I'm sure people have other ways of doing this (heat, etc.), but my best results for loosening tight wrap is with acetone. If you can get it started at the seam, just let some acetone wick down between the the shell and the wrap until it starts coming loose. Sometimes you need to let it stand for 5-10 minutes to really let the solvent do it's job. But once you get rolling it comes off pretty easily. Just take off what you can and reapply the solvent. Take it slow and easy so you don't pull any wood with the wrap. I've then used Zip-Strip with a knife and steel wool to clean glue residue. That's the real fun.

In terms of the hole repair, and maintaining the integrity of the drum, I believe the thing to do is to drill it out larger and clean (from the inside out) to a size that's workable for dowel stock. You can get your mahogany dowel at a specialty wood supply. Just make sure it's available in the size you need before drilling(!). Glue in the dowel with yellow glue, keeping the direction of the end grain of the dowel consistent with the inside grain of the shell. Leave an extra 1/8" inside and out of the shell so you have something to sand down. You really only have one shot at this process, so if you have a practice drum, use it.

Once sanded, it looks like you may need to redrill for one of your lug screws, and then you're ready to recover.

Cool Drum! Great with calf heads! Take pics of the process.

I tried a little acetone to help loosen and seperate the wrap. Useing a thin metal spatula to seperate the wrap and wood. Acetone Seemed to help a little but this morning where I left off seems really glued down. The wrap is lifting in some small places and so far nothing I can't fill. I can see where some big strips look like they want to pull up. Actually has a little with the wrap. I am at a standstill here. Doesn't seem to be any glue residue on the wood either. Is this a thin mahogany ply? Seems delicate. The ply under it is light colored, seems like a thin ply wood too.

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Looks like you're doing pretty well to me!

Just keep going, liberally pouring the acetone right down where the wrap meets the shell. Don't be shy with it. Let it do its thing for a few minutes, and then keep doing what you're doing. It'll come. Leaving it overnight doesn't help. The acetone eventually evaporates, the glue hardens again, and you're right back where you left off (as you discovered).

You probably need to use more solvent and a bit more finess with those spots that seem particularly tight. You could use a heat gun there too.

That's a really beautiful drum, btw. Love it. If it were a 26" I'd take it.

And keep posting your results.

In my experience the heat gun is the way to go. Do it outside and have a bucket of water with a towel in it so you can put out the wrap if it catches on fire, which the old nitrocellulose wraps can do. You are pulling the outer ply off and the inner poplar ply is showing beneath it.

At this point I think my only option is to try to get the wrap off in the direction of the first pic as the ply is stuck to the wrap and pulled up about half a inch 2/3 of the way across the drum. 2nd pic. If I can get it off all the way around to where it is stuck in the 2nd pic I may be able to either get the ply to release and glue it back or only lose that much that I can fill. It was going good at first. The spatula must have gone under the ply on that 2nd pic. That big white round part in other post pic is wrap where it was indented by the spur mount. The smaller white is the ply under the outer ply.

I still think it is going to be ok. What kind of heat gun should I get? I am heading to Walmart this afternoon. I appreciate you guys help and hope you will continue. I really want to see this restored with a nice new vintage WMP wrap.

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I think you have the right idea coming from the other direction (1st pic). It's tough when the outer ply is so thin and brittle.

I have a big old heavy Milwaukee heat gun that has done well for years. Don't know if they still make them like that.

OK, 7 months later, after finally getting my hands on a heat gun,"the hair dryer just was not hot enough", I got the wrap off the drum yesterday. It was a chore. But now I know how to do it and fortunately no mishaps or any damage removeing the rest of the wrap. The only thing is being cautious as I was previously warned about the old wrap flashing.and it will catch fire! I got a pretty good technique going where I made good progress and there is a certain way to use that heat gun without catching the world on fire. My wife held the wrap up and I used the heat gun on the wrap side and a 3 inch metal spatula on the other. You have to get the gun a certain amount away from the wrap where you are lifting it from the wood and go back and forth while working it with the spatula from the shell side to side.. IT started to flash about 3 times but it starts really small and I had a damp rag and it was fine.

I moved the gun and blew it out a couple times. You have to be careful around the holes not to burn the wood. I always had the metal spatula over them when I got to one. There were a couple of smallspots I filled that happened before I got the gun. I glued that ply that was coming up back down and came from the opposite direction and it worked. A few ahards are barely sticking up and I have a small hole that I can fill and sand. Any ideas are welcome about those end shards. I decided not to drill for a dowell, wood fill will be fine and the integrety of the drum will be fine. I can actually glue some of the wood back in place and fill will be fine. Pic with the quarter. The wood is like 50 years old and dry. I am thinking of treating it with teak oil.

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try a little very lite steam like a shark it does not get too hot and minimum vapor

It's not very pretty now but I have it all repaired and smooth. Had to smooth out a couple places where the grain was not flat and smooth. The small hole was actually the easy part. Now on to the hoops today. Had to repair some ply seperation on one but they are in great shape for sanding off whats left of the original paint and repainting.

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