Hey folks. I'm in the midst of re-doing an XP-8 I found on CL. As can be seen, the silver wrap is done for. Got all the wraps off and 2 of the toms sanded down so far.

It's an interesting set. 22" BD, 10" and 15"(!) toms are clearly XP-8 drums, but started out as concert toms. They have the Big R with no serial #. At some point someone drilled holes for the bottom set of lugs to make them into conventional toms. When they did it, though, some of the inner ply got chipped off. I'll be needing to fill those places in and would like advice on what to use. Also coming across some small gaps in the outer plies, so I'll plan on using the same stuff to fill those in before refinishing.

Whomever did the conversion also left the bottom bearing edges flat, so I had my local guru cut bearing edges.

The 12" that came with the set is not XP-8. It's a conventional tom with gray interior and re-rings. It is also Big R, but has a serial # where the other drums don't. My guess is that the BD, 10 and 15 were once part of a larger set, and the 12 was obtained separately and added. I was torn about whether to include the 12 in this resto, since it doesn't match, but decided to go ahead with it. Not sure if I'll keep it as part of the kit, though.

My plan is to leave them in their natural finish in eggshell/matte rather than gloss. Any suggestions there?

I was able to salvage all of the Big R logos. I'll probably want to reapply them. What's a good fixative for that application?

Thanks in advance for any advice. Looking forward to sharing the progress of this resto.