedshells7.jpg

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2981/paintedshells4.jpg

Finally, here are photos of the finished product. I decided to upgrade my stands to a modern heavyweight style. (I have toppled old vintage stands more than once in my day from enthusiastic cymbal crashes.) All hardware affixed to the drums of course is vintage Ludwig, with the exception of bass spurs. I never cared for the functionality of the old vintage spurs, so went with a new set of Gilbralters.

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9396/restoreddrumkitmay72012.jpg

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/9396/restoreddrumkitmay72012.jpg

I couldn't be happier with the outcome. My old kit has new life! Where players kits are concerned, painting can be a reasonable alternative to a re-wrap, particularly if your aging joints are not up to the task. I suspect some

of the older heads here will know what I mean!

Again, many thanks for the help I received from the many fine posts on this forum. Best wishes to all.

What a nice transformation. They really did turn out great. The best thing is they've been yours from the beginning. Congratulations on the completion of your project. Now go enjoy them. :)

- Tim

That's a first class job. Well done! Give yourself a large drum roll for me . . . Mind Blowi

Thanks for the kudos. It was a battle at times. The first round of painting came out awful. Small bubbles formed and caused pock marks across surfaces of all shells. They had to be sanded down, degreased and re-painted to get them right. Damn near drove the painter nuts, but to his credit he stuck with it. Once he got the surface prep problem solved, they came out great, with very few imperfections. He tells me in the end it was some of the best paint he's ever laid down. He did NOT, however commit to doing it again if I want to restore another kit (which I plan to do).

Cost to paint was not much more than a re-wrap, and far easier. Of course, with all of the hardware associated with the change-over from clubbies to super classics, a vintage acrolite snare, several new stands, new spurs, new double-kick pedal, etc. I could have bought a couple of new kits for what I spent. But then again they wouldn't be the drums I have had since childhood.

Now to knock off the rust and get back into playing regularly again. Just picked up a Gavin Harrison instructional DVD. That should be humbling.