+1 with longjohn. Yours are the "upper quality series". Do all of your drums have re-rings? If not those would be 5-ply shells but still "upper quality series". Both 3-ply and 5-ply were available at that time. Basically there wasn't a "lower" quality wood shell until the 80's.

All shells have re-ring...

here is the 13 inch Tom, without all the wraps, before cleaning. the wrap is definitely not original, since the vent grommet has been removed and put back. What do you think? Should I fill this huge holes (for tom arms) and use a snare stand instead? Or maybe a rail consolette or another type of tom mount?

I have another question: when I removed the lugs, I realised that the nuts that are attached to the tension rod inserts looked like... normal nuts, from the local "Home Hardware". Did Slingerland use these "normal" nuts for there lugs?

Thanks again!

The nuts (inserts) are correct... but are not really hardware store variety. The nuts are machined at one end to accommodate the spring, and other end to take the tension screw. Often the guys on here will isolate the spring from vibrating inside the lug with small pieces of felt, many kits already have the felt lined lugs which were fitted at the factory.

Be very gentle when refitting the lugs to the shell... The thread inside the lugs can easily strip out.. so don't overtighten them. (I usually dip the tips of the hex mounting screws in some Vaseline to stop further oxidisation..

As far as the tom mount holes go.. it has to be your call... the two in the BD will a challenge unless you are doing a complete rewrap.

Cheers

John

You are right, Longjohn... I'm a newbie in drum restoration (this is my first attempt) and I just forgot to get every nuts and springs out before taking the picture. All the nuts are in good condition for now.

For the different holes, what you think I should use to fill them? Wood dowels? Wood filler (Bondo or Minwax)? Leave it like this?

Since the wrap is not original, I'm going to go for a complete re-wrap with a color available at that moment. I really like the WMP, and since the drumset was white when I bought it, I think it may be the best choice...

Also, since there are some scratches on the inside of the shells, should I sand it a little? Or just put some varnish? Or both?

Thanks again for your collective wisdom!

Cheers!

OK. So the final moment before wraping my Slingerland has arrived. I'm still not sure about which holes to fill: what you guys would do? My first idea was to fill only the holes that were not original (4 holes, indicated in the pictures). But I talked with a guy at the drum shop and he told me to fill all the holes in the tom (even the ones that were drilled at the factory) and use a suspension tom mount (like the Ludwig Atlas). I'm not sure about this, since I may want to find a tom mount (like the Maxwell replica) later - for the moment, I'm out of budget.

Any suugestion?

Just fill the non-original holes. You may run across a correct set-0-matic and the factory holes will be there. Easy.

Here is a preview of this drum after the restoring process. The toms have a great tonality now and they sing like a bird. I used bee wax for the interior of all the shells. I filled all the holes in the BD and now it also sounds amazingly great!

I'm still trying to contact the first owner of the drum to have a glimpse of the story behind it. He played with a famous band in Quebec...

Thanks for your help! Now, I will turn my attention to my cymbal stands... cheers!

I don’t know if any remember the great ful dead kit I had a while back this is a ringer for it real close .....mid seventies....

I finally got a good picture of my restored kit. Here it is...

Thanks to all vintage drum gurus!

Cheers!

Looking good! I'm re-posting your first picture, so others won't get dizzy!

-Mark